India collapse again as reckless batting from Rishabh Pant, Dhruv Jurel and others undo solid start, turning Marco Jansen’s short-ball burst into a rout. If you stand six feet eight inches tall in your bowling shoes, there’s not a lot you’d be jealous about, right? Marco Jansen towers physically above all teammates and opponents in Test cricket currently, but the South African quick admitted to being ‘slightly jealous’ of guys shorter than him. His reason? From the same length from where the rest hit the top of the stumps, Jansen invariably gets the ball to bounce above them, depriving him of numerous bowleds and leg befores.
But offer him a surface with bounce and carry, like the one at the ACA Stadium in Guwahati, and it’s the likes of new-ball comrade Wiaan Mulder and the opposing pace grouping of Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj who don the jealousy garb. Making the most of his imposing height and feeding off the multifarious errors in shot-selection from India’s impatient, adventure-heavy batters, Jansen lorded the third day’s exchanges in the second Test. Using the bouncer to devastating effect, he finished with six for 48, his first five-for outside his country, on the back of which the World Test champions opened up a 288-run lead on the first count.
The bouncer barrage, Jansen revealed on Monday evening, wasn’t a part of an elaborate plan concocted by him and Temba Bavuma, his captain who concedes the left-armer a foot and four inches in height. Unlike in Kolkata where there was seam and swing as well as uneven bounce, the truer nature of the Guwahati strip compelled Jansen to try something different. And when he found success with the bouncer through the scalp of Dhruv Jurel in his ninth over, he stuck to that approach, firing out Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish Kumar Reddy and Jasprit Bumrah.
Around these successes, he also accounted for Rishabh Pant, in his first Test as captain, and Kuldeep Yadav, who justified his ‘road’ comment to bat out the most balls of not just his Test career (134), but also comfortably the most by an Indian batter in the first innings. Jansen’s was a veritable display of smart, intelligent, crafty, persistently hostile bowling, made to look even more intimidating by the munificence of India’s batters with their skipper as the prime culprit in an underwhelming, disappointing display.
India mustered only 189 and 93 on the Kolkata minefield, efforts slightly, but only slightly, excusable given how arduous batting was. There is no way, however, to justify being bowled out for 201 on a still-good-for-batting deck. Additional bounce, courtesy the red-soil base, and some turn owing to natural wear-and-tear weren’t unconquerable, as Yashasvi Jaiswal exhibited up top, and Washington Sundar and Kuldeep reiterated down the order. So, how does one explain 201 all out? Perhaps by looking at how Nos. 4 and 5, Jurel and Pant respectively, were dismissed.
KL Rahul perished to Keshav Maharaj’s left-arm spin, his low hands contributing to an edge to slip while Sai Sudharsan, back at No. 3, threw away a promising start with a pull that picked out mid-wicket. Jaiswal was the victim of extra bounce for first-Test hero Simon Harmer, who benefitted from a superb diving catch by Jansen at backward point. These are dismissals that can happen; only Sudharsan was guilty of faulty execution, but not choice of stroke.
But with Jurel and Pant? India had just lost two for one in 14 deliveries and the tea break was a couple of deliveries away when Jansen took a punt on the short ball. For some reason best known to him, Jurel decided to counter fire with fire, unmindful of the game situation or that he was new to the crease. All he managed was a top edge from outside off that looped to mid-on. Brain fade No. 1.
Brain fade No. 2 came in the second over upon resumption. Pant is hailed as a free spirit, but even free spirits must rein their instincts in when the situation demands, captain or not. Pant charged the second ball of Jansen’s next over, trying to send it into orbit over the bowler’s head. Agreed, everyone would have marvelled at his audacity had he made sweet contact, but with great risk comes the danger of great condemnation too. Pant crossed over from carefree to carelessly reckless, his almighty hoick eliciting a thick edge to the keeper. Horrendous stroke, Rishabh. But wait, that wasn’t the end of the story. Brain fade No. 3 came immediately after Rod Tucker put his finger up. Despite the healthy edge, Pant chose to review the decision. Shocking? Shell-shocked? Or just addled and confused? Take your pick.
Head coach Gautam Gambhir has been under fire for questionable calls – including inexplicably dropping India’s best batter in Kolkata, Washington, down from No. 3 to No. 8 in Guwahati – but for once, the blame for this precipitous collapse can’t be laid at his doorstep. That’s hardly a consolation when the team is so far behind in the game. India’s batters, privately complaining of dustbowls that make batting a lottery, showed no intention of making a good thing count, batting with a casualness unbefitting of the stage. Now, that is a bigger cause for concern.
