A thought experiment: Would the result of the current series be different if the teams had switched captains? Would England be ahead if Virat Kohli were their captain, leaving India to play catch-up under Alastair Cook?
Man-to-man, there seems to be little to choose between the teams.
England have the better medium pacers, but it is the Indians who have been more effective. India have the better spinners. Both teams have impressive all rounders, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali and R. Ashwin.
India have struggled with injury to the openers while England have impressed with Cook and the young Haseeb Hameed.
In fact, of the top eight batsman (by aggregate) for the year, five are Englishmen with Jonny Bairstow (1355 runs), Joe Root and Cook taking up the first three slots.
At No. 4 is Virat Kohli with 965 runs, but he has played five Tests fewer. Among bowlers, Ashwin leads with 59 wickets while Stuart Broad, James Andersen and Chris Woakes are in the top eight. Bairstow is statistically, the leading wicketkeeper, Root and Cook among the best three catchers.
In the ICC Rankings, two Indians and two Englishmen are in the Top 10 among batsmen and the same number in the bowlers’ Top 10.
Superiority
The descent into statistics was to erase any notions of India’s ‘obvious’ superiority based on figures alone.
Yet, the visitors are clearly struggling. This despite the fact that India have not prepared wickets to suit their own bowlers. Nor has the toss assumed a disproportionate importance.
At Mohali, India lost the toss but won the Test. “It is good to lay these clichés to rest,” a former player said.
In 2011, India travelled to England as the No. 1 team in the world, and lost the series 0-4, finishing without a single victory in any format. At least one former England captain has said that he expects England (currently No. 2 in the rankings) to lose 0-4 here, a judgement gleefully endorsed by the Indian fan.
And so back to the original question. Would England have done better under Kohli, attacked more, pushed harder and applied greater pressure? It has helped that the Indian captain has 12 wins from 20 Tests and is unbeaten at home. He is in top form personally, his bowlers have delivered, and everything he has touched has turned into gold. Importantly, he has made things happen, been proactive rather than sat back and waited for things to happen.
Kohli has changed the culture of the Indian team, bringing to it an aggression and self-confidence the more impressive for being understated. It might be a generational thing too, with the National team merely reflecting the attitude of the upwardly mobile youth from Delhi to Davangere.
Cook, the gentlemanly, non-confrontational captain has changed the recent culture of the England team too, leading it in the opposite direction, away from the excessive aggression that marred the dressing room atmosphere, as publicly articulated by Kevin Pietersen.
Cook, who played a major role in England’s series win on the previous tour is already England’s most experienced captain, and is probably looking ahead to the next Ashes series (all England captains are looking ahead to the next Ashes series whatever the year). He has received a resounding endorsement from his deputy, Joe Root, which is unusual and testimony to the respect and admiration he inspires.
The irony is that the conscious efforts made by the respective captains might be influencing the results. England need to be tougher and more cussed, especially at the batting crease, if they hope to upset India’s plans.
India’s cricketing aggression is hardly surprising given the temperament of their captain, and that of their coach Anil Kumble, who is a tough competitor and fully conscious that you can be aggressive without being a boor.
The obvious inference — that decency has no place on a sports field — is not the right one. In our thought experiment, I can see Cook leading this Indian team successfully thanks as much to his attitude as to the fact that Indians generally accept authority figures and respond to them positively.
Kohli might find it difficult to lead this England side for the opposite reason.
Yet for all that, I can’t help feeling that the scoreline might have been different at this stage in the series had the teams switched captains. The essential difference between them is demonstrated by their response to a challenge.
In Adelaide, where he first led, Kohli chased a fourth-innings total of 364 and brought the team within 48 runs of victory after leading the charge himself. Safety was never an option, nor a defeat the end of the world. In contrast, Cook chose safety first at Rajkot in the current series. Had he taken a Kohli-like approach then, the story might be different now.
Visiting captains hate to take a chance in the first Test of a series. But with teams finding it increasingly difficult to dominate away from home, perhaps early risk-taking is the visitors’ responsibility.
