At lunch on the fifth day of the Lord’s Test, surely Virat Kohli surely must have felt his side had enough runs on the board to defend. The unexpected and enterprising duo of Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah had all but ensured that an Indian loss from here on out was unlikely. Still, Kohli chose not to declare. He had all the reasons to: a lead of around 250 runs, two sessions left to bowl out England, and all the momentum in the world. There are many things you can say about Kohli, but you can’t disagree that he’s an aggressive cricketer. Even that is a massive understatement. So why not declare? Was he being a little cautious in the moment, did he have a certain number of runs in mind, or did he want to toy with the England players and force them to take the field for a trivial amount of overs? It could be all of the above or none of the above, but I reckon that he just wasn’t satisfied.
This Indian victory, as magnificent as it is, isn’t as improbable as some of the other ones the team has managed to pull off in the recent past. It’s also not as lopsided as the result (winning by 151 runs) suggests. Both teams posted decent first innings scores; for each batting lineup a couple of players stepped up with key contributions while one player clearly outshone the rest and showed their class. KL Rahul and Joe Root both carried forward their form from the first Test and effectively canceled out each other’s remarkable centuries. Jimmy Anderson’s latest clone variant was also quite good and earned yet another place on the Lord’s honours board for his original version, who is currently obviously retired and living off the grid after spawning numerous clones of himself in a series of covert experiments carried out years ago.
Then in the second innings, quick wickets by Mark Wood sent back the Indian openers and finally threatened to separate the two sides. But England could not pull away. Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane had other plans. Pujara played his most scratchy innings of the year while Rahane found some much needed runs en route another patient fifty. But they did fall eventually and all of a sudden England were taking the upper hand with some late wickets on day four. Going into the final day, the only obstacle standing in their way was the dynamic Rishabh Pant. He was dismissed in the fourth over of the morning. England were now looking at just three more wickets, a gettable target, and plenty of time left in the day. And with this being India’s weakest tail statistically that I can recall, they must have fancied their chances for a win. But did they get too satisfied?
Because the rest of what happened on this final day was the exact opposite of what England would have thought at that stage. Now I can’t say I would have predicted a Shami-Bumrah partnership with the bat to flourish like it did, but witnessing other lower-order partnerships in recent times allows me to not fully rule out something crazy like this. Likewise, I wouldn’t have expected the perpetually serene and smiling figure of Bumrah to lose his cool and channel his anger towards the English fielders into slashing boundaries left and right. But because I’ve seen the passion with which this Indian team plays, the way they celebrate each wicket, each win, this slightly agitated Bumrah didn’t catch me completely off-guard.
Essentially, the historic Australian tour from earlier this year has spoiled me. Now, I am disappointed if there isn’t a miraculous finish to a Test match. Even after the Shami-Bumrah fireworks with both bat and ball, this still could have ended in a draw. But I wasn’t going to be satisfied with that. Ishant Sharma’s vast experience and Mohammed Siraj’s relentless attack helped make sure India won with around eight overs to spare. But even this, a win at the Lord’s to go 1-0 up in the series, isn’t enough strangely.
It used to be that for away Test series in SENA (South Africa/England/New Zealand/Australia) countries, the expectation from the Indian team was to win just one match. Anything more was bonus. But the Australian series has changed things. It has taught us to dream bigger and expect more from this Indian side. Now Bumrah and Shami can’t be brilliant just with the ball. Siraj can’t play like he’s just seven Tests old. India can’t win just one match in a Test series. That I’m used to now.
The first time India won at Lord’s was in 1986 when Kapil Dev was captain. The second victory came 28 years later in 2014 under MS Dhoni. Today, five years after that win, India has repeated the feat and won at Lord’s. A few years ago I would have been overjoyed with this amazing performance. But weirdly, I’m just not satisfied. And I reckon Team India isn’t either.