Good wickets make for great batting

The transformation was stunning. In the old days, Team India would usually be a better performing tour after a tour of Australia. They surprised the world once by winning the 1985 world Championship of Cricket. But, more recently, after winning a tri-series there and a Perth Test in the new millennium, Indians have just about begun to stand up to the Aussies in their lair. Now, they went one better, thrashing them pointless in the series of three T20s.

The Aussies are a kind of cricketing innocents in T20, not having won anything of note in that format in several attempts. They are blaming it on not concentrating on the newfangled game, which is funny considering they took like a fish to water in ODIs and hold the phenomenal record of five World Cups wins, including a hat-trick between 1999 and 2007. A part of the beauty of modern cricket is it is a triple master – Tests, ODIs and T20s. And Team India is managing the triple challenge somewhat better at the moment with a ranking of one-two-one in the three formats.

In the middle of it all is the Indian cricket icon of GenNext — Virat Kohli — once an angry young man, but who is now learning to channel that anger into becoming a more committed performer on the field while not being such an irreverent sportsman who shows the crowds the ‘bird’ as he did once on the previous tour of Australia. There are lessons to learn Down Under where they play the game very hard but sit down for a beer with the opposition when stumps are drawn. That is one way to keep sane in an ultra competitive world.

Kohli is probably getting there and one day soon might be much more of a rounded personality. A veteran of Aussie tours at even such a young age, he has just realised how much more space there is Down Under without the claustrophobic crush of India. You could walk down the street in Sydney and Melbourne without being hassled. He would certainly be recognised as one of the finest performers of the cricketing summer and yet people would not crush him in the fawning way in which they do so at home.

It was said of Kohli that he could make runs blindfolded Down Under, but then he would need the kind of sporting pitches on which the ball genuinely comes on to the bat. There is a clear reason to try and make such pitches in India. Right now, too many tend to die even before the first six balls are bowled, leave alone when chasing down a total even in a T20 game.

Things are changing a bit as evidenced in the freedom with which someone like AB de Villers made in some of the limited-overs games this season in India. The T20 World Cup would be as much of a spectacle as in Australia if only the pitches play evenly over all the 40 overs. Otherwise, matches would be too much of a lottery with all the advantage with the team batting first.

From Team India’s performance in the T20s as well as in the ODIs, even if four were lost before a win was registered, it is obvious that good wickets make for good cricket. But try telling that to our curators, groundsmen or malis who think a dusty turner is the only way to help Team India flourish.

India might lose the Test match top ranking very soon, but its limited-overs capabilities are limitless. In the time to come, the talent that keeps surfacing would be sufficient to keep the flag flying. Knowledgeable pitch preparation might help, which won’t come without a change in attitude.