ACS Overseas First-Class Annual 2019

119 India in 2018/19 India remained proudly at the head of the ICC Test rankings, their position strengthened by a return to winning ways after the stuttering performances of the previous twelve months. They won all three of the Test rubbers played in the period under review, winning as many as six of the eight Tests played and losing only one. The India v West Indies series, inaugurated in 1948/49, used to be a ‘blue riband’ occasion, with five Tests played in front of huge partisan crowds. Sadly, no longer: nowadays two-match rubbers played before empty stadia are slotted into whatever gaps are left between more important events. And just as, in the early days, West Indies dominated, so that it was not until 1970/71 that India claimed a win, so now the boot is firmly on the other foot and not since 2001/02 have West Indies won a rubber, or even a match. Two of these rubbers fall to be reported this year: one at the beginning of the Indian 2018/19 season and the other in the Caribbean during the 2019 ‘off’ season. They fully maintained the one-sided record of recent times: all four matches resulted in huge Indian wins, the respective margins being an innings and 272, ten wickets, 318 runs and 257 runs. Wins like this are all very well, and statistically of course they play their part in maintaining India’s Test ranking; but infinitely greater satisfaction will have been derived from the rubber that came between the two West Indian ones, namely the four-Test tour of Australia. This was important because the reason that for all the success of the current Test team it is not yet spoken of in the same breath as the greatest sides of former years is its failure to maintain its dominant form against powerful opposition outside Asia. Defeats last year in South Africa (2-1) and England (4-1) underline the problem. So Virat Kohli and his team will feel a special pride in defeating the formidable Australians on their own pitches by two Tests to one. In its early stages the rubber was closely contested, as in the first Test India fought back after an indifferent start and eventually secured victory by 31 runs after a fascinating, fluctuating game of cricket. India then completely misread the unpredictable drop-in pitch on which the second Test was played, stuffing their side with fast bowlers only to be undone by Nathan Lyon. So on the face of it, the rubber was wide open; but in fact, from this point India powered ahead, dominating the early stages of the third Test to take a decisive 292-run lead on first innings before spirited Australian resistance limited the eventual winning margin to 137. And in the final Test, Australia had just followed on 322 runs behind when rain wiped out the last two days of the match. And so for the first time in twelve attempts, going back to 1947/48, India claimed a rubber in Australia, the eventual 2-1 margin in no way flattering the tourists – if anything, it failed to do them justice. Cheteshwar Pujara, with 521 runs and three centuries, was the outstanding batsman on either side, equally untroubled by Australia’s pace attack or by Nathan Lyon. But even more striking was the potency of tourists’ attack, especially Jasprit Bumrah whose 21 wickets at only 17.00 marked him out as one of the world’s leading pace bowlers (an impression he was later to confirm in the West Indies with a hat-trick in the first Test and an analysis of 5-7 in the second). By itself, the success in Australia, however gratifying it may be, is not enough to dispel doubts about India’s ability to overcome leading sides outside Asia. The defeats in South Africa and England are too recent for that. But it does suggest a real possibility that the Indian side, already indisputably the best in the world, could be on the threshold of something very special indeed. It may be further evidence of India’s ambition that in 2018/19 and 2019 the ‘A’ side played six rubbers involving as many as 14 matches in total. The purpose of a team like this is, after all, to blood promising cricketers and give them experience against overseas players both at home and away, and India A took the field against the ‘A’ teams (or equivalent) of, successively, South Africa (2 matches, home), Australia (2 matches, home), New Zealand (3 matches, away), England (2 matches, home), Sri Lanka (2 matches, home), and West Indies (3 matches, away). The team