Indian summer dawns in England with Lord's victory

Mumbai: There was no more delightfully ironic sight than the moustachioed thorn in England’s flesh, Ravindra Jadeja running out his Trent Bridge nemesis Jimmy Anderson with a direct throw to wrap up a precious Test win at Lord’s.

The bat-twirling and ball-spinning all-rounder has become England’s latest bogeyman even as that very English trait of batting collapses recurred. It was a scene straight out of Monty Python who, incidentally, were holding their farewell show in the UK even as Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s men were gifting him a rare win at cricket’s HQ.

There are other delightful tales out of India’s win at the most spiritual of cricket venues. For instance, the way the captain coaxed a spell of short-pitched bowling out of his 25-year-old pace bowling spearhead, Ishant Sharma, who Dhoni himself admits is not the brightest when it comes to the cerebral.

It took a bit of convincing to get a one-trick pony to try something different and this is where astute captaincy came into play. The pull played badly proved suicidal for England.

The passage of 28 years, which in the fast-paced modern age could well represent an ancient yug or yuga, seems to be lucky for India. In an amazing coincidence, two World Cup wins, 1983 and 2011 came after the same interval, so too two Lord’s wins, 1986 and 2014.

The fast bowlers had created the first win too with Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev perspiring the most in that memorable English summer. England were in disarray then after having suspended Ian Botham for six months for possessing a recreational substance at home and were further embarrassed by having to send David Gower packing after a stinging Lord’s defeat.

History does come in cycles as the wise ones have told us and it could not have been more apparent than now when England is considering whether their once prolific batsman Alastair Cook should continue to lead the Test team.

Three years ago, the boot was on the other foot with Dhoni’s men beaten to pulp in a 4-0 verdict and the captain’s Test credentials under severe doubts for the first time. And after the 4-0 in Australia we were positively baying for his blood, at least as Test captain while agreeing that he was always the man for the shorter versions.

Now, Dhoni himself says this could be his last Lord’s appearance. He has this bright chance to win a series abroad after several blank ones since 2011 in the Caribbean. Given the state of the current England team, Team India would be embarrassed if it did not go on to win the series, particularly since such fine young cricketers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ajinkya Rahane have matured as Test cricketers and have learnt they can come to the party as much as the legends of the game.

The rebuilding process seems to be coming along nicely after all the doom and gloom expressed since the retirement of the batting greats culminating with Sachin’s farewell last November.

The cleverness with which Indian seam bowlers have used swing and seam to open up more English wounds is going to be the story of the summer. Of course, Jadeja will keep bobbing up like a jack-in-the-box, grinning away to glory as he needles England to bring about a proper riposte for the jellybeans episode of a few summers ago.

Much would depend on what the ICC’s convoluted judicial process has to say about the sparring between Jadeja and Anderson, one with anger management issues and the other with ego issues, if you were to believe the English press. One thing is sure though this will go down as an Indian summer in England.