Plagued by diminishing returns in recent years, today’s Wankhede Test is the top order’s last chance to find form before the mother of all series in Oz later this month
Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Rishabh Pant
Forty-five years ago, in the first week of November 1979, India under Sunil Gavaskar were primed to win the country’s first-ever series against Australia since 1947-48. The venue of the historic series win was the same Wankhede Stadium, where India face New Zealand today, in an effort to duck the ignominy of enduring the country’s first-ever home whitewash across three Tests.
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In the first innings of that 1979 Test, India amassed 458-8 declared. Gavaskar scored a hundred. So did Syed Kirmani as a nightwatchman while opener Chetan Chauhan got 73 and Karsan Ghavri smashed a 99-ball 86. That was enough for Kapil Dev & Co to dismiss Australia twice and win by an innings and 100 runs.
Can Rohit & Co dish out a similar result? Going by ability, yes. Going by form, probably not. But then, tigers are most dangerous when cornered. None of the senior batters have got to three figures with due respect to Pant’s 99 in Bangalore.
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Not only are the senior batters short of runs, they also need to improve their averages of the last three years (as highlighted in the adjoining graphic) to a point of them matching their overall impressive averages.
‘Go big in Mumbai’ could probably be the war cry ahead of the battle of Oz. Over to Wankhede.
Graphic/Yogesh Jain
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