My Wager With Ajay!

As published in #TablaSingapore on January 11, 2019

I want to tell you a story, about a wager, between a very dear friend Ajay and me.

Ajay had introduced me to a group of like-minded cricket fanatics in Bengaluru, all of whom had one thing in common, their love for cricket and the Indian team.

You could find every type of Indian cricket fan in this group. From the never-say-die faithful to the India-will-never-win cynic. But all celebrated every India win and hurt every time the team lost. 

It was just before the 2007-08 India-Australia series in Australia. Most hoped India would win, but Ajay was certain. He always was. I disagreed and even offered him a 10-year window for India to win a series Down Under. The bet was on.

It became the mainstay of the banter between us, especially every time India travelled to Australia thereafter.

The series under the leadership of Anil Kumble was lost 2-1 and remembered mostly for the monkey-gate scandal that nearly saw the tour being called off. 

In 2011-12, one just knew a series win wouldn’t happen. As a last hurray sounded for Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and V.V.S. Laxman, it was an ageing Indian side and it got creamed by the Australians 4-0.

I asked Ajay if he would like an extension of our wager for another 10 years. He declined. He remained confident it would happen the next time.

In 2014, it looked very promising with a new-look Indian side and the legendary M.S. Dhoni leading them. But defeats in the first two Tests put paid to those hopes very quickly. It stayed 2-0 till the end for the Australians. 

Last Monday was a difficult day for me. I usually start writing my article on Sunday, but in this case I just had to wait one more day. I wanted to see history being made. I was desperately looking forward to losing the one wager I never wanted to win in the first place.

Ten more wickets is what India needed. Australia would not get the required 300-odd runs they were trailing by. The Indians had a stranglehold on them. It was not about whether but about when.

Rain cast a wet blanket by denying the Indians the satisfaction of what would have been a 3-1 series win. 

For the Australians, the rain offered some respite, a break from the onslaught this Indian juggernaut had unleashed on them: 2-1 does not sound as bad as 3-1.

Many have pointed out that the Australians did not have their two best batsmen in the side. But then I could give 72 ifs and buts on why India should have won a series earlier.

We could start the debate from 1947, but that would be trivialising what is a huge moment in the history of Indian cricket.

To understand the magnitude of India’s series win, one needs to know that India first visited Australia in 1947. Since then teams from Asia have played 98 Tests, of which the Asians have won 11 and the Australians 66.

This was the 12th tour to Australia for the Indians in a total of 31 done by all Asian teams, under 29 different captains. Only eight of those captains know what it feels to win a Test in Australia.

Finally, after 72 years, the team led by Virat Kohli became the first Indian or Asian team to win a series in Australia.

Kohli was very philosophical at the press meet. India had been competitive in South Africa and England recently but did not have the results to show for it. 

In Australia, there was a horrible sense of deja vu when India were 41-4 on day one of the series. But that is where things also turned around. The Phoenix finally rose from the ashes.

Kohli talked about the work they had put in to build a world-class pace attack, how much this win meant to him and the mantra “team first” that the whole team embraced. He does seem to have a true vision for the Indian team especially in Test cricket.

Coach Ravi Shastri, on the other hand, seemed to be on the top of his game, firing no blanks, shooting only tracer bullets.

This has been a series of many firsts. Never before has an Australian batsman failed to score a century in any Test series of at least four matches. Their poor batting form reflected in the fact that it was the first time they were made to follow on in a home Test since 1988.

Rishabh Pant became the first Asian wicketkeeper-batsman to score a Test hundred in Australia.

But to me the most pleasing first was Kohli not being the highest scorer in an away series for India since becoming captain. Not because one does not want to see Kohli do well, but because it was high time the rest of the batting unit stood up.

I would, however, have liked to see the Man of the Series award shared by Cheteshwar Pujara and Jasprit Bumrah. If Pujara was the glue that held the Indian batting together, Bumrah was the detonator that caused the Australian batting line-up to implode time and time again. It was given only to Pujara.

This year is going to be busy for the Indian team and their fans. It is going to involve a lot of white-ball cricket. Three one-dayers against Australia, starting in Sydney tomorrow, followed by five ODIs and three T20 matches in New Zealand.

Australia will then travel to India at the end of February to play five ODIs and two T20s, probably the last international games the Indian team will see before the World Cup starts in England in May.

It is only wise that Bumrah has been rested. He will be India’s premier fast bowler in the coming months and those batteries need to recharge. It will allow the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar to get much needed match practice. 

Pant is missing from the Australia ODIs, but the chairman of selectors M.S.K. Prasad made it clear that he remains an integral part of India’s World Cup plans.

Throw in the Indian Premier League and Indian fans will be watching non-stop cricket for the next seven months.

I never really finished my story of the wager with Ajay. That is because I never really got a chance to pay up.

On Jan 11, 2016, my friend passed away in the most bizarre of accidents. 

I always imagine how he would have bellowed with laughter, collected the money from me and ordered drinks for us with it.

If he were still around, I would have tempted him to another wager – that India will not win the World Cup this year. He, being the quintessential Indian fan, would have taken me on in a heartbeat. Of course, we would both want that I lose again!