At Rajasthan Royals, Yashasvi Jaiswal would spend so much time with his teammate and England captain Joe Root that they would start calling him ‘Joeswal’. Akash Deep, when at RCB, would relentlessly stalk his team’s main pacer, the Aussie star Josh Hazlewood for advice. Nitish Reddy would ask his captain at SRH, Aussie stalwart Pat Cummins, the secret of getting wickets in England. Delhi Capitals this year had Kevin Pietersen as the team mentor. Kuldeep Yadav didn’t let the opportunity go to waste. He got a lowdown on every English batsman he was to bowl to with the red-ball in the coming months.
Reports about the impending death of Test cricket and the alleged disinterest of present-day players were highly exaggerated. The sights and sounds around the present series come with the refreshing realisation that the present generation retains the willingness to learn and the drive to excel at the game’s toughest format.
Watching Jaiswal and the Indian captain Shubman Gill train at nets – be it optional or compulsory – gives an idea about their commitment to Tests. Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj and Akash Deep, conscious of their workload, try and save their best for the Tests.
Or take the example of left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep, he hasn’t played so far in the series but at every session, he is among the last to leave. At the start of this week, it was clear that he wasn’t going to play the Lord’s Test – the pitch was said to favour the pacers and most of the winning combination was to be retained. There was no way Kuldeep would have replaced the spinner who can bat – Washington Sundar – in the playing XI but he continued to log maximum training hours. As those close to him say, “He knows he will get a game at some point and he wants to be ready for it.” Credit has to be given where it’s due – this is a new-look team but it has old values. Test cricket for them is as valued as it was to past cricketers. Only thing now is that the longest format has been devalued by those who run the game.
All-format players like Kuldeep are juggling their time to balance their white and red ball performances. He says that even during the IPL, he would carry a red ball and train with it. With KP around, the man who knows English conditions like the back of his hand, the spinner would jot down notes – ‘what to bowl to whom’. “We went through each batsman, one by one,” Kuldeep would say.
It is not what the players who are proclaiming their mindfulness about Tests during the IPL say, even others are endorsing their commitment. Kumar Sangakkara is the boss at Rajasthan Royals, and has seen Jaiswal evolve. The franchise has had a big role in his development. But not more than the efforts put in by Jaiswal himself.
All-format players like Kuldeep are juggling their time to balance their white and red ball performances. (BCCI)
“We had Root at Rajasthan Royals and we used to call Jaiswal, Joeswal, because he never left Joe’s side soaking up everything. And they weren’t talking just T20, they were talking about everything cricket and life, and he would sit right next to Joe for about 4 hours every night and just pester him with questions or was just wide-mouthed listening to Root,” the Sri Lankan legend would tell Sky Sports. “Root was absolutely brilliant in our environment and he’s learned so much and that’s another aspect of Jaiswal, he’s a fast learner and he wants to learn.”
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‘Fast learners’ of the fast world
The ‘fast learner’ is something common to most cricketers in the Test team. The two pacers Akash Deep and Reddy wanted expert opinions about their bowling. Not having played too many Tests, the boy from Bihar wanted to know what it takes to get wickets with the red ball. Hazlewood didn’t complicate matters for the raw Indian Test pacer. “Stick to your strength and wait for the batsmen to commit a mistake” – was the simple mantra.
That’s what has worked for a generation of Aussie greats. At the time of his retirement the great Glenm McGrath was asked about the secret of his success and he said “all one has to do is aim at the top of off-stump,” all the time. McGrath would add that he would often tell this to young pacers and they would not take it seriously thinking that the advice was way too rudimentary.
Akash Deep didn’t think so and it worked for him. Reddy too did the same since Cummins also had a generic sounding tip to bowl in England. “In England, it is all about understanding the conditions. You need to figure out the conditions in warm-up games and repeat the same in the main game,” – Cummins had said. At Lord’s, when Reddy got to bowl with the semi new-ball, he kept it up and moved the ball just that tiny bit. That’s what worked in England historically. It did again.
There was a time when players were counselled to play the county circuit to do well abroad. That’s advice that still works. But what about those who are busy with IPL, earning a living and like everybody aspiring to have a better life? What county was then, IPL is now. The world and its wisdom has come to India and players aren’t turning their back to the knowledge available at arm’s length. You can lead a horse to the water but can’t make it drink. Here the water has come to the IPL and players are drinking to their heart’s content.
