INDIA TOUR OF SRI LANKA, 2017

Unremarkably effective, India find their niche

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India have aced the 'boring' processes
India have aced the 'boring' processes © AFP

India have now developed their own style of winning Tests. If West Indies' wins in the 80s were stamped with flamboyance, and Australia's at the start of the century underlined ruthlessness and all-round strength, India's wins seem to stem from playing to their script, over and over again till it becomes boring.

If one had to write a guide on how to win Test matches, especially in the sub-continent, the current India set up would be the perfect author. They've found the perfect marriage of old-school Test cricket with the best of the contemporary. It has the explosiveness and the slow grind in equal measure. It has very little of the unpredictable and more of the routine. The term often used for the process to getting there, by the team itself is 'boring'.

India is far from being a boring team, of course. They have some of the most established players, and have mixed it well with ones who are earmarked to take it forward. They vaunt of some of the most exciting cricketers in the world. And the cricket is as ruthless as can be. But all this has been because they have found the 'boring' route to making it right.

Batting big in the first innings is spoken off with the utmost importance in Test cricket, and India have made a habit out of it. In the last year, they had scores in excess of 400, in their first innings, 11 times. And they have a great mixture of players who can help them 'bat big'. Murali Vijay is the classical Test opener, and is a perfect ally to the attacking KL Rahul. The current back-up pair of Abhinav Mukund and Shikhar Dhawan has the exact traits, too. In Pujara, they have a number three who plays every innings like his life depended on it - a very useful characteristic to have for a player who might have to walk in to bat after the wicket of an opener. Virat Kohli is pure magic on his day, while Ajinkya Rahane is able to alternate between playing the attacking innings or stemming the rot as needed. Then they have their slew of allrounders who are capable of piling on more misery or putting a plug to the one they are in.

Against Sri Lanka in Galle, the way they went about their innings was true to script. Dhawan attacked early and flattened the opposition. Mukund failed, but Pujara gained from Dhawan's aggression and in the shadows, notched up another hundred. Kohli failed, but Rahane cashed in. And the lower order attacked to get India to 600 runs. In the second innings, Dhawan and Pujara failed, but the players who had not done well in the first, came to the party. Kohli slammed his 17th Test hundred, while Mukund made a career-best 81.

Then with the ball, they again stuck to a boring script. There was no need for them to go out of the box at all, even when things weren't really going their way. Their pace bowlers made all the early noise, taking wickets to breach the fort early in the innings, and then the spinners took over. When the wickets didn't fall, they stayed patient and dried up the runs. There was no panicking, no drop in intensity, no change whatsoever. India had their plans to work on, and had the runs to play with. Twice in the innings, the tide turned, somewhat, and Sri Lanka eked out a fightback, but India were able to nip it in the bud. Again, when the spinners couldn't wipe the tail out, Hardik Pandya was able to.

In the second innings, it was another repeat. Shami and Umesh dented the Sri Lankans early with a wicket each, and put India right on top. Then the spinners took over. Even as Dimuth Karunaratne, first with Kusal Mendis and then with Niroshan Dickwella, defied them, India knew they had no reason to worry unduly. As a watcher from the outside, it was almost as if India had sucked out the drama out of the game. They waited for the breakthrough, and once they got it, finished their job with minimum fuss.

"We had to work hard for getting all the wickets that we did. I think the bowlers came up with different plans, persisted with long enough to get those breakthroughs and that's something that always helps at the beginning of a series to get a victory on a surface which is not offering much and that really gives the team the confidence of doing it once more if we get a surface like that," Kohli said after the match.

It's his preferred way of winning things, and that has come from the team understanding what works best for themselves.

"Now I think guys are very comfortable with their skills and how they have to bowl and where they have to bowl and what fields they want. That I think is the biggest change that I see (from Galle 2015). They are more confident in their own abilities because of having performed consistently in the last two years. Plus, they know what they have to do on the pitch to get people out now which is the most important factor.

"Especially in Test matches, if you are not getting wickets, then how to contain runs or how to create opportunities to get wickets. Even batsmen have become smarter now. You don't need to necessarily tell someone how to bat or how to plan an innings. They understand, they prepare themselves really well, so guys have become more professional in the last two years and they understand how Test matches are won. That understanding of the game is something that has come along a long way in the last three years."

With that kind of belief and understanding, it is tough for a team to slither into panic. As long as they do the 'boring' part right, India will be impossible to beat.

There was no need for any intimidation. For a novel field. For a breathtaking catch. Or for a folly. India's process would eventually work. And in Galle it showed. The win may have been unremarkable, but it was only because India carve their wins that way now.

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