QUICK COMMENT: India 2.0, Bangladesh 0; Rohit Sharma led team’s ‘Bazball X2’ approach snatches win from jaws of draw

India’s batters merely strung the fastest, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 in 127 years of Test cricket. A scale of scoring that even the Caribbean marauders, Australian raiders or Bazball cavaliers could not achieve.

Kanpur: India’s Yashasvi Jaiswal plays a shot on the fifth day of the second test cricket match between India and Bangladesh, at the Green Park stadium, in Kanpur, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2024. (PTI Photo/Vijay Verma)

A match, rudely broken by rain and an archaic drainage system, was won with a session and a half to spare. India’s seven-wicket hammering of Bangladesh in Kanpur was a triumph of devastating imagination, of the sheer intrepidity to dream an impossible dream. Two days plus two sessions were washed away, most teams would have resigned to the inevitability of a draw. It was a victory of conviction in methods, the self-belief that the group of individuals that comprise the team has the necessary virtues to fashion a win out of the game. The intense aggression to sustain a T20-like run rate against a bowling attack that had put them through misery last week, the confidence of bowlers to pluck 17 wickets on a flat deck.

Most significantly, it was an unabashed statement of ruthless execution. For all the talent and tactical acumen, executing is the hardest part. India’s batters merely strung the fastest, 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250 in 127 years of Test cricket. A scale of scoring that even the Caribbean marauders, Australian raiders or Bazball cavaliers could not achieve. The bowlers claimed those 17 wickets in 86.2 overs.

History would perhaps bookmark this moment as the one India acquired a halo. Some would scoff, that this was Bangladesh after all but this was the team that humbled Pakistan just last month and also the one that had reduced India to 96 for four in Chennai. Whoever the opponents be, to sustain a tempo of 8.22 for 35 overs in a Test match is a shuddering feat. It’s Bazball X 2. India turning into a deus ex machina. The onslaught established the wondrous dexterity of India’s batsmen, their sweeping range to size up the situations and bat accordingly.

Such an approach devastates the opponent. Bangladesh crumbled in the second innings not only to the wiles of Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and the sting of Jasprit Bumrah, but to their own crushed morale. With their all-condition, all-situation virtuosos, India are a force at home. No flood or fire could stop them.

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