Australia haven’t just defeated India in the Test match where it all mattered; they’ve completely humbled a side that was the finalist in the first ever cycle of the World Test Championship, a team that perhaps tens of millions expected to neutralise the Smith, Warner and Cummins-powered side at The Oval.
In a winner takes all contest, where given the menacing form the Indian team were in especially where it came to Test cricket in the past twelve months, Australia, quite simply, showed the mirror to Rohit Sharma’s team.
What’ll be debated long after the contest is whether some selection gaffes such as not picking Ashwin given his enormous experience hurt India’s chances. What’ll also be debated is whether Green did actually collect what can be dubbed a clean or fair catch.
But a lot really happens in such a huge contest that often overrides a team’s expectations.
That said, what were the biggest highlights from the exceedingly interesting World Test Championship final that defined the contest?
Australia the deserving champions
Just when the tigers were meant to go on a menacing prowl, along came the kangaroos stealing its thunder and silencing the hype, once and for all.
A champion team that really played like one, Australia is a side we must all tip our hats to.
They were, by a clear distance, the more well rounded team and also the more consistent unit with the most important department of the game, albeit also the one often under valued: bowling.
For a team that didn’t have David Warner in red hot form and played minus Josh Hazlewood, Australia came out all guns blazing and made arguably a more powerful looking Indian side appear mediocre.
It was a team whose captain was only just marking a return to the game having experienced an irreparable personal tragedy and yet, performed like a lion heart.
They ticked all the right boxes and perhaps made some very right decisions by getting someone like a Scott Boland in as the third pacer and by electing to play with Travis Head.
A victory by a margin as huge as 209 runs can never be considered ordinary, then that this came in Test cricket’s ultimate contest makes Australia’s triumph rather important.
Besides, the win has also fired a warning out to the English to not take things any lightly ahead of The Ashes.
Travis Head’s form
For someone who was surprisingly dropped ahead of that Test match held at Nagpur earlier this year, Travis Head hasn’t always made it to the Australian team on a very consistent basis.
Not that he’s someone who’s delved too deeply about the lost chances.
And yet, at the same time, he’s also not a bloke who misfires when the right opportunity arrives.
Scoring a magnificent counterattacking 163 runs in the first inning, it was Head who head butted India firing a gusty century particularly when the top three of a famous line up didn’t exactly produce a sterling result.
That inning along with his mega stand with yet another Australian centurion at The Oval, Steven Smith laid the perfect template to a mammoth first inning score that would leave India to lick its wounds.
A quality batsman and arguably the best find for Australia alongside Marnus Labuschagne, Travis Head must now focus on getting quality scores for the soon-to-begin Ashes contests.
If Australia are to put forth a staunch challenge to the English on the latter’s backyard, then the middle order specialists such as Head would have to score aplenty. Not that it’ll be a cakewalk considering Jimmy Anderson is still going on rather well.
The irrepressible Steven Smith
Before he entered the much anticipated Oval Test, Steve Smith had fired 8 Test hundreds against India.
But as he leaves the famous Oval ground but only after becoming a World Test champion, Smith has not only scored a ninth career century against his familiar- if also daunting- opponent, but taken his Test record against the side to over 2,000 runs.
Some record that considering a fourth of his Test match runs have come against India.
His brilliant and focused 268 ball stay in the first inning that culminated into 121 very valuable runs bore the classic Australian hallmark of grit and tenacity.
The magical Australian batter was, once again, able to weave some magic in a contest that drove India out of the game and put his team on the driver’s seat.
And in the end, some typically agile fielding in the slips also enabled him to bag what might be considered the catch of the match.
Long after the Oval game is over, they’d still rewind to the still of Steven Smith leaping completely in air to take a blinder to send back the great Virat Kohli, who as the Australian admitted, was the most dangerous man standing in his team’s way of the much vaunted victory.
Rahane and Thakur’s valiance
The Indian team was already on the backfoot with the Australians having put a mighty 469 runs on the board.
That was just too many runs for any side in the game regardless of whether the one in pursuit being a team as strong as India, the finalists of the last round of the World Test Championship.
Plus, with the famous top order comprising Shubman Gill, Rohit Sharma and Cheteshwar Pujara falling apart much too meekly with Virat Kohli’s first inning failure only made things worse for the team.
But with little going India’s way, the way Ajinkya Rahane, a Test returnee, and Shardul Thakur took up the mantle for the innings, the Australians, you ought to submit, were stunned as were perhaps dozens of fans at The Oval.
Not that there can ever be a sound about Rahane, a batsman who in the process of his well compiled 89, went past 5,000 Test runs. But just the enormity of pressure out there couldn’t have made things any more difficult than they already were.
Implicit in his 109-run stand with Thakur was the latter’s powerful strokes. Though that didn’t come before Shardul appearing a touch restless and as one noted, even unsure of what to play versus the menacing fast bowling challenge put forth by the Aussie trio of Cummins, Starc and Boland.
But once the nerves settled, Shardul was seen playing the beautiful straight drives looking way confident than he was at the start while Rahane, in monk-like fashion, was particularly strong towards the off side.
It could be argued almost unanimously that the century run stand between the two, the only one that India experienced in the Test for any wicket, was by far the biggest highlight for the sub continental powerhouse of Cricket besides also being a telling reminder that just how poor India’s top four were in the inning where it really mattered.
Is the Indian team still over dependant on Virat Kohli?
For a team that had a Rohit Sharma in its ranks, a batsman who’s fired nine test centuries including a best score of 212 and Cheteshwar Pujara, who prior to setting foot for this big final, had accumulated dozens of valuable runs for Sussex in a rewarding county stint, the bulk of the challenge still came down to a familiar man’s abilities: Virat Kohli.
And truth be told, with a further 280 needed off 90 overs on the final day, which at a little over 3 an over, was highly possible, if not a cakewalk, it did seem as though Kohli was the one for the job and the one who’d get it done.
But yet, at the back of his wicket, which wasn’t before the number four scored 49 on the whole, the way India collapsed thereafter put forth a rather important question; one that the likes of Dravid and co. should definitely think about.
Is this current Indian team still heavily reliant on Kohli? Surely with all the great numbers against his name and having excelled in tough run chase, he’s emerged as generational great.
But for how much longer can the man often dubbed the King with the bat or the one with the midhas touch carry the team over his shoulders by beating the brunt of expectations that are so often unreal?
Not that the Indian team weighs less on the talent department. No chance; Pujara and Rahane alone account for over 12,000 Test match runs.
Yet, with all the mighty matchwinners at the Indian team’s disposal, that a single man’s dismissal makes things take a nasty turn thereby only hampering India’s fortunes of prevailing in a contest only makes things messier, don’t you think?
While surely, india missed the likes of Pant, an outlier of his generation and a completely game changing talent, it is about time that the rest of the youngsters, some who’ve already debuted and others, about to break through, understand that in their hands rests the massive job of waving the Indian flag for the next decade.
A Kohli with some cushion at the other end, whether it’s thanks to Gill taking up the onus at the highest level or some other promising talent, can still emerge threatening and menacing for India’s opponents.