When Anshul Kamboj arrived in Manchester early this week to link up with the Indian Test team, there was a sense of optimism. Hope, yes, but also the belief that he was the real deal. That he wouldn’t become a one-Test blunder. That he had a long, promising future ahead of him.
After all, the 24-year-old had stacked up an impressive CV of rave reviews. From Stephen Fleming, his coach at Chennai Super Kings. From R Ashwin, the now-retired off-spinner, India’s second-highest wicket-taker in Tests. And most significantly, from Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the former India captain who isn’t given to singing paeans of praise easily.
Kamboj is strong. He is young – only 24 – but he has a reasonable volume of work in first-class cricket. He is exciting, capable of bowling in the mid-130s, hitting the deck, coming on to the bat faster than it would appear at first sight. A great addition to the Test side, one thought, to back up Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj in the injury-enforced absences of Akash Deep and Arshdeep Singh.
There was little to suggest in the lead-up to the fourth Test that the lad from Haryana did not belong. In his two net sessions at Old Trafford, he ran in briskly, hurried India’s best batters, seemed unaffected by his sudden elevation to a dressing-room that contained, among others, the world’s best bowler. When he received his Test cap from Deep Dasgupta, the India stumper turned commentator, on Wednesday morning, one couldn’t help but marvel at his journey from Karnal to Manchester.
{{/usCountry}}There was little to suggest in the lead-up to the fourth Test that the lad from Haryana did not belong. In his two net sessions at Old Trafford, he ran in briskly, hurried India’s best batters, seemed unaffected by his sudden elevation to a dressing-room that contained, among others, the world’s best bowler. When he received his Test cap from Deep Dasgupta, the India stumper turned commentator, on Wednesday morning, one couldn’t help but marvel at his journey from Karnal to Manchester.
{{/usCountry}}It didn’t take long for the bubble to burst. After India had wended their way to 358 on being put in – Kamboj was out for a duck, perhaps a portent of things to come – he was given the new ball alongside Bumrah, ahead of Siraj. Hmmm, here we go…
The first ball, to the aggressive Ben Duckett, was a gentle, friendly 76 mph offering. Eyebrows were raised in the press box, questioning looks exchanged. ‘Nerves’, we told each other. ‘Let him settle down.’ As if to buttress the point, he produced a nasty next ball that climbed wickedly, pinged the left-handed Duckett on his glove and flew just wide of stand-in keeper Dhruv Jurel, down to fine-leg for four. Who knows what might have happened had it stuck, had Jurel pulled off a screamer.
We do know what actually happened, don’t we? After his first three days in Test cricket, Kamboj has figures of 18-1-89-1, his lone wicket a gift from Duckett, who feathered a short, wide, innocuous delivery to Jurel six short of his hundred. If it was possible, Kamboj’s pace on day three dropped even further – from 128-plus on Thursday to barely above 125. It did little to enhance India’s hard-earned recent reputation as the land of promising quicks, a reputation now in tatters with numerous quicks picking up non-cricketing injuries.
“I wish I could give you that answer (about Kamboj’s lack of pace), because I would have told him then how to bowl quicker,” Morne Morkel, the former South African pacer who is one of India’s assistant coaches, acknowledged with a rueful smile. “He arrived here, he bowled well in the nets, and we went with that. Why were the speeds so low? That is something we're working on. But he was definitely quicker when we saw him in the India ‘A’ games (in England in May-June) and in some of the games back home.”
India aren’t in trouble in the fourth Test merely because of Kamboj – Bumrah and Siraj tasted their first successes in their 24th and 25th overs respectively and offie Washington Sundar, despite four second-innings wickets at Lord’s, wasn’t pressed into service till the 69th over. Head coach Gautam Gambhir, his support group and captain Shubman Gill must offer more convincing explanations surrounding the repeated omission of Kuldeep Yadav. The left-arm wrist-spinner is a novelty in Test cricket and England don’t play wrist-spin well. The Old Trafford pitch is quite dry, all the more reason for Kuldeep to play, but in their desire to bolster batting depth, India have chosen to omit their second most potent bowling weapon. Maybe they will field him at The Oval next week. Maybe by then, the horse would have bolted to another continent.
Being too clever by half is a real thing. India have been that, and more. Many of their left-field calls have worked, such as playing both Nitish Kumar Reddy and Washington in Birmingham. Others haven’t, among them pushing Karun Nair up to No. 3 in the second and third Tests. No prizes for guessing in which category Kamboj’s inclusion, ahead of Prasidh Krishna, falls. Or, for that matter, the pig-headedness when it comes to Kuldeep. A potential third straight series loss is pretty much of India’s own making – on the field, yes, but emphatically off it too.