London, July 25:
England captain
Nasser HussaThe Indians were faced with a predicament in the
morning — the composition of the team. Nothing new. After
intense debate it was decided to go into the Test with three
seamers and two spinners, with Anil Kumble being preferred to
Harbhajan Singh. India struck gold in the opening overs of the
match with Zaheer Khan having Michael Vaughan trapped for a
duck.
Though Ashish Nehra was
lacking in control and discipline, Zaheer lived up to his
potential and as the Test crawled towards lunch and beyond,
England were three down for 78.
But the signs of an
England revival were already there. If Nehra seemed off target,
Ajit Agarkar was no better. Kumble appeared the only other
bowler, apart from Zaheer, to put the blossoming partnership for
the fourth wicket between Nasser Hussain and John Crawley under
some sort of threat. But not for too long.
Slowly and steadily,
the pair settled down and later found enough encouragement from
the unresponsive wicket and the struggling bowlers to not only
stabilise the English innings, but also take them to a score of
healthy proportions.
Hussain, the guiding
force behind English cricket, both literally and figuratively
speaking, was at his defensive best during his unbeaten hundred,
but at his aggressive best whenever the opportunity arose. If
Kumble appeared running out of ideas in the post afternoon
session, it was because Hussain decided to use his feet and
attack the spinner.
With Kumble rendered
ineffective, what choice did Sourav Ganguly have? Not much.
Nehra pitched too up or too short and was regularly punished.
Zaheer tried his best but looked innocuous after his two
wickets.
Agarkar, who always
seems to get into the Test side on the strength of his fine
bowling in the one-dayers, disappointed again.
After watching him bowl
his very first over, many heads in the press box and many more
in the stadium shook their heads and wondered why Harbhajan
Singh was left out.
Well, the Indians had
many reasons to offer for preferring Agarkar to Harbhajan. One,
the morning was grey - the sun and the clouds played
hide-and-seek throughout the day. Two, Harbhajan has failed to
deliver outside India whenever given a chance. On pure logic,
one can't fault this line of reasoning. But failure on the field
always leads to a post-mortem, not always favourable to the
decision- makers.
After watching even
Kumble turn a few deliveries, Ganguly, a vocal supporter of
Harbhajan's skill, might have missed the services of the
off-spinner.
On hindsight, this
isn't the first time India have gone wrong in their choice of
bowlers. It won't be the last either, till they find a genuine
all-rounder who can help accommodate an extra bowler at a
batsman's expense.
Finally, Ganguly had to
fall back upon Sehwag's untested skills as an off-spinner to
break the fourth-wicket partnership of 145 between Hussain and
Crawley. Not that the ball with which he got Crawley out did
anything alarming, but nevertheless, it was a wicket that
strengthened the reasoning of those who would have wanted
Harbhajan to play.
At this moment, India
had a chance to get back into the game. But Alec Stewart stood
his ground well and Hussain was at his obdurate best till
stumps. Though the second new ball and an almost complete cloud
cover did pose a few problems to both, the pair survived.
What should give India
hope is the sluggish rate at which England scored and the easy
nature of the wicket. Also, India can draw strength from the
fact that the English bowling attack is not at its best.
The pitch could take
turn in the second part of the Test, especially if the sun
shines on the wicket. Unfortunately for India, they would be
batting last. But before they reach that stage, they have a
couple of testing days ahead.
