VVS Laxman: Glimmer of hope for West Indies against clinical India

After eight days of Indian dominance, West Indies finally showcased the kind of determination and fighting spirit that will invariably gladden the heart of every cricket lover across the world. Until Roston Chase inspired a brilliant final-day batting spectacle at Sabina Park, India had done everything right. The heroics of the West Indian middle-order has set the Test series up nicely, but more of that later. FULL CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs West Indies, 3rd Test at St Lucia

I have been very impressed with the brand of cricket India has portrayed from the very outset. When you are playing a team that is in transition like West Indies are, it is easy to get carried away and take things for granted. That was where India have played with smartness, intelligence and commonsense. Without disrespecting the opposition, they have gone about focussing more on themselves than the opponents. They have worked on and stuck to their game plans, both in batting and bowling. Often, like in life, in cricket too you can sometimes lose sight of the eventual goal by looking outward rather than inward. The teams that go on to embrace greatness are the ones that adhere to their plans without losing the ability to adapt and improvise. Virat Kohli’s men have shown that they are more than capable at doing that.

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The first Test was going to be huge from not just the perspective of this series, and not just for the fact that it was the first under the Virat-Kumble era but also given the long season of Test cricket ahead of this Indian team. Traditionally, we have struggled to come to terms with conditions overseas in the early part of the tour, often losing the first Test and therefore inevitably playing catch-up. I say that from experience, having been on tours where we have not had much joy in the first game. It was therefore imperative that India begin well in Antigua.

India, of course, did more than begin well. They were simply outstanding in Antigua, led from the front by a captain who is increasingly raking in the plaudits not just for his technical expertise and skills but also for growing maturity and awareness. It was good to see Shikhar Dhawan shed a lean-ish trot in Test cricket and while he will be disappointed at having missed out on a century, he will have taken plenty of positives from time spent in the middle and 80-plus runs in his first knock of the international season.

His partnership with Cheteshwar Pujara was crucial both for the number of runs scored and for blunting the early fire shown by Shannon Gabriel, the most impressive of the West Indian bowler so far. Gabriel had fired out Murali Vijay and looked set to do more damage but Shikhar and Pujara calmly dismantled that threat in their respective ways.

In saying that, while Pujara has not been at his best in his two knocks thus far, I feel it is important to take stock of things from a broader perspective. Pujara has had very little competitive cricket since the Test series against South Africa last year. While he has had success in the past in Test cricket, you are always a little tentative when you are playing after a long gap, even if it is not against the most threatening attack in the world. Pujara’s hesitancy showed not just in his strokeplay but also in the manner in which he struggled to rotate the strike.

Historically, Pujara has not been a quick starter, but after spending a couple of hours at the crease, he ups his tempo naturally. That has been missing in this series, and while I did see signs of greater fluency in the second Test, it is clear that he is not entirely self-confident at the moment. He must remember the things he did right when he was piling up the runs in Test cricket, and I am sure he has the whole-hearted support of the team management as well because he is such a vital cog in the Indian batting wheel.

At the other end of the confidence spectrum from Pujara is Virat. His batting is on another level, as it has been since the start of this year, but I was most impressed by his attitude as much as his mastery of the bowling. Had he so desired, Virat could have stamped his authority on the bowling in no uncertain terms; after all, there was not any great challenge and he must have been tempted to have fun. But the mark of a great sportsman within a team is always to put the team before self, and that was exactly what Virat did remarkably well.

India were playing five bowlers, and Virat addressed that situation by making his maiden First-Class double-hundred, a brilliant innings that was notable for his command over his craft, the surety with which he met the ball, the restraint that he showed as he put mind over matter, and the discipline with which he drove the innings forward. There is never any magic formula that will bring batsman truckloads of runs or bowler bushels of wickets. It is all about doing the small things right. Virat has done almost every small thing right, and when you manage that, the larger picture will automatically take shape.

Virat’s partner in a long partnership was Ravichandran Ashwin, who translated his love for the West Indian bowling with a third Test hundred against them. I feel Ashwin at No. 6 will enable India more and more to successfully lean towards the five-bowler policy. Having started off as a top-order batsman, it is clear that he has the technique. But equally importantly, he has the attitude and the temperament of a batsman, and at No. 6 where he can often walk into the second new ball, his technique and his temperament are assets that India are fortunate to fall back upon. His timing was impeccable and his hunger obvious, and that is another fantastic sign for a team that clearly wants to establish itself as the No. 1 side in the world across all formats.

Ajinkya Rahane must have been kicking himself for having thrown away a good opportunity in Antigua, but he is not the kind of person to sit and mope. Immediately setting himself on the path to redemption, he zeroed in on another Test century. It was not the prettiest or the most fluent knock, but he gritted out the tough periods and then cashed in. He inherently seems to know how to make the lower order perform above itself, and this Kingston century means he now has scored hundreds in New Zealand, England, Australia, Sri Lanka and The Caribbean, apart from twin hundreds in one Test at home. His unbeaten century in Kingston was his third century in his last four Test innings. How good is that!

