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Showing posts with label Kuldeep Yadav. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kuldeep Yadav. Show all posts
The People's Republic of Rishabh Pant.
But skipper, you need to put yourself first for a change
It’s not easy. It’s easy. It’s not easy. It’s easy. It’s not easy...
Is that what it’s like being Rishabh Pant, the captain of Delhi Capitals? To win one match, to lose the next one, to then win one, only to lose the next one. Again, and yet again.
You know how the season started. It wasn’t easy. Most of your gun overseas players were not available. While those who were, didn’t quite turn up.
Yet you started the season with a win against Mumbai Indians. But then you saw, that was the least you could’ve done as a team. If DC’s mega auction saw its strengths of the previous seasons dissipate one by one, MI lost it in style at the table. This seemed far more obvious on the ground.
Yet there have been far more positives for DC, the biggest: Kuldeep Yadav. And your role in backing him has been downright exceptional.
Moving beyond picking him for DC, looking for R Ashwin’s replacement, someone to partner Axar Patel, and regardless of whatever good that happened in the DC backrooms - the bonhomie between Kuldeep and you has been beautiful. The hugs, brotherhood, and love after each wicket, that has reignited the legend of Kulcha.
Beyond the wickets and wins, whether Chahal’s or Kuldeep’s, is the Kulcha love. Indian cricket’s love for these spinning brothers was rolled out in style. Above that, was Chahal’s love and regard for Kuldeep and vice versa. When Kuldeep struck on the field, Chahal struck on Twitter. It was spontaneous. It was stunning. It was a brotherhood of man.
No wonder Kuldeep thanked Chahal, calling him an elder brother, who backed him through his toughest hour. DC often won because of Kuldeep. When he had bite, DC chewed and spat out oppositions.
For most of the tournament, Kuldeep’s wickets were second to only Chahal’s. As his skipper and wicketkeeper, you were masterly. You were all in. Backer. Friend. It was obvious, Kuldeep celebrated each wicket with you, as if it was as much yours as his. This was a great IPL story unfolding right there, and you were its enforcer.
Later, whether you underbowled Kuldeep, whether the wickets dried up, all that paled. You had toasted the season with the emancipation of Kuldeep Yadav. When he said, he didn’t fear being hit, that he wanted Chahal to win the purple cap, that was the spirit of sport. Soaring so high it was breathtaking. That spirit-of-cricket award should just be called Kulcha.
Beyond being Rishabh Pant, you are The People’s Republic of Rishabh Pant.
The camaraderie between Ponting and you. It’s obvious to even the untrained eye, that this is more than coach-captain. Between you and Axar, Warner and you. You and Khaleel. Of course Kuldeep and you. Shaw and you. Shaw and Ponting. These are all extensions of DC’s love mesh. As a captain, this is your greatest achievement.
As I will never tire of saying, how can you not love Rishabh Pant. And I hope you, Rishabh, never lose sight of that, of yourself, of your greatest strength, as a human being.
One of your great gifts is the disarming honesty with which you speak. It may not always be palatable. It may even seem tactless. But this is your core. What makes you-you, to your team, your coach, yourself. And the many roles that you must inhabit.
Prithvi Shaw’s unavailability over the last few games, the repeated Covid-19 outbreaks in the DC camp, being locked up in rooms repeatedly, being unable to train, then turn up and behave like everything is hunky-dory, maybe possible for a less expressive man; not you.
The oft-used phrase for MSD and you is: ‘The master and the apprentice’. Yet when you reacted to a borderline waist-high full toss call, asking your boys to walk off; not too dissimilar to what MS had asked of his players; you were pulled up, fined your entire match fees. Not quite the case with MS, who went scot-free.
***
But what about your season? Where are you with the bat? Has everything off the field gotten to you, or have you performed in spite of it?
After the defeat to CSK, you are not in the top 20 scorers, you are 21st. This is from 10 innings with one not-out. Your batting average and strike-rate may be higher than some above you, but what about your impact? A highest of 44, strike-rate of 152.71, averaging 31.22, a tally of 281 runs, acceptable if you are a finisher – but as a top-order bat?
Your IPL numbers are not too unlike Sanju Samson’s. Like you, he’s a wicketkeeper captain. He’s batted one more innings, scored 321 runs, averaging 32.1, striking 155.82. He is top-order too. He has two 50s though, a highest of 55. Neither of you have kicked on though.
Then there is MS Dhoni, sometimes player, sometimes captain. A floater in the batting order, though more a lower order finisher now: 10 innings, 5 not outs, 163 runs, averaging 32.60, striking at 139.31. And one 50 not out to boot.
