ACS Oveseas First-Class Annual 2013

India in 2012/13 After humbling 4-0 defeats in England and Australia in 2011 and 2011/12, the Indian team and management must have welcomed the fact that the ten Test matches scheduled for 2012 and 2012/13 were all on home soil. Convincing wins in the two Tests against New Zealand in 2012 were no more than might have been anticipated, although the brief rubber will be remembered for R.Ashwin’s 18 wickets and for the decision of V.V.S.Laxman, after being named in the squad for the first Test, to call an abrupt and unexpected halt to his illustrious 134-Test career. This very very special cricketer compiled 8,781 runs for his country at an average of 45.97, although the bare numbers do not convey the true value of runs that were so often scored in adversity. His highest score of 281 was an Indian record at the time (although since thrice beaten by V.Sehwag). Scored in India’s follow-on against Australia at Kolkata in 2000/01, it set up one of the most sensational turnaround victories in Test history. After the easy success against New Zealand, the following series against England brought a rude awakening. It was billed unofficially as a chance to avenge the chastening defeat of 2011, and England duly lost the first Test by an innings. But the visitors then turned the tables with hard-fought but ultimately convincing wins in the second and third Tests before drawing the fourth. The 2-1 scoreline meant England’s first successful rubber in India since 1984/85 and came as a serious setback to India’s hopes of regaining the top spot in the ICC rankings that they had relinquished in 2011. India’s hopes against England may have been dashed, but the 4-0 victory in the following rubber against Australia handsomely repaid the shellacking India had suffered Down Under twelve months before. There were times in the first three Tests when the best bowlers in Australia were made to look like schoolboys, while the Indian spinners, so innocuous against England (except in the first Test), suddenly rediscovered their potency. Ashwin, with 29 wickets at 20.10, was simply outstanding and R.A.Jadeja, originally selected more on the strength of his batting, continually took important wickets and finished with 24 at 17.45. On the whole, India will feel that some stability had been restored and that the team had arrested its alarming slide in performance in 2011 and 2011/12. True, the home defeat by England was a major setback, but one for which there was ample consolation in the subsequent humbling of Australia. By the end of the season India was delicately poised in third place in the ICC ranking, just below England and a whisker ahead of Australia. This represented an advance from fourth place a year previously, but more important than this was the emergence of younger players to replace the rapidly fading old guard. Ashwin, despite some indifferent performances against England, confirmed his status as an off-spinner of the highest class, while among the batsman C.A.Pujara was outstanding. Appearing in all ten Tests in 2012 and 2012/13, he scored 1,073 runs at 76.64 and kept up his form even against England when so many of his colleagues struggled. Still only 24, he should be a pillar of the Indian batting for years to come. On the domestic scene, the Ranji Trophy was reorganised with the 27 participating teams divided into three leagues of nine each. Group C was drawn from the former Plate Groups and was thus of a lower standard than Groups A and B; accordingly, only the top two teams of Group C went into the knockouts whereas the top three progressed from each of the other groups. An effect of these changes was a substantial increase in the number of group matches, from 79 to 108, with each side playing a minimum of eight games. The structure of the competition may have changed, but the result was a familiar one: Mumbai won the Trophy for the 40 th occasion, as against 39 wins for all other teams combined. This is a record that Yorkshire or New South Wales would envy; and whereas those sides have lost their former dominance in recent times, Mumbai’s eminence is undimmed. 107