But to me, the biggest gain from a batting point of view has been KL Rahul. It is very obvious that his self-belief is immense, and that his performances in the IPL for a star-studded Royal Challengers Bangalore side have done wonders for his confidence. Rahul had already scored two centuries in Test cricket before this edition’s IPL, but to have held his own while playing in a team that included Virat, Chris Gayle, AB de Villiers and Shane Watson has given a whole new dimension to his batting.

That was clear in the limited-overs tour to Zimbabwe when he brought up his first ODI century, and when he got his chance in Kingston because of the injury to Vijay, he made sure that he made that opportunity count as well. His driving through the off-side was sublime, his defence solid and correct. Further, he was hungry and ready even though he might not have expected to get a game at the start of the series. If ever there is an instance of one man’s (Virat) influence rubbing off positively on the other, it is this. I really foresee a very bright future for this young man who possesses one of the most famous first names in Indian cricket history.

As heartening as Rahul’s batting has been Mohammed Shami’s bowling. It is never easy to return to the rigours of Test cricket after 18 months on the sidelines through injury, but now back to his fittest, Shami has been a handful throughout the first two Tests. He began well in Antigua and then ceded centre stage in the second innings when Ashwin weaved his magic, but he once again left his mark in Kingston with his pace and rhythm. He has been able to get the ball to swing late, as was evident by the manner he cleaned up Marlon Samuels in the second innings, and has been able to bowl to a plan, which was clear from how he got Darren Bravo in the second innings, caught in the slips off a snorter.

Ishant Sharma has been consistent as ever in Tests and Umesh Yadav has lent the cutting edge with his pace and swing, which means India have a potent pace attack bolstered by the fact that Bhuvneshwar Kumar is waiting in the wings. I have also been delighted with the returns Ashwin has procured in this series. As a cricketer, you want to do well overseas too, and for him to pick up consecutive five-wicket hauls outside Asia is a massive accomplishment. I know his record is already pretty awesome and I am sure like Rahul, his best is still ahead of him. With Amit Mishra and Ravindra Jadeja forming the spin component, India have an attack that can hold its own against any opposition, in any conditions. After all, for all the runs you amass, you cannot win Tests unless you take 20 wickets, and ironical as it might sound after all that I have said thus far, that was a fact that was driven home by West Indies on the final day in Kingston.

A match that seemed to have totally slipped away from them was salvaged in some style by a young line-up that had seen its two most experienced performers having already returned to the pavilion. There are some draws that are earned after a battle of attrition, through dead-batting and oohs and aahs as edges fly perilously close to hand and a wicket looks imminent. And then there are draws like this, earned with consummate ease and based on aggression and positivity. Like he had done in the first innings, it was Jermaine Blackwood who set the tone with another attacking half-century, but the real hero was Chase.

For one so young, it was wonderful to see how committed he was to the task. In an era where West Indies are hailed for their limited-overs skills, Chase stood for everything that the longer format demands — concentration for long periods, discipline, strong faith in basics, the heart to not blink in the face of adversity. I enjoyed every minute of his maiden Test century, and had the Indians not been so desperate for the breakthrough, they too would have appreciated the poise and the composure. After Blackwood’s departure, the young wicketkeeper Dowrich and skipper Jason Holder gave Chase excellent company as the hosts came away with a very honourable draw.

I believe this result, and the manner in which it was achieved, will galvanize the home side. International cricket needs a vibrant West Indian Test side. More than anything else, as this Test has showcased, West Indies have been short on belief and consistency, not skills and potential. Having had a taste of the good performance, if Chase and company can continue to follow this path that has plenty of satisfaction at the end of it, we will have not just a less one-sided Test series, but potentially a strong West Indian Test side for the future. And while it might be fashionable to point fingers at India’s bowling attack for not doing better on a day-five track, it must be remembered that the pitch had both flattened and slowed up. This was not a case of bad bowling, it was just outstanding batting.

I also feel the young West Indian batsmen standing up and asking to be counted on the final day was their way of paying tribute to Gabriel’s whole-hearted approach throughout the series and to the wonderful long spell from their captain on the third morning of this Test when he troubled the well-set Rahane.

Admittedly, West Indies’ bowling is still work in progress and they are at best steady, which brings us back to 20 wickets needed to win Tests. Perhaps more attention to the nature of the pitches in the Caribbean will not be out of place if they are to rediscover their status as an assembly line for fast bowlers.

With the big names in West Indian cricket currently playing CPL (which has reached its climactic stages), there has been plenty of talk about those not playing the Test series than those that are. I am a strong believer in the fact that if you have been picked to play international cricket, it is up to you to show that you belong to that level. The younger players have managed to snatch some of the limelight away from the old guard playing T20 cricket at the moment. That they have done so with positive, heart-warming performances has to be hailed as a welcome development.

(VVS Laxman, CricketCountry’s Chief Cricket Mentor, remains one of the finest and most elegant batsmen in history. He was part of the iconic Indian middle-order for over a decade and a half and played 134 Tests and 86 ODIs. He tweets at @vvslaxman281)