- by Vijay Prashad
- The Guardian
- Issue #2161
Shubman Gill. Photo: CRICKETNEXT – creativecommons.org (CC BY 3.0)
Over forty-six days, the Indian cricket team toured England for a five test match series that resulted in a teeth-grinding 2-2 draw. By the end of it, you had a player with a broken arm (Chris Woakes) trying to help England get six extra runs, while a player with incredible mental and physical stamina (Mohammed Siraj) castled the last English batsman to go and give India the victory at The Oval that levelled the series. If England had won, and the final test result was 3-1, it would not have showed how closely fought was this incredible display of test cricket.
Anyone who claims that test cricket is boring and that the One Day Internationals or the T20s are the way to go should go back, spend the time, and watch the tape for the fifty-three deliveries bowled on the last day of the final test, and go back and watch the tape for the last day of batting by Ravindra Jadeja and Washington Sundar in the Fourth Test. This is test cricket, friends, and it has its own magic.
On the fourth day of the final test, it appeared as if the match was to be won by England. Centuries by Harry Brook and Joe Root seemed to have sealed the win. They brought England within 73 runs of the enormous run chase of 374. Then, three wickets fell in sequence, as the scoreboard seemed to freeze: 301-4 (Brook out, attempting to play across the line, letting fly his bat from his hand), 332-5 (Bethell out, chops it on trying to cut), and then 337-6 (Root out, a wobble ball misleading his drive). A few minutes later, at 339-6, the umpires called it with bad light and then a downpour. Mohammad Siraj had begun to charge up his dynamo. He built his power overnight, to return the next morning, the final day, with England only 35 runs to go. It looked to go England’s way, when Siraj came into the attack with only 27 runs for victory.
Siraj bowled with accurate speed, his deliveries just outside the off stump, trying to entice the drive. That just what Smith did, and he was caught behind. A few balls later, he got Overton, and then finally Atkinson. Siraj finished the innings with five wickets, and the match with nine. This was Mohammed Siraj’s victory. No wonder he was selected as player of the match.
CAPTAINCY
The term ‘test’ used to describe the five-game cricket match was first used by journalists in 1861 when England played in Australia. The phrase that became commonplace was that this kind of tournament was a ‘test of strength and competency.’ These five tests were well named, a real contest of character alongside skill. It is not good enough to be a fine bat or a good bowler. One must know one’s place in the team and learn what an opening batsman has to do with the kind of lineup. A lineup with depth allows the opening bats to be more flamboyant, a lineup that is a bit thin requires diligence from the top. The strike bowlers must learn to temper their enthusiasm so that they can go on for a long spell, a second spell when the sun is aloft, their energy sapped. If you are one of the wily spin bowlers, you watch the pitch, studying the scuff marks, wondering what to exploit on a turf that might crack at any time.
Captains are like druids, studying the entrails of their team, the stamina of their bowlers, the enthusiasm of their fielders, the shifts in the clouds and shadows that might hasten the rest of a certain kind of bowler, the field placements to make the traps work. This requires strategy and tactics, intelligence often outsourced to the coaching staff in the T20 games. On the field the captain is in charge. The five-day game is a test for every member of the team, but it is truly a test for the captain.
Shubman Gill, only twenty-five, brings to the captaincy of the Indian team a calmness that is welcome (he was also the highest run scorer in the series, by the way – a mammoth 754 runs, Joe Root far behind with 537 runs). When he ascended to the captaincy in the IPL, Mystery Cricket wrote that Gill “looked like the calmest figure on the pitch, even when things spiral.” India Today’s senior editor Amitabh Srivastava had a very good assessment of Gill:
From the start, Gill approached the role with quiet intent. There was no posturing, no overt displays of authority. What emerged instead was a leadership style defined by restraint, awareness, and deep empathy. For Gill, being captain is less about diktat than it is about understanding. It is about knowing when to assert himself and when to step back, letting his team breathe.
What Gill has brought to the men’s team, Smriti Mandhana had brought earlier to the women’s team.
While these are appraisals that are about Gill, they also define the role of a good captain for a test – a person who remains calm, watches everything, assimilates information, makes good decisions, and allows the players to allow their skills to flourish. Moving to field in the slips as captain, Gill has developed the key qualities of cricket test captaincy: moral authority over the team, human understanding for the different players, and deep tactical intelligence of everything that is happening on the field.
Virat Kohli was the perfect captain for the confidence of unbridled neoliberalism: brash and nonchalant, victory being the way and if defeat came, so be it. It was overwhelming to watch Kohli lead the team. He was so energetic, almost sending a signal that any lack of perfection would be punished with his glare. This was Ayn Randian. Gill has brought back something of the charm of the game – a captain who will allow each of the younger group to build their own strength, and to allow them to improve through risks and failure. If you are too scared to fail, you will never try. That seems to be his attitude. It is a sentiment that is outside the boundaries of neoliberalism.
