West Indies hardly troubled their guests during the two-match Test series against India, in which the visitors ended up having a cakewalk and secured a 1-0 series win on Monday.
India won the first match by a domineering margin of an innings and 141 runs and seemed poised for a smooth victory in the second Test until rain made its way to the Queen’s Park Oval. West Indies were 76/2 and needed 289 runs on Day 5, but the match was abandoned due to persistent rain, giving the hosts the relief of a draw and denying India the chance to score 2-0 clean sweep.
These are but a few of the positives India take back from the 1-0 series win — which could have very well been 2-0 had rain not played spoilsport.
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However, what do all these positives mean for the side? How do they help Team India in the long run? These are the questions bothering Indian batting icon Sunil Gavaskar, who had before the Caribbean tour started, taken a dig at selectors for ignoring youngsters like Sarfaraz Khan, who has been putting up an impressive performances in the domestic circuit consistently.
“The runs scored by Rohit and Kohli against this West Indies attack begs the question what did the selectors learn that they didn’t know already? Wouldn’t it have been better to try out some youngsters and see how they take to Test cricket or is it that the selectors don’t want any sort of challenge from the younger lot to the established players,” he wrote in his column for Mid-Day.
Recently former Indian all-rounder Ajit Agarkar had taken over as the chief selector. Gavaskar hopes his appointment takes things in a different direction for the team.
“Now that Ajit Agarkar has come on board as the Chairman of the selection committee let’s see if there is going to be any change in the approach to building a team for the future or if it’s going to be the same old story of the Indian team being the bridesmaid but not the bride.”
Kohli’s first Test overseas hundred in five years
Virat Kohli completed 500 international matches with the second Test and he marked the milestone with a century — his 29th in Tests and 76th overall. But the Trinidad ton stands out as it was Kohli’s first century overseas since 2018. And this important fact was not lost on Gavaskar who sounded generally dismissive of India’s success in the series.
“Kohli didn’t miss out as he had in the first Test match and duly got a century. What that showed is that it’s not just talent but the ability to understand the opposition, the pitch and the conditions to get a big score. There are three or four danger areas for a batter. One is at the start of his innings when he is yet to come to terms with the pitch and get his footwork going, the second is when he has reached a half-century and has lost focus for a brief while as he savours the moment and acknowledges it to the crowd and his teammates, the third is when he is in his 90s when he realises the prospect of getting a century and so can play a rash shot in trying to get there quickly and lose his wicket,” Gavaskar added.
“The fourth is after getting a century when there’s a sense of achievement and joy that leads to lapse in concentration. Like after getting to a 50, a batter after reaching a century is better off being at the non-striker end for an over or two while his focus comes back. Kohli knew all that and so didn’t miss out this time around.”
The series witnessed Yashasvi Jaiswal get his international career off to a stellar start with a century in the first Test in Dominica. Skipper Rohit and Kohli scored centuries to redeem themselves from the criticism they had been receiving since their failure at the WTC final earlier in June.
Ravichandran Ashwin, whose exclusion from the WTC final playing XI had stirred quite a buzz, also reminded everyone of the value he brings to the team with 12 wickets (5/60 and 7/71) in the series opener.
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