The Samrah Duo leads to the Lord’s Win.
Even before The Indian Captain declared India’s second innings at the Lord’s, Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah were in for a surprise when they entered the Long Room inside the Lord’s Pavilion at lunch.
The entire Indian Team, led by head coach Ravi Shastri, was at the doorstep, lavishly cheering the pair on for their wonderful unbroken partnership of 89 runs for the ninth wicket partnership.
It was a show of respect from the dressing room to the two tailenders after their unbroken ninth-wicket partnership, which had put India in an unassailable position in the match.
That delightful gesture played a very big role in the two fast bowlers quickly changing and racing back out with even greater vigour to share the new ball and grab some wickets.
Prospective of The Captain
Kohli said later that he actually wanted at a minimum of 55 overs to bowl the England Team out.
That he believed that the Indian Team could knock a team out on their own turf in front of a partisan crowd the reason behind being a bowling attack so sharp, so incisive that it has been compared to some of the best bowling attacks in history.
Shami, Bumrah, and Ishant Sharma allied with the fast, furious and youthful Siraj destroyed every England batter’s confidence with a combination of pace, accuracy, consistency, discipline and an immense presence of mind.
The show starter was Bumrah bowling an intimidating first over to Rory Burns.
The left-hander left the field rattled, which ended in the dying light, when just about half an hour of the play was left, with Siraj gleefully dodging all his teammates to go and pluck the final stump he had just knocked back despite all of Anderson’s best efforts.
Best Victories Of India in 2021
India has now managed two unbelievable wins in 2021 – at the Gabba, Australia in January and now at Lord’s.
The string that connects both victories is the collective effort by the 11 members of the Team.
Captain Kohli agrees that there has been a pattern developing where India is now winning not due to the heroics of one player, but of all 11, which is a positive side for the Indian Team.
While he obviously had special praise in his bag for Shami and Bumrah’s batting efforts, Kohli never thought they would be able to secure a lead this big that it just turned the fate of the match into their favour.
“Unbelievable”. We all knew that we are counting on Rishabh to carry through with the tail and get us extra runs.
We were thinking, ‘Okay, 200 would be great. 175-180, we’ll take that as well to have a crack at them.’ But 280 is something we could not have imagined.
He might polarize opinions, but Kohli, the captain, like the batsman, has always been clear about his aim to play to win.
Now he leads a team in his mind; a fact made clear by Shami when he said none of the bowlers wanted to let the opportunity to win a Test match at Lord’s go to waste.
There was no pace, less of a bounce. But all of them, including Ishant, Bumrah, Siraj and himself, bowled really well.
Their aim was to attack the stumps at all times and make them play because they had a very limited number of overs.
The biggest happiness is that they now have the series lead which is incredible.
11 Players At Their Best
This collective strength of the Team is even helping young players like Siraj to feel like they belong on the biggest stage where they can prove themselves.
Siraj, for example, has now played a big role in two historic overseas victories. From childhood, he used to watch Lord’s, but to play here now and perform and help the country win, he cannot express his happiness, and he will enjoy the same.
Hopefully, Kohli getting it to just another level very soon as a Captain.
Kohli has joined the top echelon of Test captains with only Steve Waugh, Ricky Ponting and Graeme Smith having more Test match wins than the Indian Captain Virat Kohli.
But he still is in work in progress. It is only recently that he has sought out and allowed the likes of Rahane, Rohit, Bumrah, Ishant and Ashwin to help him with the bowling plans.
Rohit was one key sounding board for Rahane in Australia after the departure of Kohli, as well.
His success as an opener has played a huge role in India’s successes, and he has also played as a mentor to young players like Pant and Shubman Gill.
“To win a Test match like that you need character and that’s exactly what everyone showed,” Rohit said after the terrific win at Lord’s.
Rohit added that not just one or two guys, but all 11 came together at different stages, put their hand up and took the responsibility. And that’s a great sign for the Team as a whole.
The Head Coach’s Say on the Win
On Tuesday morning, Shastri put a picture of the entire Indian squad along with the support staff bunched together under the visitors’ honours board at Lord’s.
There was a palpable sense of joy on each and every face in that photograph because everyone in it had contributed to a miraculous victory. A win for the ages
