Jaffer and Dravid redeem Team India

By John Cheeran
Both India and England can leave Nagpur behind with some gains, though victory eluded them.
On the last day, Indian captain Rahul Dravid had a design to take on England’s challenge of 367 to win. Obviously Dravid was banking on Virender Sehwag to give the Indian chase the momentum.
Losing Sehwag (0) with Indian score at 1, Dravid and Jaffer had to rework their plans.
They played first and foremost to ensure that India should not lose this match.
Once the primary objective was achieved, taking India to post-Tea session without losing further wickets, skipper Dravid tried for the impossible …victory.
All credit goes to skipper Dravid and opener Jaffer.
They did not flinch against some disciplined and at times aggressive attack and strengthened India’s position to such an extent that they could go for a victory in the last 25 overs.
Had India lost either of them before the final session, the match would have taken a different course altogether.
But this Indian team’s attitude to go for the runs is a break from the tradition.
It is uncharacteristic of Indian captain and coach in the past to do things like this. It really is the Aussie approach to cricket. I can see Greg Chappell’s contribution in pushing Irfan Pathan’s up the batting order after Dravid’s dismissal.
Pathan’s bold hitting was the catalyst the Indian chase was waiting for. Pathan did just that and England was panicking then. England skipper Andrew Flintoff pushed his fielders to the fence to prevent the cascade of runs. That was a signal that England does fear Dravid’s India.
India’s gains despite its inconsistencies in both batting and bowling are a few.
Two of the replacements – Wasim Jaffer and Mohammad Kaif -- have come good in a big way. Their knocks were central to the Indian team’s fortunes in this Test as Sehwag, Laxman and even Tendulkar failed to make much of an impression.
On the bowling front, debutant Sreesanth did not disappoint the team management with his four wickets in the first innings.
But plenty of hard work lies ahead of Team India in Mohali and Mumbai if they are to win this Test series.