INDIAN BENCH PLAYERS’ BENCHMARK AT GABBA BY PAVITHRAN

 

January 19, 2021 – Tuesday – will be a golden day in the annals of Indian cricket as one of its most glorious days. On that day, India Team had won Border Gavaskar Trophy by defeating Australia in its home ground so-called Fortress Gabba. And Border Gavaskar trophy was back in the Indian dressing room and it was like a miracle unfolded because Indian was 36 all out in Adelaide Cricket Test and everyone had written off Team India. 

Hence this victory was special for many reasons. 

Australian Players was intoxicated by the poor performance of 36 Score of Indian Team and without Kohli as captain after first test and many seasoned players not playing leaving the field to young bench players, Australia prejudged that India could not even draw the series, let alone win.

From poor score of 36 then, Team India had played epic game to score 328 runs with 3 wickets remaining and created history. 

It was sad that due to frustration and fear of defeat, Australian Bowlers had started aiming their balls on many occasions on the players making our players especially Pujara to suffer the ball hits. Pujara was able to frustrate Hazlewood and he responded with delivery to Pujara's helmet. That day, Pujara's defence not only included his bat. That traditional arm guard met more deliveries that a few batters in this series. Repeated hits to the ribs and the rear of the helmet, he almost lost a finger too. Of course, Pujara was supposed to go down after all these.

Instead, he grew in confidence. He began to wear out the bowlers even more. Thin edges became thicker one, means he knew where he was pushing the ball. He made sure that it didn't travel to slips or the keeper. While doing all these, his head and the bat was down in most of the occasion.

Pujara was hit 11 times as Pat Cummins and company peppered him short balls and bowled into his body which had made Australian legend Shane Warne to condemn the acts by saying “Nasty”. 

While Pujara was doing this, India's newest opener of this series, Gill was showcasing elegance in the form of pushes and pulls. He was batting like free-flowing water from the mountain. It was everything you can call as an art. This artistic display wouldn't have been possible without the good-old punching bag of the country.

 

 Tendulkar’s comments on actions of Australian Bowlers aiming Indian Players are worth to quote: “Every time there was a blow, somebody stood tall and competed hard. They were bruised and battered, but nobody gave up. It was incredible.”

Ravi Shastri, Chief Coach of the Indian Cricket Team, praised Cheteshwar Pujara, “Puji, you will be known as the ultimate warrior.”

The following quotes like comments sum up Warrior Like Courage displayed by Puji in Gabbas or Gabbatoir as some wanted to call:

“We have seen hitters. We have seen defenders. We have seen the Wall. We have seen God. The Indian Team has seen everything except for a human punching bag. They had that column ticked when Pujara came in to bat on day five of Gabba Test. From being Rahul Dravid's spiritual successor, Pujara went step ahead to become the human punching bag that kept coming back after taking every single blow.”

One more comment about Pujara’s Play explains his grit, his will power and confidence in the most life threatening balls not aimed at the stumps but on the palyer: “Ball after ball. Over after over. He got ready even before the bowlers could go back to start their run-up.”

Pant then did the exact opposite of what Pujara was doing all these while. This main madman made a miracle look like a middling job.

In the end, as everyone ran to hug Pant after his madness, this Dravid's spiritual successor stood a few inches away, probably because of the blows he had after putting his country before himself.

  

The series, perhaps above all else, will be remembered for the exploits of the newcomers – Shuhman Gill, Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, T. Natarajan and Washington Sundar. They got the chances because of the injured players and, in Gill’s case, because of Prithvi Shaw’s poor form. After his 91 in the second innings at the Gabba, Tendulkar said: “Gill batted exceptionally well. He looked very compact and was opportunistic – whenever he found the chance, he scored a boundary.”

Sundar – 21 year old off spinner, was told of his inclusion only two days ahead of the Gabba Test. Sundar not only bowled with discipline, taking 3/89 and 1/80 in the two innings, he also shone with the bat.

Similarly Thakur scored a fighting 67 and took seven wickets. His bowling partner Siraj got his first five-wicket haul in the second innings.

And Thangaraju Natarajan – Nattu – though taken to Australia as a net bolwler – got a dream opportunity after others fell to injuries. He picked up three wickets in the first innings, including that of Marnus Labuschagne.

Tendulkar said about Nattu: “Nattu did not look out of place in the Test. He knew what he was doing. There was maturity there.”

Credit should also go to Rahul Dravid for strengthening Cricket Bench since 2010 as the head of the National Cricket Academy.

E-Touch is really proud of historic win of India Cricket Team and congratulates all – players, coachers and support staff. 

