It is Friday, the 15th of August. You're inspired as an Indian. You're feeling patriotic, you're humming Vande Mataram all day after you heard it maybe on a radio or on your TV set in the morning. You're receiving and sending 'Happy independence day' whatsapps, you're liking and retweeting posts related to the same. It is a happy morning. As a Cricket fan, you look forward to the afternoon as well, as India take on England at the Oval in the 5th Test Match of the series. The Indian team hasn't done too well recently in the 3rd and the 4th test, you're hoping for a turnaround. You're hoping for energy, at least on 15th of August.
Ishant Sharma is fit, they've also decided to drop Jadeja. Your eyes lit up. It's a good pitch but there's a bit of rain around, Dada says in the pre match show that they need to bat cautiously for the first session and then it'll be a batting paradise. India are 43-5 at Lunch. You sulk, you curse, but you knew this was going to happen all along, didn't you? In the Lunch break, they talk about what Kohli and Pujara did wrong. They've been talking about that throughout the series. There comes a daddy innings from Dhoni to get us to 148. You know it is going to be 3-1.
England seize the day, they're 62-0 at stumps. On day 2, they pile on a lot more. India continue to drop catches in slips. Some of them being very difficult to drop. This is another moment when you feel like banging your head to the wall. You feel like shooting the Telly with a gun. But, you curb your rage. Or at least try to. At stumps on day 2 they are 385-7, 237 ahead. On the third day, Joe Root gets to a century. Ishant gets him out on 110 on a no ball. You again curb your rage. Or at least try to. When England get all out for 486, 338 runs ahead of us, Root is left not out on 149. That is more than what the entire Indian team scored in the first innings. In the process, we have given away free runs, bowled too many loose deliveries, not had fielders in catching positions. The experts try to decrypt Dhoni's captaincy, but it just is on a completely different level. A level that even a cunning and a defensive captain like Alaistair Cook cannot attain in his dreams. You again curb your rage. Or at least you try to.
You know we are going to lose. You hope against all odds, that they will at least try to give a fight. You try to convince yourself that this is a very young team, and that most of them haven't played Test Cricket in England before. You also consider how an Indian team with established and reputed players lost 0-4 in 2011 there. You look at the positives, you look at Rahane, Ishant, Bhuvi, Aaron and say to yourself that here are some players who have improved. You also think that the players must have been tired as it has been a 5-test series, something which none of them had played before. You know deep down that most of these feel-good factors are rubbish, but still those are something that help you in trying to curb your rage if you haven't completely lost it yet.
But, in the end you don't want to see India gift wrapping the victory to England. It is something no one wants to see. You want a contest, you want to be able to say in the end that we tried. You want Vijay to regain what he had in Trent Bridge and Lord's. You want Gambhir to do well. You want to see Kohli, Pujara taking some steps to get rid off their weaknesses which England have figured out. At best, you don't want India to lose again on the third day of the Test match. Especially with a bit of rain in the air. Murali Vijay is outfoxed by some top bowling by James Anderson. Gambhir is struggling to see the ball. You think he is going to get out on every ball he's getting ready to face. You know they have to bat out of their skins to make a contest out of this. You think they know that too. Gambhir taps a ball to short mid wicket and runs to take a single that is not there. There's a direct hit, and he's out. You don't have to be an international Cricketer to understand the value of your wicket in a crunch situation like this. It is fine if you get an absolute beauty of a ball to get you out. But throwing your wicket away like this is just surrendering without a fight. You don't care anymore if they lose on the third day or the fourth. You stop hoping.
You cannot curb your rage at this point. You simply cannot. When they pick you to be on that plane to England, it is a privelege and also a responsibility that they bestow upon you. You represent India. That is close to 2 billion people. We don't expect you to win. No nation does that to its players. What you did at Lord's was out of this world. We felt lucky to have you representing us. But when you go down without a fight, not just once or twice, is when you start to be a disgrace to the country. I'm not blaming just Gambhir or the players for this, it is the entire Indian contingent. There are serious questions that need answers. For starters, questions like what are Joe Dawes, Trevor Penney and Duncan Fletcher have been doing. Or why was Rahul Dravid signed up as the batting consultant just for initial matches and not for the entire series? There are many more.
I hope this doesn't go away, like it has in the past. Maybe we'll win the ODIs and the T20 which is to follow and all this will be forgotten. I hope that doesn't happen. About time, we start preparing for that long tour of Australia which is later this year and then the World Cup. Heads will have to roll.
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