MUMBAI: “It’s the last dance, we’ve come to the last dance; they’re dimming the lights down, they’re hoping we’ll go.” No, we are not eulogising Frank Sinatra here. We are dimming the lights, closing our eyes, and wondering whether it is indeed “the last dance” for four Indian stalwarts, at least on home soil, in the whites.
Virat Kohli, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Rohit Sharma have all played their part in making India almost unbeatable at home, till the humble and hard-working Kiwis punctured that aura on Saturday in Pune. Come November 1, as fans walk through Churchgate’s D Road and queue up through the turnstiles at the Wankhede, they would do well to turn up in numbers to acknowledge the contributions of this quartet.
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The next home Test series is only in October 2025 when the West Indies come calling, and given the form and fitness and age of all four of them — Ashwin is 38, Rohit 37, Kohli will be 36 in a week and Jadeja turns 36 in December — one wonders if all four will still be around by then.
India have played 55 Tests at home since England beat them 2-1 in the winter of 2012, with the hosts winning a staggering 42 of them and losing just six. Of those 55, this foursome has played in 22 Tests, featuring in 17 wins. Two of the Tests were drawn while three ended in losses. Ironically, all three losses have come under Rohit’s captaincy.
The series loss to New Zealand doesn’t seem like a train-wreck. For some time, Ashwin, Jadeja, Kuldeep or Axar Patel have doubled up as useful lower-order batters, which has masked the failures of the top order. Examples: in Bengaluru vs Sri Lanka, 2022; in Kanpur vs New Zealand 2021; in Chattogram and Mirpur vs Bangladesh, 2022; in Delhi vs Australia in 2023; in Ranchi vs England, 2024.
Virat Kohli averages 28.3 vs spin in Asia since 2020. The two dismissals in Pune to Mitch Santner suggested that he had a problem perceiving length. Since the start of this decade, Kohli has played 33 Tests and has scored just 1833 runs at an average of 32.73. Five ducks and eight single digit scores in that period makes for grim reading. His once illustrious colleagues in the batting order, who too were part of a golden home run, Cheteshwar Pujara and Ajinkya Rahane, have averaged 32.7 and 32.9 since 2020.
The team management chose to move on from them. Rohit Sharma averages 36.2 vs spin in Asia and has seemingly discarded the qualities that made him such a dependable Test batter, especially on that 2021 tour of England where he wasn’t averse to batting time. Now, his game is all about charging at the bowler, which has often seen him losing shape or getting turned around against seam, like it happened against Tim Southee.
Since India got knocked out of the T20 World Cup in Adelaide vs England in 2022 and Rohit stressed on batting with intent, he has carried that kamikaze attitude into the Test format too. Of the 32 times he has batted in Tests post Adelaide, he has faced 50 balls or more only 12 times. And when the captain bats in such cavalier fashion, it often compels others to adopt that approach even if it does not suit their game.
Ashwin had a forgettable Test in Bengaluru, despite getting more turn than the Kiwi spinners, but he missed his lengths with alarming consistency, allowing Rachin Ravindra and Southee to attack him. Ashwin is yet to miss a home Test since his debut, a remarkable feat considering how much workload he has had to endure. His spells against Australia in the 2017 Border Gavaskar Trophy, while battling sports hernia, are etched in memory, but that was an Ashwin who was seven and a half years younger.
Opposition teams are now finding run-scoring against Ashwin easier. The ease with which he was swept and reverse swept would rankle him and his supporters. His career economy rate is 2.83 after 104 Tests, which is surreal. But this year, Bangladesh scored at 3.31 against him. England, adopting Bazball, scored at 4.12, while New Zealand scored at 3.89. When attacked, he has usually bowled faster and flatter, which is a deviation from the champion offie’s style and strength.
Ravindra Jadeja’s best spell of the series came on the third day of the Pune Test where he took a cue from Santner and bowled slower and was rewarded. He too has picked up injuries more regularly lately. Of the 55 home Tests since 2013, he has played in 47 of them and missed just eight, six of them post 2021. And with a growing interest in politics and racehorses, one wonders how much longer one will see him toil away.
Jadeja’s strength was his nagging accuracy. A bowling average of 20.85 with a combination of a strikerate of 51.3 and an economy rate of 2.43 in those 47 Tests is a freakish testament to that. But this year, at home, he has gone for 3.30. Bangladesh scored at 3.27 against him, England at 3.24, while New Zealand have prospered scoring at 3.44. He has been cut more regularly this year and every time he has responded with a dart at almost 95 kmph.
At their pomp, a long on and long off or deep point was a laughable idea. That Rohit Sharma employed them early on in their spells, was an acknowledgement from the skipper that his spin twins’ powers are probably on the wane. Fifteen minutes into session two of Day One of the second Test in Pune, as Rachin Ravindra and Devon Conway were milking Ashwin and Jadeja, Rishabh Pant yelled into the stump mike, “Chalo bhaiyon, body language uthana padega.”
For ears that were used to hearing “bowled, Ash” or “bowled, Jaddu bhai,”, it was a harsh reality check.