By the time Suryakumar Yadav put on the afterburners towards the back-end of India’s innings, a mood of merriment had swept the dugout. Head coach Rahul Dravid and batting coach Vikram Rathour were grinning over something they had spotted on the field. Maybe, they were soaking in the joy of the agony their charges had piled on Australia’s bowlers. Centurions Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill were giggling away, perhaps reminiscing the good times they had in the middle.
It seemed one of those days, one of those grounds, one of those bowling attacks, where they just strode onto the middle and played their strokes, which flowed from their bats like an unstoppable torrent. Of the seven Indian batsmen who came out in Indore, two compiled hundreds, two others racked up half-centuries, three wielded a strike rate of 160-plus; only one, the grossly unfortunate Ruturaj Gaikwad, undid by the lone semi-unplayable ball of the game, scored at less than a strike rate of 100. In the unceasing barrage of boundaries, 31 fours and 18 sixes were struck, Cameron Green ended up leaking 103 runs. He drew a sigh of relief, as he fell just 10 runs short of being the most expensive bowler in this format. India posted 399, the target was reduced to 317 in 33 overs, but Australia were so deflated that they folded up for 217 runs, handing out India a facile series win.
But none of the numbers, convey the sheer fury India’s batsmen, sans Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli notably, turned on. Or the pure intimidation they brandished, or the deafening volume of hostility they whacked up. So much so that you could see the outlines of a halo thickening around this pack of batsmen. It was a 399-run impression of immovable forces, of the collective damage they could inflict, of cutting edges as sharp as Damascus Sword.
Infuriatingly deep and layered were skills on exhibition. Gill was both silk and sledgehammer, fiddling the violin and pounding the drums. He would essay the most languid of cover-drives, then step out and slaughter the medium-pacers down the ground. Some of them, like the left-handed Spencer Johnson, nudged 140 kph, but he made them look like 120 kph trundlers. He had an excess of both time and space; both skill and will. His fifth hundred of the year, it was arguably the smoothest too, when he ruthlessly preyed on a dazed bowling attack— it should be said that one of Australia’s pacers was a debutant; the rest second-string; the pitch was expressway-flat. But even then, this was the most remorseless dismembering of an international bowling attack in recent times.
Through much of his innings, though, he was locked in a race to milestones with Iyer. Unlike Gill, Iyer had not yet sealed his spot in the final eleven after returning from an injury-induced layoff. Two previous outings had yielded him 17 runs, and with Yadav and Ishan Kishan in rampage mode, he had to re-stake his claims. But this knock was not so much about stating his case as it was about nailing his spot. The ecstatic celebrations when he reached his hundred —mid-20s Virat Kohli like in enthusiasm — showed what this knock meant to him.
Aggressive intent
A sense of anger raged throughout his knock — it could be a larger metaphor that fits India’s innings as a whole. This was an Indian batting unit that wanted to blare out its aggression and ambition. There was something calmly savage about both Iyer and India. Just the third ball of the innings, he threw his hands at a full and wide ball from Johnson, flaying it over cover. Two balls later, he flicked a leg-stump ball through mid-wicket with a wicked whip of his wrists. These two strokes conveyed his mood, and in no time, he blurred to 32 off 17 balls. A period of patient accumulation followed, though by this time Gill was frictionlessly shifting through the gears. That was perhaps the only phase when Australia did not feel the collective brunt of their batting.
But the period of lull — relative sedateness — would soon make way for a storm of boundaries. Gill jinked out of the ground and smoked Johnson flat over his head to ring in his half-century with a six. He pillaged Adam Zampa for a six and four off successive balls to ratchet up the tempo, before swinging Matthew Short for another six in the next over. India were not even halfway through their quota of overs, and the total was already hurtling towards 200. In the 30th over, Iyer secured his comeback-to-form hundred; three overs later Gill too would reach the milestone. Both would soon depart, but Australia’s day would only turn horrible.
Their 200-run stands lent the middle order the liberty to wreak havoc on Australia’s numb and stung bowlers. Ishan Kishan slogged and swiped with his usual carefreeness; KL Rahul crunched some humongous sixes. One of them, a pull, dismantled a solar panel on the roof. But Rahul’s 51 and Kishan’s 31 were all consigned to forgetfulness by Yadav’s unbeaten 72 off 37 balls. This was more like the Yadav of T20Is, the uninhibited stroke-player whose canvas could be as surreal as other-worldly. Among the six blows that soared over the rope there was also a flirtation with the fabled six sixes in an over. He struck four off the first four balls of Cameron Green’s 45th over, but could manage only a single off the sixth.
Whereas Yadav had demonstrated his versatility with a watchful knock in Mohali, it’s for the Indore-like carnages that he is being persisted with in this format, despite meagre returns. He was in full flow, flicking, whipping, scooping, slicing and piercing every inconceivable gap in the field.
Together, they instilled dread among Australia’s bowlers, a mood that was in stark contrast to that in India’s dressing room, that of merriment.
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