Kumble and Harbhajan are more than a handful
Erapalli Prasanna - 7 December 2001
India has found winning ways again; a Test win is indeed a win and
nothing less just because it was achieved at home. Sourav Ganguly and
his boys need to be commended for this win, which came right after the
Virender Sehwag-Mike Denness saga. This is the weakest English team to
have visited India, and they did not really put up a fight in Mohali.
Having said that, the Indian team showed a lot of character to come
through the crisis and emerge victorious.
To add to the English woes, their fielding was well below par and the
catching nothing short of dismal. The Indian batting has always been
comfortable against such type of bowling, lacking both express pace and
deceptive spin. I was impressed, though, by the way Graham Thorpe and
Craig White batted in their second innings.
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I sympathise with Ganguly for having gone in to a Test match with three
new medium-pacers. Ganguly must have prayed and hoped that England won
the toss and saved him from taking a decision. As luck would have it,
Ganguly himself won the toss and was asked to deal with the dilemma: to
bat or not to bat? The Indian skipper opted to bowl first, which I think
was a defensive one, the decision made only to deprive the opposing side
of conditions that suited their bowling attack. The three new pace
bowlers bowled reasonably well, and they are gaining in confidence,
which augurs well for Indian cricket.
As I mentioned before, this is not the strongest of the English sides to
have visited India. Their batting revolves around the opening batsmen,
and they expect a lot from their skipper Nasser Hussain. I must admit,
though, that this English side got better as the game progressed at
Mohali. They are showing signs of improvement, which is a good sign for
the remaining two Tests.
I regard Nasser Hussain as a natural leader with a strong mind. He was
very impressive in the manner in which he utilised his limited bowling
resources. It is very unfortunate that their seam bowling is not well
supported by spin. The young off-spinner Richard Dawson is promising,
but he has to develop the art of turning the ball prodigiously to be
successful on Indian wickets. Dawson's line erred slightly on the
offside, and there were times when he allowed Rahul Dravid to make easy
runs. I am sure that the young spinner would have learnt a lot from
watching Harbhajan Singh in action.
To add to the English woes, their fielding was well below par and the
catching nothing short of dismal. The Indian batting has always been
comfortable against such type of bowling, lacking both express pace and
deceptive spin. I was impressed, though, by the way Graham Thorpe and
Craig White batted in their second innings. They seemed to have gotten
the hang of Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh, and I expect them to play a
very important role in the coming Tests. If England have to make a match
of it, their frontline batsmen must stay on and put up a tall score.
Talking about spin, it was Harbhajan Singh who threw spanners into the
English batting in their first innings, with a clever mix of drifters
and straighter ones. In the second innings, it was the much-familiar
sight of Kumble causing havoc, picking up six wickets to destroy
England. Kumble's success can be attributed to his line and length;
generally English batsmen do not read a bowler from his hand. They have
a genuine weakness against such bowlers, which was well exploited by the
seasoned leg-spinner.
Another bright aspect to emerge from this Mohali Test is young fast
bowler Tinu Yohannan. I am much impressed by his confident approach to
the game. Obviously he has the advantage of sport running in his blood,
and one could make that out from his body language. Yohannan bowled
extremely well and should serve Indian cricket for a long time. Deep
Dasgupta too is fast learning at the highest level; he has improved in
leaps and bounds as a wicket-keeper and batsman. His maiden Test hundred
just went to show that he has the right temperament for batting in
Tests.
England will have to do a lot of homework before they go in to the
second Test match. They are up against the might of possibly the best
spin combination in contemporary cricket. This time around, however,
they will be under pressure right from the word outset when Javagal
Srinath, after his successes in South Africa, takes the red cherry in
his hand and runs in breathing fire.
© CricInfo
Teams
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India.
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Players/Umpires
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Harbhajan Singh,
Anil Kumble,
Sourav Ganguly,
Mike Denness,
Nasser Hussain,
Rahul Dravid,
Richard Dawson,
Craig White,
Tinu Yohannan,
Deep Dasgupta,
Javagal Srinath.
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Tours
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England in India
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