Nothing on display during the first day of the opening Test between India and England suggests that the tourists are not the most watchable team in the world of Test cricket.
England are not the best team in the world, by some distance, but their mission under Ben Stokes and Brendan McCullum is to win and be entertaining in equal measure, and if they can’t do the first then they will not compromise on the second objective.
They selected a team with no bowling ‘safety mechanism.’ If the brakes failed then Stokes would back himself to steer the run-away vehicle away from disaster with his usual imagination, flair and dare. Ben Stokes, stunt-driver and double-bluffer.
Having first steered his rickety Cortina to 246 all out with a mixture of skilled defence and brutal counter-attack, spluttering like a car running on petrol fumes, he went with the flood as Jashasvi Jaiswal helped himself to 76 at better than a run-a-ball with India reaching 119-1.
Left arm spinner Tom Hartley, with 40 first-class wickets, had never bowled with a new, red ball in his career. Until today. Jaiswal hit his first ball for six, and his fifth. His first two overs cost 25 and after two more his figures were 4-0-39-0. Time for a breather? Instead, you sensed Stokes was just beginning to feel the adrenalin kick in.
Not that he left debutant Hartley to sink or swim, far from it. He was alongside him all the time at mid off, telling him that a wicket was imminent. Another over? One more, Tom. You’re bowling beautifully, you’ll have two or three by the close. At the close, Hartley had figures of 9-0-63-0. Stokes even burnt his third and final DRS review in the 14th over trying to prove himself right with a Hartley lbw. To be fair, it did look stone dead.
The home side are halfway to England’s total with nine wickets in hand. The second morning is when the fielding team knuckles down to bowl maidens, build pressure with dot balls and fight for every run. But Stokes can’t do that because he didn’t pick a single maiden bowler in his attack. And anyway, that’s not his style. He’ll keep attacking and reminding his batsmen, as the lead grows, that they will hunt the runs down until they have the lead back. A match-winning one.
It’s bonkers. Completely nuts, utterly compelling and with enough evidence from the last two years to suggest that it may be bonkers, but not completely nuts. The England team has done stuff no other team has ever done before. That’s why they are the most compellingly watchable team at the moment.
Hyderabad is one of India’s more inclusive cities, which is to say that there is a significant Muslim population and a history of Christian-based education establishments. Whereas other cities in the new India have adopted the preferred nationalist standpoint, Hyderabad appears to have retained a degree of cultural autonomy. It’s only a perception gained from hours exploring the streets, lake and speaking to people.