So what was the Kolkata Test all about? Sachin Tendulkar’s dismissal for just 10 runs in his penultimate appearance? Rohit Sharma’s brilliant century on debut or R. Ashwin’s tenacious 124 which pulled India out of the woods? Or would you rather doff your hat to Mohammed Shami, whose nine wickets in his first Test had the West Indian batsmen completely flummoxed.
Farewell series
Yes, Kolkata will be remembered for all this and much more. After all, this should not be too difficult for a numbers-obsessed nation like ours. Yet, in the midst of all this euphoria, it just cannot be forgotten that a Test got over in just three days. And to think this is being touted as a farewell series to our own Master Blaster, one of the greatest batsmen in modern cricket.
It is, perhaps, inappropriate to sound like a wet blanket when we have just won a Test match so convincingly. The truth is, though, that Kolkata was just a one-sided contest that will require a stupendous effort for the West Indies to pick up the pieces and make a match of it in the next Test at the Wankhede in Mumbai.
Without taking away the credit from Shami, Rohit or Ashwin, they were up against a team which has been struggling to stage a comeback for over a decade now. Sure, they reduced us to 83 for 5 at one stage and that should be a cause for concern, especially when we will encounter far superior bowling in future trips to South Africa or England. And these will be on tracks more conducive to pace and swing.
Solitary inning?
If the cakewalk triumph at Eden Gardens is anything to go by, Tendulkar may well just have a solitary inning left at the Wankhede before he bids adieu to Test cricket. It will be ideal if the West Indies puts up a far better showing than it did in Kolkata because the game could get way too one-sided otherwise.
And this would not be fair to the crowds who are here to watch a keenly fought out five-day contest. Never mind if it is Tendulkar’s last Test, most of us would rather see him play in both innings.
Will the West Indies oblige this time around? A friend, who follows the game very closely, tells me he is baffled how such creative individuals just do not manage to put together a winning script. Be it Darren Bravo or Chris Gayle, you are talking of awesome talent which can take on some of the best bowling in the world.
Yet, something goes horribly wrong just when things are looking up and wickets begin to fall in a heap. This has been a trait synonymous with West Indies cricket in different eras of the past which gave them the title of entertainers.
It was irrelevant that they were not winning enough matches and all this changed when captains such as Garry Sobers and, in particular, Clive Lloyd, took charge and brought in a greater sense of fitness, competitiveness and, most importantly, unity. After all, the West Indies comprises a host of islands with different cultures and convergence on a cricket ground is quite a challenge.
The skipper of the present team, Darren Sammy, promised to put up a good fight before the series started, except that the capitulation in Kolkata makes that claim sound hollow. He at least owes it to one team-mate who stood tall while the rest fell tamely.
Shivnarine Chanderpaul is all too familiar with this role. He has been part of a team in decline, but this has not stopped him from piling on the runs.
Today, he has over 10,000 runs with 28 hundreds in Test cricket. And if Tendulkar is gearing up for his 200{+t}{+h} Test at the Wankhede, the occasion will see Chanderpaul padding up for his 150{+t}{+h}. To lovers of the game, it could seem blasphemous to discuss both batsmen in the same breath, but there is no taking away the fact that the West Indian is made of stern stuff.
His captain and the rest of the team must pull out all stops in making Chnaderpaul’s 150{+t}{+h} Test as memorable as Tendulkar’s last appearance in Test cricket.