India vs England 2nd Test: Siraj, Bumrah, Shami script miracle in a special month for Indian sport
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An Indian revival. An English collapse. A famous win and an unforgettable last hour of Test cricket. These are all phrases that have often circulated the cricketing circuit recently. Perhaps too often to be a novelty act. And yet, somehow, every time it happens, it takes you in and makes you believe in magic – India vs England 2nd Test Lords made you believe in magic.
There is no other plausible explanation to the beautiful eventuality which has once again been a function of grit, honesty, hard work, passion and the indomitable spirit which always finds the toughest moment to shine through.
In a team of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Rishabh Pant, the stars with the bat on the final day – with a Test match to save – were Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. It is difficult to explain based purely on cricketing logic what happened on day 5 of the India vs England 2nd Test at Lords.
India vs England 2nd Test – a miracle in London
The day started with a victory very likely. Only that it was for England. India, with a long tail and an even longer set of questions directed towards captain Virat Kohli, were holding on to an iceberg in the middle of the ocean with a ship that was drowning. Common sense and precedence would tell you that the ship drowns, the men go down with it and only one remains to tell a glorious tale of despair.
Not in Indian cricket. Not anymore. Certainly not with this team. They write a different story. They either rebuild the ship in the cold of the night or make a ship out of the iceberg itself. When Shami and Bumrah came together to bat, England were counting the number of overs they would save in winning the Test match.
With only 182 runs ahead and 83 overs left to play, the two opening bowlers combatted a fiery English barrage of verbal and physical bouncers, spitfires and swing bowling to put together an unbeaten 89-run stand. With every passing moment, the Indian eyes widened, and the English eyebrows furrowed; the Indian jaws dropped, and the English shoulders slacked.
Finally, captain Kohli put England out of their misery by declaring with 60 overs left for his bowlers to weave an Eden Gardens-like magic. At the innings break, Twitter came out with a photoshopped picture from that 2001 Test match of Dravid and Laxman with Bumrah and Shami’s faces superimposed. Now, a few hours later, they might as well photoshop the faces of Siraj, Bumrah, Shami and Ishant on the body of Harbhajan Singh.
India vs England 2nd Test – Sydney, Gabba, Lords and mental strength
And if you are looking for more recent references to the India vs England 2nd Test conjury, trace your minds to Australia. In the space of a year India have pulled off three historic Test performances. And in a time the world has been its most sinister, unforgiving and merciless.
As the celebrations pour out accompanying a seriously generous helping of emotions, it must be remembered that these men have been playing cricket, moving from one bubble to another. They have been pulling off miracles – one after another to the extent that it has become commonplace – living out of hotel rooms and having the monotony of four walls as best friends.
We might often forget the psychological impact playing cricket through a global pandemic has. It is unquantifiable and hence easy to ignore. However, in this thoroughly testing time pushing existence into question and reducing human life to a mere statistic, one must spare a moment and admire the mental fortitude of these cricketers. And when things do not go according to plan and the victories are not as easy to come, we must remember these good times and be a little kinder to our players.
India vs England 2nd Test – heroes are common men
Because, just like us, the cricketers are people of flesh and blood. They are common men. Only just very good at their day jobs. Sometimes so good that in the very last hour of the last day of a gruelling battle of attrition they manage to find, mine and discover a non-existent devil; place it in the mind of the opposition and trigger an unforgettable moment in our otherwise regular lives. Consequently, secure a place in the annals of cricketing folklore.
It was also fitting that Siraj dealt the definitive blows. This is a man who has seen the absolute nadir of life – his helpless face, looking desolately upwards as his spirit found no brethren in a packed stadium in IPL 2019 to losing his father while being stranded in another land, locked by quarantine and cornered by the rancid debris of racial slur in 2020; and from there to winning Test matches in Australia and England while looking up to the skies in longing gratitude – he is now at the absolute zenith of his career. A heart-touching story of resilience and human triumph.
Similar is the story of Mohammed Shami. This is a man who induced 273 false shots in England in 2018 and was on the receiving end of a 4-1 drubbing. He broke his arm in Australia, struck by a bouncer as he watched on unable to walk out to extend India’s embarrassing 36-9 innings in Adelaide. And it was him, who extended India’s unwinnable situation to a victorious eventuality courtesy of 52 runs in the face of jeopardy.
Then there is Jasprit Bumrah. A recipient of immense social media scrutiny as the unforgiving and unrelenting self-set standards were eating into personal space of both, human being and elite athlete. He hung around with Shami and scored an unbeaten 30 with the bat. And then came back with just above 10 overs to go and pulled out a slower ball with nothing happening from the pitch to break Ollie Robinson’s resistance.
It was fire against fire at the home of cricket one day after the 74th Indian Independence Day. It was resistance battling resistance in the India vs England 2nd Test and eventually the resurgence of the Indian common men outdid their British counterparts.
There is no need to overestimate a sporting victory as anything other than what it is, but this victory is very special because our sport – like any other – means very little without context. And this one really meant a lot.
From a record-breaking 7 medals at the Tokyo Olympics and a National Anthem with Gold around the neck of Neeraj Chopra to Siraj scooting off after castling the most decorated fast bowler in the history of the game, it has been a special month for Indian sport. May this live on long in the memories!
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Arinjay Ghosh
(77 Articles Published)