 

Cheteshwar Pujara - The Iron Man of Cricket

Raw courage displayed by Pujara at recently played at Gabba ambushing Australia to an ignominious defeat had made Him 'Iron Man of Cricket'.

Aggressive bowling of Kangaroo Australian Cricketers aiming on players rather than stumps had not deterred Pujara.

Pains of hitting balls had pushed him to hit every and many to boundaries.

Along with Pujara, Steve Waugh and Mohinder Amarnath took blows on their bodies from the quicks, shed blood on the pitch, but never gave their wickets.  It was a matter of pride and honour.

Jai Ho ! Valiant Boys.

 

"The courage, the resolve, the spirit, that you guys have shown is unreal. Not for once you were down, injuries, 36 all out (in the first Test), you had the self-belief in you," an emotional Shastri 58-year-old All-Rounder said with captain Ajinkya Rahane standing calmly by his side.

Batting mainstay Cheteshwar Pujara, who took blows to his body but stayed firm, match-winner. Rishabh Pant's extraordinary stroke play, and young opener Shubman Gill's calm counter-attack drew special appreciation from Shastri.

Shastri applauded: “Shubman great, great. Puji you will be known as the ultimate warrior. And Rishabh, simply outstanding. T Natarajan, the net bowler who became a front-liner, and the duo of Washington Sundar and Shardul Thakur, the men who made as much difference with the bat as with the ball. In this Test match, I would not want to forget three debutants and their performances in that first innings. Nattu, Washi and Shardul.”

Last but not the least, Shastri had also congratulated the members of support staff for their splendid work.

 

The story would not be complete, if  we did not  ‘HONOUR’ the horrible and devilish bowling of the Australian Bowlers in particular Pat Cummins and John Hazlewood aiming at Indian Batmen to bleed in the ground.  E-Touch ‘honour’ them with a  crown of thorns and presenting them a whip so that they could punish themselves in privacy.  Hope that they will not repeat such bowling tactics.

 

So called Experts’ Opinions and Predictions had gone wrong 100 % - much to their poor skill of judgement.

Hello ! It is Team India – Every Players count and are champions in their own way.

We have Ravi Shastri as our Chief Coach !

 

E-Touch got an information that Four Former Cricket Captains and one Former Keeper were in tears of shame in view of their failures to predict correctly.

E-Touch had requested our Reporter to present five kerchiefs to them to wipe out their tears. 

 

TURNAROUNDS CRICKET AT GABBA  - Courtesy : Karansank

Turnarounds can never be predicted. Which is why they are called turnarounds. Indian lower order did a magnificent turnaround at Gabba on the 19^th January 2021 that will go straight into history books.

What is interesting to see is that the guys who were involved in the turnaround in this Test - they have scripted amazing turnarounds in their real lives too.

Natarajan is the son of a loom worker who had no money for luxuries like cricket gear and shoes. For many years, Natarajan had to think a hundred times before investing in new shoes. His mother cried when she saw him representing India on TV. His wife gave birth to their son when Natarajan was playing IPL in UAE. He hasn’t even seen him yet because he went straight to Australia in a bio bubble.

Shardul Thakur battled obesity to play for Mumbai and thereafter IPL. No less than Sachin Tendulkar advised him to lose weight for a great cricketing career ahead of him.

Siraj rose to become India’s new ball bowler despite being born to a poor rickshaw driver. His father died and he couldn’t perform his last rites as he was in Australia on national duty.

Washington Sundar - Sundar’s father was a talented cricketer who was sponsored by his rich neighbour throughout his local cricketing life. His name was Washington. The man passed away just before Sundar’s second son was born. Sundar named his son Washington as a tribute to his benefactor.

Navdeep Saini - Navdeep Saini’s father was a government driver and could not afford expensive cricket coaching for his son. So Saini played exhibition matches on tennis ball at Rs.300 a match to fund his dreams.

All these guys came together as debutants and have turned this match over its head. All their lives they were waiting for this moment in their cricketing career. All their failures, all their struggles, all their doubts and all their insecurities - all that was settled once and for all in this Test match. When presented with an opportunity, they fired themselves up and attacked Australia with all guns blazing.

In this series, more than any other Test series I have seen in my life, the Indian Cricket team has proven their naysayers wrong. They have sustained tremendous pressure and taken hard knocks all over their bodies against one of the best Australian attack ever. And by doing so, they have made us realise that while 5 hour IPL matches can create instant celebrities, Test Cricket, which stretches over five days, creates real heroes.

Celebrities sign autographs, but heroes continue to inspire the nation decades after they retire.

Thank you Team India.