India’s incredible performance at home Tests under Virat Kohli’s captaincy
By the time Virat Kohli took over the Test captaincy in 2014-15, the Indian team was in tatters with a pretty poor record to show. Even at home, they lost a Test series a couple of years ago in the hands of England. Kohli had to wait for a while to taste his first success which was a series win in Sri Lanka which was a first for India in more than two decades. Soon after the away series win, India broke South Africa’s dominance during overseas tours by dishing out rank-turners at home.
The strategy seemed to be a typical Indian mindset of bullying the opposition with spin but didn’t give a picture of what was coming in the future. By 2016, the pacers seemed to have got a decent place in the Indian Test team. At one point, the senior bowler Ishant Sharma even didn’t have the place in the XI as the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav outdid the Delhi pacer.
The incredible home season
During the 2016-17 long home season, India played as many as 13 Test matches on Indian soil but only once the ball turned square – vs Australia in Pune. Incidentally, it was India’s lone defeat in that home season and also the last Test loss at home. Post the 2014-15 Australian tour, India had played a lot of matches at home in Test cricket and only toured Sri Lanka, West Indies and Bangladesh until the end of 2017.
Also read: Kings at home – India’s incredible home Test domination
This meant Kohli’s real challenge was the overseas cycle beginning from the South African tour at the start of 2018. The bowlers did their part by bowling the Proteas out in all the three Test matches even though they won only one game. The success of Indian pacers continued in the tours of England and Australia resulting in India’s maiden Test series win down under. Even at home, the pace bowlers began to be significantly important in the Indian line-up.
#OnThisDay last year, India completed a 3-0 whitewash over South Africa, registering a record 11th consecutive Test series victory ?
India’s win by an innings and 202 runs in the third Test is their biggest over ?? in the format ? pic.twitter.com/4G9Pi5sQnT
— ICC (@ICC) October 22, 2020
During their maiden D/N Test at Eden Gardens, all 20 wickets were picked by the pacers only. Given the way Indian pacers have performed in the recent past, they can be considered to be the best of all pace attacks. Their success in the coming years could decide how many overseas series India could end up winning.
