THERE could not be a more emphatic outcome than the victory India’s cricket team has scored in the second Test at Chennai against the visiting England team that came with a brilliant track-record of in the past few outings. The win in the second Test match put India team’s confidence in itself back on top once again. The team has restored its psychological buoyancy that it lost in the first Test at the same venue a few days earlier. When the team travels to Ahmedabad for the third day--night pink ball Test, it will be enjoy a pep in the step.

 

Looking at the manner in which the Indians played in the second Test, one tends to believe that whatever happened in the first Test was just an aberration. That was also the impression the Indian team had given when it managed to defeat Australia in Australia 2-1 after making a terribly bad show in the first Test. Let us hope that this -- failing in the first outing and then building back subsequently -- does not become a pattern. In the second Test, everything went India’s way -- good batting, good bowling, and good team-work.

 

The new comer Axar Patel, too, did very well for himself and positioned himself in the permanent reckoning. Rohit Sharma, too, found his touch and built a massive innings -- which is good news. Quite many players established their reliability in all circumstances -- such as Rishabh Pant. Captain Virat Kohli, too, found his form and made a smart and very useful score to build India’s second innings total. But the second Test belonged undoubtedly to Ravichandran Ashwin who played like a man possessed taking as many as 8 wickets in two innings and scoring his fifth Test hundred on the home ground. Ashwin’s prowess was, however, felt not just in numbers but also in his physical and psychological presence on the ground.

 

The second Test was his moment, and he knew it from the start. His overall conduct on the field was nothing but a classic example of a cricketer of the old mould. For Captain Joe Root’s England team, the second Test proved to be a terrible let down. Right from start, the visitors behaved like a disorganised bunch, their usual flourish having deserted them. The most important achievement for India was that it could puncture the air of superiority the Englishmen was trying to demonstrate even through their body-language. The third Test will be a trial for both the teams, though. It will test both teams’ endurance and skill under altogether different conditions.