The great and the powerful of Indian cricket assembled at the Park Hyatt hotel in Hyderabad yesterday evening for a glitzy dinner in which four years’ worth of annual awards were doled out to Ravichandran Ashwin, Jasprit Bumrah, Deepti Sharma and others, the shifting of an almighty backlog caused by the pandemic.
In a parallel universe there would have been even more reason to celebrate on the night but one piece of silverware was missing. The World Cup that eluded Rohit Sharma’s men last November still cuts deep in India, making the five-Test series against England that starts tomorrow a chance to restore some national pride.
Perhaps this is overstating what victory against Ben Stokes and his freewheeling side would mean. After all, on one level it would simply be the extension of an already remarkable record on Indian soil that stretches back 11 years and features 1 4 successive series wins – the longest home sequence by a Test side in history. But after an unsatisfying 1-1 draw in South Africa (two-match Test series are the pits) and a recent 3-0 clean sweep of Afghanistan in some low-key Twenty20s, this is the biggest stage since the agony of Ahmedabad; an opportunity to reassert India’s powerhouse status, retain the Anthony de Mello Trophy, and put Bazball in its place.
For England, this eight-week tour not only starts an eye-watering year of 17 Tests but completes a winter in which their men stunk out the World Cup and lost both of their white-ball series in the Caribbean. Defeat here would make it one of discontent; a bleak old time after a promising first 18 months for the team director, Rob Key.
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 24, 2024-Ausgabe von The Guardian.
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