The Goldilocks principle — from the story of the little girl who found the third bowl of porridge (and chair and bed) in the bears’ house “just right” — explains how life exists on earth. It is just the right distance from the sun, has just the right mix of gases in the atmosphere, the right temperature for the formation of water and so on.
One way to understand India’s 36 all out in Adelaide is by applying the Goldilocks principle.
Australia’s fast bowlers bowled a length that was just right, swung the ball just enough, and the batsmen did just enough to nick it. It was a freakish coming together of circumstances.
What was surprising was that it should occur in our time, when coaching is ‘scientific’ and the computer is a crucial member of every squad. Technology and data mining ensure there are no secrets at the highest level.
You can overanalyse such a freakish occurrence. To dismiss a team, you need to bowl just ten wicket-taking deliveries. Usually such deliveries are spread out over a day or two. Theoretically, these could be bunched together at the start of an innings. Or, as in Adelaide, stretched over 21.2 overs.
No extravagance
Australia’s bowlers displayed no extravagance, and that was the key. No awe-inspiring swing or breathtaking bounce. Such control was poetic — concise, taut, nothing wasted.
The bat is 10.8 cm at its widest. A ball has to move just over 5cm to beat the middle and take the edge.
A little more, and it will miss the edge altogether. Cricket is a game of centimetres; pitch the ball up a few centimetres and you have the batsman in two minds.
Should he go forward or back? Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood did just that. Batsmen were caught in no-man’s land, undone by the consistency.
Australian bowlers might bowl better than this in future, for fewer wickets. That is the nature of the game.
As they sent India crashing, there were few oohs and aahs to indicate near-misses or edges that carry to the boundary. Every snick was held, five of them by wicketkeeper Tim Paine; every attempt at breaking away — as with Kohli’s — went to hand.
When India fell for 42 at Lord’s in 1974, their previous lowest, the top five read: Sunil Gavaskar, Farokh Engineer, Ajit Wadekar, Gundappa Viswanath, Brijesh Patel.
Not far behind the current line-up: Prithvi Shaw, Mayank Agarwal, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane. “Geoff Arnold and Chris Old bowled five good balls which got our five top batsmen,” Gavaskar said of that occasion, “after that there was no resistance.”
Something similar can be said about the Adelaide fiasco. There is no need to panic.
Questions will be asked about the batsmen’s defensive technique, and just how much it has been eroded by T20 cricket across the world. Top bowlers can exploit the slightest weakness, as Australia did with Shaw’s uncertainty over the incoming delivery. Or Agarwal’s.
Conservative approach
Questions need to be asked about team selection. In modern sport, decisions have to be made quickly. India were conservative, sticking with a team that played the last Test 10 months ago, and ignoring current form (in any format).
The best performers in the white ball matches in Australia — K.L. Rahul, T. Natarajan, Hardik Pandya — had confidence coming into the Test series, but will now have a more difficult task if picked (Pandya is back home).
The man picked to replace father-to-be Virat Kohli — whether Rahul or Shubman Gill — deserved to start the series.
Questions must be asked about the fielding — crucial catches were dropped. This can’t be the new India Kohli says he is representing.
Role of BCCI
Questions ought to be asked about the role of the Board of Control for Cricket in India too. The confusion over the fitness of Rohit Sharma meant the batsman was not available for the Test. Ravi Shastri had said Rohit needed to leave by the end of November, but he left only on December 15 with a two-week quarantine to follow.
Ishant Sharma was ruled fit by the BCCI on November 27 but unfit to tour. Perhaps he is being rested with England series — home and away — to follow. Injury-management is meant to help the national team, not hinder it. Kohli admitted in Australia that he was baffled.
The loss of Mohammed Shami will hit the team. His arm was fractured by Cummins, who was brilliant on the day. But it was distressing watching him aim at Shami even as the batsman was backing away.
The honour code regarding bouncers to rival fast bowlers seems to have gone out of the window.
But to watch the world’s No. 1 bowler attacking a No. 11, rather than the stumps was pathetic. It is not a sight one wishes to see on a cricket field.
