The significance of India’s heart-warming win at Lord’s goes beyond the mere fact that it is only the second such instance of an Indian team beating England at the spiritual home of cricket.
To end the three-year wait of an elusive away win at the very venue where it had all begun, must be akin to exorcising the past ghosts for captain M S Dhoni and his team. It was at Lord’s in 2011 when India’s run of rut commenced that saw them go winless in 13 Tests outside the sub-continent, including eight defeats on the trot in England and Australia. While India’s dominance at home — barring the shock series setback against England in 2012 — was unaffected, amply reflected in the crushing 4-0 whitewash of Australia in 2012, their quest for a Test victory away from home remained unfulfilled until Lord’s happened. They had come agonisingly close to clinching that rare win in Johannesburg against South Africa and in Auckland against New Zealand only to see the opportunities go abegging. On both these occasions, the bowlers were unable to press home the advantage.
Seamers in the past had played crucial roles in several of India’s 38 Test victories abroad but they relied more on their skills to outfox rival batsmen. Swing, and not speed, had been their trusted ally. Earlier this week, Dhoni coaxed a reluctant Ishant into bouncing out the Englishmen. Having seen the opposition bowlers regularly dish out short stuff to their batsmen, it must have come as a retribution for the Indian fans. While the bowling unit, with three five-wicket hauls between Ishant and Bhuvneshwar Kumar as against England’s none so far, has acquitted itself well in the English conditions, the batsmen have done exceedingly well to prove that the initial scepticism was misplaced.
The likes of M Vijay, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane -- who had an onerous task of stepping in for some of the greats -- had shown glimpses of their ability to match the high standards in South Africa and New Zealand but it all fell in place at Lord’s like a dream. Rahane’s mind-over-matter century on a grass bed on the opening day, Bhuvneshwar’s crafty spell in England’s first innings, Vijay’s sage-like approach in the second innings and Ishant’s fiery spell combined to break England’s collective will. The jinx has been broken but the challenge is to sustain the momentum.