Inside out | Rohit, Rahul and a surreal Indian dominance in England

As soon as Virat Kohli lost another toss on an overcast day at Lord’s, there would have been a sense of ‘here we go again’ among Indian fans. After all, the disaster of the 2018 Test at the same venue would not have been forgotten. 

However, the ‘new India’ as Virat Kohli takes pride in saying were up to the task and made sure they did not let the history repeat itself. In that Lord’s Test, James Anderson had ripped open the Indian batting order from the very first over, but that moment came way too late for the good of Indians.

There have been two schools of thought on what should be the right approach to batting under such challenging circumstances, and one of them argues that batsmen should make use of the opportunity to score runs as an unplayable delivery will always be around the corner. 

The Indian batting group could have well opted for that tactic given the plenty of shots in their openers—KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma’s armoury. Needless to say, the move would have been fraught with serious risk of losing the game in the first session itself and they rather chose to weather the storm.

Rahul and Rohit have been paired at the top of the order by unfortunate circumstances but none of them has looked like batting out of their comfort zone even when they have been living their lives in pure denial.

On the risk of over comparison, It would be worth going back to the 2018 Lord’s Test where India were down and out by the end of the eighth over losing their first three due to the swing of Anderson and the chaos it brought with itself. 

In a completely different scenario, both Rahul and Rohit did not offer anything but dead bats to the balls but only after they threatened their pads or the stumps. Such was their sense of denial that India could muster only eight runs from the first eight overs with no four. There was only one scoring shot and it came in the form of defence by Rohit towards mid-on.

They were not only resilient in their mindset to see off both the new ball and early spell from Anderson and Ollie Robinson, they could also be sensing that England’s third and fourth seamer in Mark Wood and Sam Curran would not ask them such repetitive tough questions.

India got their first boundary in the 13th over when Curran allowed Rohit to whip him off his legs and the first hour of the day that appeared to be a humongous task at the start was won comprehensively by the pair of Rohit and Rahul.

Both Rahul and Rohit batted with the attitude of a champion and they limited themselves in waiting for their opposition to go to their lesser strengths. After all, Root could not have bowled Anderson to the ground in the very first session. 

As soon as Curran came into the attack, Rohit nullified his attempt to swing by batting well outside his crease. Curran was treated mercilessly with four boundaries in one over where the left-armer went searching the swing from the fuller ball on leg stump to outside off.

While Rohit started to come to his own, Rahul kept on his composure and did not go with the flow, except for a mighty six off Moeen Ali. England offered opportunities to drive outside off stump but he did not take one bait till Rohit Sharma was at the crease.

Rohit could not score what could have been his first overseas century but his 83 meant that India had won the first bout of the battle in challenging conditions against Anderson and co. He was bowled by a jaffa that seamed in to sneak through between his pad and bat but the wicket was more of a desperate result than usual affair on the first day.

The opening partnership of 126 runs was India’s first 100-run partnership in SENA countries since the Centurion Test against South Africa in 2010. The duo was on their way to score that partnership in the first game before Rohit Sharma had hooked Robinson at the stroke of lunch on the second day at Trent Bridge.

Rohit has time and again reiterated that the hook shot is a productive one for him and that he will never disown his go-to shot in tough conditions. The evidence of his confidence was right there as he engaged himself into a riveting duel with Wood, who was bowling great guns in excess of 90 mph. 

He could have been out hooking the ball once more like the first attempt of breaking the shackle produced just a top-edge. However, an undeterred Rohit produced a gem of a pull shot by thumping Wood in front of the square to establish his dominance on the proceedings of the day.

As soon as Rohit departed, Rahul took the baton of keeping the scoreboard going on his shoulders. India were rocked again with the wicket of Cheteshwar Pujara but the calmness of Rahul was not lost one bit.

He stitched yet another hundred run partnership with the skipper, Virat Kohli to put India in a commanding position. He was beaten on multiple occasions but he never played the previous delivery. Rohit was set up by Anderson by a handful of away going deliveries before one sneaked through his defence, but Rahul was watchful and did not bat with any baggage of even previous delivery.

He had missed out on a deserving century in Nottingham after Anderson finally weighed him down in the game of patience outside the off stump. There was no repetition of mistakes and he kept his game simple to reach an iconic hundred to earn a reckoning on the Lord’s Honours Board.

They have had the answer to everything that England threw at them and it was quite a moment to cherish for Indian fans who have been dealt heartily blows by the feeble batting over the last three Test series in England.