The total break from cricket for eight days is pretty unusual in international cricket nowadays considering how compact tours have become in recent times.
Most teams would prefer to play a three-day game, so that the reserves and out-of-form players can get some practice and help themselves to be in the frame for the Tests to follow.
How this longish break affects the two teams will be seen in Nagpur.
A similar break in Australia last year proved costly for the Indians, as they came back and lost the next Test to Australia allowing it to draw level.
The break allowed the players’ families to join them and while it is always a welcome interlude, it does, to a certain extent, take away from the focus and the cohesiveness that a tour party has built up. Touring overseas makes the players bond together a great deal, especially as they are not always familiar with the local customs and culture and language and tend to stick together.
Last year the break not only allowed the Indians to meet up with their families but also discuss the then ensuing tour of Pakistan. Just around that time, there were two unsuccessful attempts made on the life of the president of Pakistan, General Pervez Musharraf and no doubt the families would have been concerned about the safety of the players especially, if it was becoming tough to guard the first citizen of the country.
It was just before the Melbourne Test that reports began to emerge that the players were worried about security and these reports did not help the tourists to keep their focus on the game at hand.
The result was a defeat in spite of beginning the first day well.
Not just the concern about security, but the break had taken away the magnificent intensity that was seen in the Adelaide Test, which had been won through sheer determination and hard work.
The regrouping does take time and it’s harder for a touring side than the home team, whose players in any case go home between Tests.
The Indians did not go different places in that break in Australia, but the Aussies have dispersed to various places in India and some have even gone overseas as if they don’t want to see each other, which does suggest that maybe it is not as cohesive a unit as is usually made out.
In any case, team spirit is a much-abused word and comes to the fore only when a team wins.
Then even if there are dissensions within the team, they are brushed aside under the team-spirit tag and only brought up when the same team loses.
India’s comeback in the Chennai Test was most heartening, for it showed a great desire to ensure that the series is not lost.
Kumble’s bowling on the first day, well supported by Harbhajan, meant that any advantage the Aussies had after winning the toss was neutralized. Then Sehwag’s superb century and the determined efforts of Patel and Kaif meant that India were dictating terms to the winners of the previous Test.
Though Martyn and Gillespie defied the bowling on the fourth morning, the handy lead meant that India had not too many to chase in the final innings.
It was good to see Sehwag carrying on from a century for it was emphasized at the team meeting before the Test that those who get set should make up for those out-of-form and not getting runs.
Viru’s last three centuries have all been 150 plus innings and that is always a good sign for it shows a batsman who is hungry for more and not just satisfied with achieving a personal milestone.
Apart from his batting, he brings great cheer in the dressing room with his unaffected ways and simplicity.
The Australians can sledge him for all its worth, it’s just going to bounce off him and not affect him one bit and he is not going to change his game for all their efforts at unsettling him.
Even the youngsters Patel and Pathan have shown that they are not intimidated by reputation for they know the Aussies seldom practice what they preach.
Having said that, the two Tests have been played in good spirit and the equation between the players is top class.
Adam Gilchrist, captaining the Australian side, should get most of the credit for the way the Australians have carried themselves on and off the field and the change could be seen since Ponting has taken over.
There is a real effort at getting over the ‘ugly Australians’ label, for with the ability and the skills this team possesses they do not need to do anything provocative that will only take away the sheen from their performances.
Perhaps the Australians have realized that they may be world champs and while there are no friends on the cricket field there is no need to create enmity either.
The invincible West Indies’ side of the 1970s to 1990s were world-beaters with their brand of cricket and also hugely popular with everybody for the way they behaved on the field. There was nary an harsh word said about them except by battered and bruised opposing batsmen and their hapless bowling teammates.
It is this that the Aussies would do well to follow.
As the former Indian Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee said to Ganguly and the Indian team on the eve of their departure to Pakistan “khel bhi jeetiye, aur dil bhi”.
Ganguly and his team did just that and may be there is a lesson in it for all touring teams.
