And yet it was not enough to stop Pakistan from bringing up a five-wicket win.
Asked to bat first, India looked like a changed team from the get-go. Rohit was imperious against Naseem Shah, rocking back early to pull a short ball for six in front of square. Rahul played his trademark lofted shot over cover picking a slower ball from Naseem right out of the bowler’s hand. Kohli was showing his range, taking on a short ball from Mohammad Hasnain with a swivelling pull that sent the ball over backward square leg before the bowler could even finish his followthrough.
This was the fearless brand of cricket that Rohit had repeatedly demanded, and that coach Rahul Dravid insisted every player had embraced. There was no diffidence, no hesitancy and while the top three are too classy to need to resort to slogging, there was also no fear of being dismissed.
Rohit’s 28 took only 16 balls and though he was dismissed relatively early, India had 54 on the board in just 5.1 overs.
Similarly, Rahul only got 28, but he had used up only 20 balls, and when he was dismissed, India were still going at 10 runs an over.
All the while, Kohli was keeping things ticking over. He did not need to try and manufacture shots, getting enough from the bowlers to keep him scoring at a fast clip. A feature of Kohli’s innings was his supreme fitness, running hard in properly oppressive conditions. Every single time Kohli ran the first one hard, putting pressure on the fielders.
Pakistan’s spinners applied the breaks superbly, Mohammad Nawaz with his slow left-arm spin and Shadab Khan with his leg breaks and googlies. Between them the pair only conceded 56 from 8 overs, sharing three wickets.
But, India batted deep and Deepak Hooda chipped in towards the death. Hooda shaped to pull Hasnain, and the ball kept following him, coming in with the angle. At the last second, Hooda switched up, bending his back almost parallel to the ground and played the ramp shot, easing the ball over the wicketkeeper’s head. That one shot encapsulated India’s new batting philosophy: you have one plan, but you don’t cling onto it, you look at the situation, the ball and stay nimble, ready to pivot at any time.
India’s constant push towards the “par-plus” score that Dravid had demanded, was aided by Kohli playing hard cricket even as he batted long. Kohli was dismissed with only two balls to go in the innings, run out by the smallest margin after putting in a dive, having scored 60 from only 44 balls.
India set Pakistan 182 to win, and although a good batting surface meant that Pakistan were very much in the game, India had the bowling to defend this total.
On the day though, Pakistan’s batsmen held their nerve, and India’s bowlers, after early success were not penetrative enough. Mohammad Rizwan provided the muscle at the top of the order with 71 and Nawaz (42) ensured that the scoring rate did not suffer in the middle overs. It did not help that Arshdeep Singh dropped a sitter off Asif Ali, who clattered 16 in 9 balls to seal the deal in the final over.
