| Published on 02-08-2007 In Sports | | Viewed 1693 times | | Spicy Indians travel well these days |
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| Written by
R. Mohan | 
There is a bit more iron to the soul these days. Not long ago, Indian teams used to get homesick the moment aircraft wheels touched the tarmac in another country. They were, perhaps, quicker than Steve Harmison in getting to suffer this strange psychological condition that went well beyond the logic of home and away cricket.
Geoff Boycott's sardonic wit used to liken Indian teams to wine that is said to never travel well; a place in its own cellar being where it was at its best. Things have changed somewhat. The definitive moment of the transformation in the most modern era came on Pakistan soil in 2004 when the Indians shed their travel inhibitions.
Consider the record: Between 1986 when India beat England 2-0 - that too at a time of turmoil in the England camp in which David Gower was shunted aside from the helm to accommodate Mike Gatting and Ian Botham's possession of the recreational drug cannabis was used as a warning to all users - and 2004 in Pakistan, India won a Test series 1-0 in Sri Lanka, which victory too was a solitary away win in close to 20 years, if Zimbabwe and Bangladesh are disregarded.
The rhetoric of revival and revolution was heard each time Team India was to venture abroad for Test cricket. Once on foreign soil, old habits returned with the first Test of a series inevitably lost before the batsmen could settle down to the bounce and pace. All talk of India's batting strengths, as opposed to its bowling weaknesses, would seem a figment of everyone's imagination.
If there is one person who we could ascribe the transformation to, it would have to be Sourav Ganguly. He brought an attitude to Indian cricket teams traveling abroad that Pataudi may have inspired in diffident teammates back in the 1960s when a sweeping inferiority complex used to be the norm. There had been assertive captains before him, but they were themselves so transfixed by their need to perform as batsmen that they could never be gung-ho in an inspirational way.
Not that India won a great deal of series since 2003 when the first signs of an ability to stand up to Australia were spotted again, nearly 17 years after Kapil Dev's men dominated the Aussies down under without winning a Test in a series which they should have won 2-0. But, at least now, Indian teams were beginning to prove harder to knock down than ever before.
A Test was won in the Caribbean before the series was lost 1-2, in 2002. A spectacular comeback performance saw India draw level 1-1 at Headingley, which had put out the most English of conditions after India bravely chose to bat first. Indian teams with great faith in its batting abilities would feel so cowed down by the very thought of touring that quite the wrong decision would be taken at the toss – for instance, Azharuddin's huge blunder in opting to bowl at Lord's in 1990.
If Ganguly was the one who brought out the attitudinal change, there is one batsman who has been by and large single handedly responsible for sustaining this newfound ability to assert the talent at wielding the willow – Rahul Dravid. Whether he was also captaining the team, as he did in Adelaide, or not, Dravid stood at the crease much like an immovable force to lead many a memorable resistance.
While the soubriquet 'The Wall' may be a bit hackneyed, the fact remained that Dravid was very much the Colossus even amidst a batting lineup featuring the redoubtable Sachin Tendulkar. At Leeds, Adelaide and Rawalpindi, Dravid was the rock around which Indian batting flourished to the extent of making three massive Test wins possible, even if only one of them was instrumental in shaping an away series win.
Only in the last five years has India managed to win so many Tests abroad – in the Caribbean, England, Australia and Pakistan, besides matches and series against the minnows Zimbabwe and Bangladesh. Had India not managed to beat the West Indies in the Caribbean last season, it would have invited the scorn of the cognoscenti because all and sundry were beating the West Indies on their home soil.
Flashes of brilliance from the stylist Laxman who thrives on Australian bowling like none else, the adventurous Sehwag who could have ensured a series win had he gone on to 200 and beyond at Melborune and who soon made amends in his triple century in Multan and the workmanlike Tendulkar who shone in Sydney made fantastic viewing. What the sum total of the individual efforts symbolized was an increasing willingness to accept touring as a professional hazard.
The face of the Indian professional cricketer had changed. He was now an international sporting personality who did not need the mollycoddling of home, with butlers and bearers serving them lunch and tea and porters and volunteers carrying their bags and kits from lobby to bus, coach to ground and so on. He was a tougher creature, well aware now that history would judge him otherwise.
The litmus test of a Test team lies in its performances abroad, away from the cosseting familiarity of home conditions and comforts. This is more so for an Indian team because the disparity, in cricketing terms, is the greatest from the dead or designer spin pitches of home to the true surfaces offering pace and bounce in most other places, including Pakistan.
Without the bowlers, Test wins don't come anywhere, not even at home. Those most prominent in the more memorable away wins of the last half a decade have been Anil Kumble, Zaheer Khan, Laxmipathy Balaji, Irfan Pathan, Harbhajan Singh, Ajit Agarkar and Sreesanth. The subtle shift in the thrust of the combination has been towards pace, with spinners coming into their own later in the game, and the rise of the general efficiency and penetration levels of India's pace bowlers has also been responsible for this paradigm shift in India's Test cricket.
Till about the turn of the Millennium the Aussies used to say "we rate Tendulkar", as if to suggest that India was Sachin plus 10 others. That has changed, too, and for the better, since reliance on one player has never been the recommended route to cricket success.
Also, the transition from him to Ganguly, brought on without doubt by his selfless abdication, certainly helped India move on to where we are now.
The Little Master is still around, as peppy as ever, and Team India would have to expand on its paradigm shift in order to win more away series because it won't be long before the seasoned men of the celebrated batting order who all made centuries in the Leeds win will be contemplating a life beyond the cricket boundary. India may seem a little weak in the bowling department in England but that is adequately compensated by a steely resolve seen even on tours these days.
The image has changed from that of a timid lot mentally inured to laying down their wickets to the fast bowlers of faraway lands. Nowadays, the Indian cricketer stands up to compete. The retreating back foot is a long forgotten Indian batting technique. The spice-loving palate can roll on the cold cuts, too, and that has made a huge difference to Indian touring teams. No more jokes about missing the entire Indian innings due to a visit to the toilet. There was a time when only Indian spices traveled very well to distant shores. Spicy Indians are good travelers on the cricket routes now. |
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