Thoughts from India's win at Lord's: Doomed Shaz, Super Waz, heroic India

Most of you will remember well a rather childish cricketing show called “The Shaz and Waz Show”, in which two tall and handsome former cricketers – one an all-time great, one a very good player – used to talk relative nonsense with good looking young women. Well, it was revived at Lord’s – on the second evening, Wasim Akram – still tall and handsome – spoke with great passion about the need for Test fast-bowlers to bowl with fire and commitment, and when they pitch the ball short, it should rear up into the ribs or at the head, and make the batsman play a shot. And what happened on the fifth day? Ishant Sharma did just that, and made history… [caption id=“attachment_1629439” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] The Lord’s win was special. Reuters[/caption] And then – at tea on the fourth day – Ravi Shastri, also still tall and handsome, spoke with a gentleman called Srinivasan, who just happens not be allowed to run Indian cricket, but is running world cricket. If ever Shastri – a man of poise and intelligence – looked nervous and out of sorts, it was in this talk – and why not – it was stilted, pre-planned, and full of such false preaching about transparency and the good of cricket, that even to watch it was more painful that facing Ishant at his best – and yet Ravi Shastri, who has sold his cricketing soul – and it was a fine soul – to the devil, was left with no choice but to play the game – alas… Shaz and Waz – one doomed – and the other still bowling verbal bouncers – this is world cricket today. But what a match!!! – what a match. From day one – it was a match to remember – can you imagine what would have happened if the English quicks had bowled as Waz wanted them to on day one… but they did not. And they bowled to what is supposed to be our weakness – and we just let the ball go its harmless offside way, and the Test was ours. Bhuvneshwar, Rahane, Vijay, Jadeja, Sharma – good, solid Indian names, and they emerged as heroes – now, when Kohli and Dhawan click in the next three Tests, watch out. Dhoni – can we now forgive him for now winning an overseas Test for so long? Of course not. Any other captain would have been dropped long, long ago. Can we praise him for winning this one? Yes, up to a point because at lunch on Day 5… rather, until one ball before lunch on Day 5 – it looked as if another overseas win was going to elude us but then Dhoni asked Sharma to bowl short and with fire, and the match was ours. And what a joy to see Ganguly, Dravid and Kapil ringing the famous Lord’s bell – and to see Kapil and Rahul together on the outfield, remembering there famous victories in England of ’86 and ’07. Dhoni has another three Tests – yes, another three – to prove himself truly worthy of being mentioned in the same breath as Dravid and Kapil, not to mention Ganguly, who led us so famously and well in England in ’02. Now, can we finally see the beauty of a five-Test series? England can fight back – and will – and a player like Binny — who must not be dropped – can again be given a chance to play as he did in the first Test. and both teams will have the scope to soar and sigh – that is what Test cricket is all about—that is what life is all about. And Jadeja and Anderson shook hands at the end – now let us forget all that nonsense, and play on…