On October 19, Chennai Super King, with the last chance they had in the Indian Premier League season, failed and MS Dhoni walked out to the post-match presentation against Rajasthan Royals and uttered the word that sent the entire Twittersphere into an immediate meltdown.
Not ‘process’, not ‘we were not up to the mark’ and all that stuff that preceded in the previous presentation ceremonies. CSK were thoroughly beaten and they had no response and out came, MS Dhoni talking about “spark” in youngsters, a comment that now put in words makes complete sense.
“You don’t want to chop and change. Insecurity is something you don’t want to prevail in the dressing room. Also the youngsters, we didn’t see the spark to push the guys,” Dhoni told Star Sports after CSK’s defeat against Rajasthan Royals.
When the Indian team were preparing for the five-match T20I series against England, something similar struck Virat Kohli. He wasn’t electrocuted but his approach in T20Is suddenly became the voltage point of discussion. Until then, India were a top T20I side, filled with superstars but the show was never a blockbuster. And in reality, it never could become one.
The show had so many naive elements, which really made it partly worrying and wholesomely boring. India would never put out a blockbuster performance, uh-uh, until Sunday, March 14, when they handed out debuts to Mumbai Indians thorough-bred match-winners, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan. While the stars seemingly gazed at the skies, it was the thunder which took over the precedence.
India’s approach in T20Is was branded as boring, monotonous and often anchor-ish, with four out of their top four being anchors, who, at all points in their career, were never short of runs. But what they were short of, though, was energy, strike-rates and plenty of thunderous bolts. So when India brought out their X-factor batsman Ishan Kishan and opened the innings, the shock from the thunderstorm left the English team stunned and paralysed.
An out and out, last of its kind from the 20th generation kid, Kishan had not just married runs with aggression but had done it effortlessly and in a jiffy, where his runs often would come out before you realise. When Shikhar Dhawan was dismissed for a 12-ball four, none hoped anything would change, at least this dramatically in the span of two days. India learnt their lessons, match-winners were required and not anchors, accumulators.
In the first T20I, they were out-batted, out-witted and out-lasted by the English team, which all pointed in the direction of change. Change is the only constant, in a format especially where every new day brings something new. Change is, in fact, the only inevitable constant. Elsewhere, in England, there was Jason Roy – a man perennially until then was troubled by spinners. What did he do? Step out, broke the fear and bent it around with his reverse-sweeps, it didn’t work a hell lot but it did so enough to put the bowlers in fear.
