Inside out | Shardul-Washington turn the tide as Adelaide mayhem now a forgotten past

“There couldn’t have been any better hour of play to establish the story of the India team on this tour of Australia.” These were the words of commentator Harsha Bhogle as he was opening the in-match analysis show during the Tea of the third day of the fourth and final Test at the Gabba.

Truer words could not have been spoken about the partnership of Shardul Thakur and Washington Sundar which was just beginning to flourish before the tea interval and none could have elucidated it better than Harsha Bhogle having seen all the things going against India on overseas tours one after another. 

It was only the grit and never say die attitude of the Indian team that has carried them to this series-decider Test at the Gabba. On the third day, popularised more as the 'Moving Day' in a five-day game, it looked like the tourists were finally falling short despite their immense mental toughness for the majority of the day’s play. Main batsmen had already failed in the morning session while the other two priming ones in Rishabh Pant and Mayank Agarwal went off the field after throwing their wickets away in manners they would not be pleased to remember in their career.

When the pair of Washington and Shardul arrived at the crease, Australians were cock-a-hoop as their main nemesis who had threatened to take the game away from them in the last game was dismissed before the 25-run mark. India were 183 runs behind, and the hosts could see a sniff to bat with a big lead in the pocket.

Before Sundar could walk on to the park to face the fiery pace attack of Australia, he had already defied many odds in his two-day long Test career, but the third day threw another challenge at him. Now, he had to ratify the call taken by the team management in playing him over Kuldeep Yadav, who in the views of fans and experts could offer more wicket-taking options to the team.

In the T20 series at the start of this tour, he was ridiculed by Mark Waugh and Shane Warne as the legendary pair had refused to call him a spinner for his inability to sharply turn the ball and rather suggested he should be termed as a ‘slower bowler.’ 

On the first day of his career, he was also criticised for bowling negative lines around the middle and leg stump but nothing deterred him as the maiden wicket of Steve Smith was good enough to prove his credentials. Following the second day, India were facing an uphill task after a big partnership between Tim Paine and Cameron Green, and Washington miraculously turned the ball away from Green’s bat to hit the stumps and left the right-hander bamboozled.

With the bat in hand, he could not hear any of the apprehensions about his place in the team as he had enough bowlers to offer him some nasty chin music. He showed the composure of a batsman and exhibited the rare trait of watching the ball till it came near to him. He never played any shot in a rush and looked like a proper batsman who trusted his process.

On the other hand, Shardul Thakur had started his innings with a bang as he swivelled to dispatch Australia’s number one bowler over the fence. The hook shot looked instinctive but a fuller ball from Cummins was sent straight back past the bowler in a real sign of his high calibre with the bat.

After landing some hard punches at the start of his innings, Shardul settled down and never looked like a bowler who was forcefully sent out to bat. It looked like he belonged to the level. There was no dearth of quality strokes as he developed his innings into a sublime one that will be unforgettable for both its context and the manner in which he started taking the game into the Australian camp. Mitchell Starc was once again guilty of being wayward, but Shardul Thakur showed the quality of a vintage batsman and pounced on every opportunities to score and earned praise from all including the batting maestro Michael Hussey who saw a shade of Steve Waugh in the way he hit one of his drive that went blazing through the cover region.

Between those strokes that left fans and commentators awestruck, Shardul was equally composed to treat the deliveries on their merit. The back of length deliveries were played off the back foot while teasing deliveries pitched in fuller areas outside his off stump were well left alone.

He has earned a reputation of being a good striker of the ball with lusty cameos in the IPL and limited over the game for India, but today against a raging attack of Cummins and Starc, he was measured in his approach and showed that he possesses the brain of a batsman who could read the length of the balls and also game situations before attempting a shot.

They came together in the 67th over and the new ball was 13 overs from that stage. They showed excellent game awareness to pick Tim Paine’s brain who was reluctant to exhaust his two in-form bowlers before the second new ball and the duo reaped advantage of an inaccurate Mitchell Starc. Albeit Starc measured the full height of Washington's throat when he was new, the left armer was too full in following deliveries while Sundar showed his readiness with the bat and half volleys were not left unutilised.

In the process, both of them completed their maiden fifties while forging the highest wicket partnership for the seventh wicket at the Gabba for the Indian team. The run rate during the phase of their batting was higher than 3 runs per over but it never looked like the duo had to break a sweat and risk their wicket in search of runs. They showed immaculate precision in hitting gaps while being patient enough for half volleys to arrive which they duly dealt with absolute disdain in their sublime innings.

The partnership that lasted 216 balls yielded frustrations and agonies for the Australian team. Once again Tim Paine was made to look like a helpless captain albeit having the quality of perpetually reliable Cummins, Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon along with the erratic genius of Mitchell Starc. In a way, the partnership also epitomised the efforts by India and their recovery trail after the humiliation at the Adelaide Oval to a situation today when they looked like a side who have left their dismays way back in the series.

The Indian dressing room resembles more to a hospital ward where a majority of its heroes are down with severe injuries but there is something in the setup that keeps son throwing heroes every game. After the horrible humiliation at the Adelaide Oval, Indian have batted more than 100 overs in each of the complete four innings and it establishes nothing but ‘resilience’, a word that has now become a cliche for this Indian team in this tour which has been exhausting for them on all accounts.

Indians were in desperate search of heroes with the ball and in came two bowlers who were deemed good enough only to help the batsmen in the net session to halt Australia’s surge at their fortress, while when the things started spiralling out of control and all looked doomed and gloomy for the Indian batting unit, came again the pair of Washington and Shardul to repudiate the utter dominance of the home team.

There are two days left in this match and although all three results are still possible, the weather forecast suggests more than 50 per cent chance of precipitation in Brisbane over the next two days of the Test match can provide India with an escape route to bring back the Border Gavaskar Trophy. The partnership left has Australia to make tough choices on whether they want to go on overdrive with the bat in pursuit of a series-deciding win, or they play safely to draw out the series. The hosts have been caught in a catch-22 situation and it will aks tough questions from the Australian team management with the forecast of bad weather around.

Two days is a very long enough time to throw many surprises if one looks at the events that have taken place in the series so far, but the partnership of Shardul and Washington has kept India in the game amid all the barrage of heat and ferocity from Australian bowlers and that’s what ‘resilience’ is all about.

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