India threw every conventional Test match batting manual out of the window to pull off a near-impossible win against Bangladesh at Kanpur.
Against England in 1984/85, the crowd at the Eden Gardens booed Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar so much that he opted out of his next Test match at the venue. After winning the toss and opting to bat, India – the Wisden Almanack called it a “perverse decision” – continued until well into the second session of the fourth day while batting at 2.18 an over.
Gavaskar’s delayed declaration had squeezed all life out of the Test match, felt the crowd. A team cannot walk out to bat and force a result in a Test match, they must have felt. One can hardly blame England for not even trying.
When India came out to bat against Bangladesh at Kanpur in 2024, the Test match had reached virtually the same position. Rain and a wet outfield had permitted only 35 overs of cricket in the first two days. India needed another 39.2 overs on either side of lunch on the fourth day to bowl out Bangladesh for 233.
Accounting for the two overs for innings break, only 138 remained in the Test match when India came out to bat. It was virtually impossible for Bangladesh to bowl out India twice. India could shut shop whenever they wanted to and settle for four points. What was more, Bangladesh would never be able to declare their second innings.
Thus, India were the only side that could win the Test from there. Since it was technically a second-day pitch, it would not have been unfair to expect Bangladesh to replicate their first-innings show of 75 overs. That would leave India about 60 overs, give or take, to outscore Bangladesh and win.
In other words, India needed to score more in 60 overs than Bangladesh would in 150. Their bowlers also had to take their 10 second-innings wickets. For that, they needed as much time as possible.
There was only one logical way to go about with the bat – and it did not involve the traditional notion of batters, especially opening batters, giving the first hour to the bowlers.
“When we gathered inside for a small huddle, he [Rohit Sharma] decided we would go hammer and tongs. If, in the bargain, we get bowled out for 200, it’s still okay,” told R Ashwin in the post-match press conference.
“Once they had got 230-odd, we said it was not about the runs we get but it was about the overs we wanted to bowl at them,” corroborated Rohit at the post-match presentations. “It meant we had to try and up the run rate and score as many as possible because the pitch did not have much for the bowlers.”
A role reversal
Throughout the history of cricket, bowlers had attacked while the batters defended. ODIs brought some parity. T20 flipped the roles, shifting the onus of attack to the batters. The shortest format also impacted how teams bat in Test cricket. Yes, the bowlers still attacked, but when needed, the batters hit back with abandon.
This time, however, the Indian batters needed to go beyond the usual. Of course, there was the safer option of taking a big lead and eye an innings win, but that would be leaving the last rites to the bowlers. Since bowling out Bangladesh twice was a necessary condition for a win, it was always more sensible to get that out of the way first.
Yashasvi Jaiswal began with three boundaries in the first over. Rohit rewrote the record books by lofting the first two balls he faced for sixes. Five of the top six Indian batters struck at over a run a ball. Bangladesh were not allowed a single maiden over in 34.4. India set new records by becoming the fastest to 50, 100, 150, 200, and 250. By the time they declared, they were 285-9.
It is not that India are doing this for the first time. At Port of Spain in 2023, India took a lead of 183. Then they came out all guns blazing to declare on 181-2 after 24 overs. Unfortunately, rain denied a result.
At Kanpur, India batted 64 more balls for 104 more runs. They scored at 8.22 – the fastest by any team with a 100-run cut-off – to take a 52-run lead and put Bangladesh in before stumps. Assuming Bangladesh batted another 75 overs, India would still have another 24 to polish off the target.
In the end, Bangladesh crumbled in only 47 overs in the second innings, leaving India to chase 95 in two sessions. Even if they batted for 75 overs at the same rate (3.10), India would need to chase 180 in a session on technically a third-day track. It turned out to be much easier than that.
There are numerous examples of bowling sides enforcing results like this. Two collapses, even one, often turn out to be decisive. As recently as in December 2021, Bangladesh came out to bat in a rain-hit Mirpur Test after Pakistan declared on 300-4 with fewer than five sessions left. Pakistan bowled out Bangladesh twice with minutes to spare.
When batters decide Test matches through high-risk batting, it is often a race against the clock in fourth-innings chases. Sometimes they do it in the third-innings, with an eye on the declaration. It is almost unheard of in the second innings.
Throughout the history of Test cricket, only three sides have scored at more than a run a ball in the second innings of a Test match – and two of them have been against Ireland and Zimbabwe. India amassed their runs at 8.22.
It was not merely the fastest innings. It was a team effort the likes of which Test cricket has never seen. But then, to begin the first innings in the 11th session of the Test match and still win demanded an effort this extreme.
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