Wriddhiman Saha joined the IPL race a tad late but in 6 innings, opening, he has 209 runs, averaging 34.83, striking at 130.
Two spaces below you is the toast of the IPL – Dinesh Karthik. No longer captain, new franchise, wicketkeeper, finisher. 274 runs, 8 not-outs from 12 innings, a highest of 66* (higher than both you and Samson’s top score), a batting average of 68.5 compounded by the not-outs, and a strike rate of 200.
The race for wicketkeeper-batters for the World Cup is on, it’s between Samson, Karthik and you, at best, two will make the squad. But before that, who knows, all there could get a shot in the pre-World Cup matches.
In the previous two seasons, you had taken on damage control mode with Shreyas Iyer, batting deep with a conservative strike rate. This season started similarly, yet somewhere something clicked. You started to play with freedom.
DC’s continuous search for openers has broken whatever momentum Warner-Shaw built together. You have a minimum of three matches left this season. With Shaw’s unavailability, Warner and you are DC’s only top-order bats with striking form.
It’s up to you, what impact you want to bring in the powerplay. Coming in after two early wickets, and going full throttle with a thin middle order, is not letting you break free for long.
The only way you can make a cameo into something substantial is by either opening or moving up to three. And breaking the game in the powerplay with Warner. Anything else is more out of hope and restraint.
And that isn’t quite you.
Go Rishabh, fly away on top. Add to that solitary IPL century from four years ago.
First published here
This happened.
This happened. You were alive. And even if you were dead inside, you came alive again. You will not be able to make sense of how it happened, don’t try to. But it happened. Please say it with me again – This happened. Today cannot take away what happened yesterday. It happened.
What today, yesterday, day before, the days before that, the weeks before, a month before, nothing could stop it. It fucking happened.
This was life affirming for many Indians. It was for me. It was for you too, if you’re still reading.
You may have a new favourite Indian cricketer after this series – someone whose game speaks to you. He may even be Prithvi Shaw. You may be the only guy who believes in him. That would be cool. Because if you believe in Shaw, you believe in the impossible, you believe in this team.
You believe that in spite of everything, he will make a comeback. Wasn’t that what this win was about – a comeback?
Believing in Pant and Pujara and Gill is a convenience today. But it is not believing in the ridiculous that this team is about.
Believe in Kuleep Yadav who did not get a game but was part of the squad. That will be something.
Believing in a player when he is down, when his game is down, when he isn’t picked, is believing in the team.
Somewhere that sneaked into this bunch, didn’t it?
That even though, they weren’t first choice, they weren’t an afterthought either. Each guy knew that.
This was desi rap, this was Apna time ayega, and when it ayega, I will hold on to it so tight, that it doesn’t jayega anywhere.
This is that dude’s show whose soundtrack on autopilot is I’m too sexy for your Gabba, kahan lega?
This is Rishabh Pant’s score. Rishabh Pant happened. He was meant to, because all that could have stopped him from happening did not. Catches went down, the stumping went down. The Aussie captain went down. He played one down the ground, Australia went down.
It did not happen that fast. Before that Cheteshwar Pujara happened. Match after match, he happened with Pant. Unlikely as it was, it did. There was an invisible glue that forged a bond between the two, again and again – it was Dravid-Sehwag all over again. It was no mercy, it was Dylan, it was every word about the cricket that sounded like an off-beat folk song. But it endured all these days, and it might just have won the cricket Noble.
“But he himself was broken, long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom like a stone”
The sky did not open. Pujara was unbroken. Long after he appeared broken. He fell. He was not felled. He was almost morbid in his coming together and being whole and taking strike again.
It happened.
Beyond the giants, here’s to India’s team of ants
On 18th
September, Khaleel Ahmed made his ODI debut for India. Ten days later, he was
smiling goofily with the Asia Cup. A Cup that refused to let go of the 20 year
old. The most enduring image of this tournament will be a beaming Khaleel with
the Asia Cup all to himself. Thrilled,
alone, gripping on to a trophy like it was some wicked tickling mechanism.
Khaleel did
not play in the finals. But he did in two games, bowling his full quota, with
four wickets to show for his smiles. In
these two games, he was part of a win and a tie. When Ravindra Jadeja was the
last man out against Afghanistan, Khaleel was not out on one. His partnership
with Jadeja lasted six balls – it took India from 245 to 252, from a defeat to
a tie.
In his
excitement, as the Indian team came together for the Asia Cup champions photograph,
a mirthful Khaleel even indicated something to a dour Ravi Shastri. Why didn’t
someone just go and interview him? Khaleel, not Shastri.
