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The message from Lord’s

India beat England in their own backyard and went 1-0 up in the series

Historic as the Lord’s Test victory is, greater significance lies in it being a huge breakthrough for a young team. Not having won away from India in three years, Dhoni’s squad put away some bad memories of away Tests (10 defeats in 15 Tests) behind by winning in competitive conditions after being put in to bat on a grassy pitch.

An inability to take 20 wickets in five-day games was getting to be an albatross around their necks.

Young pacers like Ishant Sharma, bowling aggressively and pitching short, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, moving the ball cleverly, disproved theories about ineffectual bowling abroad on true pitches by combining to produce an emphatic win. Many batting greats of an earlier generation had, one by one, taken their bow from the game in the past few years.

Playing the leading role in keeping the batting together were batsmen of far less experience like Ajinkya Rahane and Murali Vijay, who played contrasting innings of bold attack and patient defence to prove there’s not just one way to play modern Tests.

The resilience of the tail, bolstered by the all-round capabilities of Bhuvenshwar Kumar, was evocative of the spirit binding this team together. Dhoni may appear disinterested at times as skipper, but he called upon reserves of his counter-intuitive thinking and instinctive strategising to put rival Alastair Cook in the shade at Lord’s.

In sticking to the job despite criticism, Dhoni made a turnaround possible in Team India’s fortunes in Tests along with coach Duncan Fletcher.

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