In a must-win, virtual quarterfinal of the T20 World Cup this March, with the winner guaranteed a shot at England in the last four and the loser destined to take an early flight back wherever, Suryakumar Yadav’s men came through by five wickets in the final over, thanks to a stunning unbeaten 97 by Sanju Samson. We are at Eden Gardens, the theatre of dreams, of hopes and aspirations, of ambition and desire. Except that, on this night, it is all this for India. For West Indies, it was the stuff of nightmare.
Trying to mow the left-arm pacer bowling from round the stumps with the new ball, Hope lost shape as he showed rare faith in power, the ball sneaking through his slog to hit middle-stump. The finish was breathtaking as the power-packed Powell and loose-limbed Holder reeled off five sixes between them. The momentum was with the Caribbeans at the interval – runs on the board in a knockout fixture – but India at home? It was an unstoppable force once Samson found his bearings and the rest batted around him. Indeed, one can only recall one poor stroke from him in all these outings – the agricultural hoick against Arshdeep Singh in the third T20I in Indore when India defended a target with zeal and gusto. Arshdeep, the Player of the Match for his three wickets that tilted the balance India’s way, spoke at the end of the game of the specific ‘plans’ the Indians had for all the batters, including for Hope.
West Indies had posted a competitive 195 for four from their allotment on being put in, riding on a 25-ball 40 by opener Roston Chase, a blazing cameo (27 off 12) by Shimron Hetmyer, and unbeaten 30s by Rovman Powell and Jason Holder, who added 76 in just 35 deliveries. With 70,000 egging them on? One final flourish, one last telling statement, to give West Indies a second bilateral series victory over India in three years (they won 3-2 in August 2023) is not in the realms of the fantastic.
Hope gets a leave of absence from the Test series in Bangladesh starting later this month, which means Saturday is his last international outing in the immediate future. Perhaps slighted that the Indians would believe they had found a chink in his armour, Hope countered in spectacular fashion in Hyderabad on Wednesday when he joined a small band with three or more T20I centuries.
True, his side went down in the high-scoring One-Day International series 1-2, but the skipper had nothing to do with it, following up a century in game two with an unbeaten 162 in the dead rubber in New Chandigarh when West Indies mounted their highest successful run chase in ODI history. One question after another flew at the right-handed opener about his ‘approach’. About his strike-rate. About his inability to force the pace. About the fact that he had scored at less than a run a ball, that he hadn’t made the most of the field restrictions. It wasn’t one query. Or two. Or three. There was a sustained and barely concealed accusation – not intentional, certainly – that go-slow Hope had cost his team dearly. On this white-ball tour of India, Hope has clearly been the point of difference between the two teams. In and by itself, his batting, the volume of those runs and the luminescence with which they have come, has been staggering. Throw in the fact that he is the captain of the side and the wicketkeeper who opens the batting in T20Is and is almost right at the top of the order in ODIs, and those deeds are further burnished. If that were possible. Of their game plans, of what they have discussed behind closed doors, of the routes they have unlocked to block Hope’s progress. Clearly, whatever they have discussed isn’t working. Whether it is a failure of the tactical group – of Shreyas, head coach Gautam Gambhir and his army of support staff – or of the execution bunch – the Arshdeep-led bowling unit – is a moot point. On the whole, as magical as it has been watching Hope at work, balancing the felicity of a maestro with the precision of a surgeon, it reflects poorly on India that despite so much data and first-hand experience, they haven’t been able to find consistent means to nip Hope masterpieces in the bud.
That said, questions need to be asked of India’s preparedness.