The Asia
Cup needed a signature, one that was beyond runs, wickets, sweat, temperature,
something to lighten the rigours of this last ball victory. Out of nowhere,
closing in on 2 am IST, there he was, the cup-magnet. Our very own silent
movie.
One that
started with Bumrah being rested for the Hong Kong game. Enter Khaleel.
Defending India’s 285, bowling his fifth over in his second spell; Hong Kong
175/1 with more than a sniff – Khaleel traps Nizakat Khan lbw for 92. End of
game. (While Shardul Thakur’s four overs went for 41, Bhuvi’s nine went for 51;
Khaleel’s 10 went for 48; 3wickets too.)
In
Khaleel’s second match against Afghanistan, both Bumrah and Bhuvi were rested.
This was two days before the finals. Khaleel’s opening partner, Deepak Chahar
went for 37 off 4, and the other seamer, Siddarth Kaul, 58 off his 9. Khaleel
bowled his 10 for 45, with a maiden and the wicket of Nabi on song. After
Nabi’s wicket, Afghanistan added just 8 off the last 2.3 overs. Near perfect. As
was Khaleel’s one run. In a tied match, that’s more than enough, right?
Khaleel
Ahmed bowled with pace and smarts. While the other seamers were way below par,
he held his own; and India did not regret the rest to either Bumrah or Bhuvi.
Who knows, that break might well have been the difference; that relief camp of
one more rest day, before going into the tight final.
Jadeja came
in after Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel went out with injury. He batted twice in
the Asia Cup; in the tied match and in the finals. Those two tricky chases will
stay with us in sepia. The stop-start-halt-go-won-lost bends; and at its
mind-bending best, Jadeja seemed to be there. Even though he wasn’t there at
the end, he ensured somehow, it wasn’t a bitter end.
He smiled
with hilarity right in the midst of the madness of the finals. It wasn’t as if
he was mocking Bangladesh or himself, he was chilling. It was the deepest of
breaths, that wears even better with the face breaking into a shiny happy
people song like smile. It’s not the end of the world kind of resigned smile.
The kind of smile that disarms a nervous partner, a jittery viewer; that
conveys, it’s a game. That all those years of work can’t be wrong. That losing
here will not make them wrong.
Something
for every player and fan to know, learn; to try and unlearn the load, the
guilt, the hatred, towards players, towards teams.
And so
Jadeja smiled just like that. A smile that broke through his Tagore beard. It
was almost learned. It knew. Even if we don’t win this, by now we have enough
experience to tie it. Who knows, maybe that’s what he joked with Bhuvi.
Ten runs
shy of Bangladesh, Jadeja fell. He knew it, the umpire didn’t, the keeper did,
the reviewer did. Three against one are damning odds. A smile-less Jadeja
walked off. Another 20-something knock in what would be Dhoni-time. Had MS been
picking him all these years in CSK for this?
You just
believe in certain players. In that slide, that stop, that look, that aim, that
throw, that run out. It’s what takes 120/0 to 139/4, to 222 all out.
To the
difference between winners and what could have been?
But at the very
end, on the last ball of the Asia Cup, the two batsmen standing, one more than
the other; saw India cross that blurred, white line. So far, both had done far
more with the ball. Kedar Jadhav bowled in five out of six games but had to bat
only thrice. Two of his six wickets came in the finals – the first broke
Bangladesh’s 120 run opening stand. The second, Mushfiqur Rahim’s, confirmed
the collapse at hand.
Kuldeep’s
10 wickets, 3/45 in the finals, bowling at the death, added life to India’s
chances – none more than match-maker Liton Das’ in the 41st over. Of
Bangladesh’s 188 then, Das alone made 121.
Later,
Jadhav’s 23 and Kuldeep’s 5, sealed the game. KP ran into them as they returned
from that winning run. In comparison to a towering KP, both looked like likeable
little Hobbits. Jadhav as Frodo Baggins, Kuldeep his accomplice, Sam Gamjee. And
to think, they pulled this all off in the Ring of Fire.
Beyond
Khaleel, Jadeja, Kedar, Kuldeep; there’s one more, not in the playing XI, but
one who’s remembered for the wrong reasons; the most ridiculed Indian cricketer
ever perhaps; and now coach.
While
everything cricket is debatable, it’s a good time to congratulate Ravi
Shastri on the win.
He’s much
more than a meme. And in his own way, we
must believe, he has the best interests of Indian cricket at heart.
So what if
it doesn’t always seem that way.
(Ravi
Shastri was at the crease of the tied Test with Australia. Like Jadeja versus
Afghanistan, he too was batting at No. 7. That day too, the last wicket was of
a left arm spinner – Maninder Singh. Also on the second last ball in the over.
Also in the third week of September, 32 years apart)
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