Playing It My Way: My Autobiography (54 page)

England won by an innings and 8 runs

England won the series 4–0

1st Test. Delhi. 6–9 November 2011

West Indies 304 (S Chanderpaul 118, KC Brathwaite 63; PP Ojha 6–72, R Ashwin 3–81) and 180 (S Chanderpaul 47; R Ashwin 6–47, UT Yadav 2–36)

India 209 (V Sehwag 55, R Dravid 54,
SR Tendulkar 7
; DJG Sammy 3–35, R Rampaul 2–44, D Bishoo 2–55) and 276–5 (
SR Tendulkar 76
, VVS Laxman 58*, V Sehwag 55; DJG Sammy 2–56)

India won by 5 wickets

2nd Test. Kolkata. 14–17 November 2011

India 631–7 dec (VVS Laxman 176*, MS Dhoni 144, R Dravid 119, G Gambhir 65,
SR Tendulkar 38
; KAJ Roach 2–106, DJG Sammy 2–132)

West Indies 153 (DM Bravo 30; PP Ojha 4–64, UT Yadav 3–23) and 463 (f/o) (DM Bravo 136, MN Samuels 84, AB Barath 62, KA Edwards 60, S Chanderpaul 47; UT Yadav 4–80)

India won by an innings and 15 runs

3rd Test. Mumbai. 22–26 November 2011

West Indies 590 (DM Bravo 166, KA Edwards 86, KOA Powell 81, KC Brathwaite 68, AB Barath 62, MN Samuels 61; R Ashwin 5–156, VR Aaron 3–106) and 134 (DM Bravo 48; PP Ojha 6–47, R Ashwin 4–34)

India 482 (R Ashwin 103,
SR Tendulkar 94
, R Dravid 82, G Gambhir 55, V Kohli 52; MN Samuels 3–74, R Rampaul 3–95) and 242–9 (V Kohli 63, V Sehwag 60,
SR Tendulkar 3
; R Rampaul 3–56)

Match drawn

India won the series 2–0

1st Test. Melbourne. 26–29 December 2011

Australia 333 (EJM Cowan 68, RT Ponting 62; Z Khan 4–77 R Ashwin 3–81, UT Yadav 3–106) and 240 (MEK Hussey 89, RT Ponting 60; UT Yadav 4–70, Z Khan 3–53)

India 282 (
SR Tendulkar 73
, R Dravid 68, V Sehwag 67; BW Hilfenhaus 5–75, PM Siddle 3–63) and 169 (
SR Tendulkar 32
; JL Pattinson 4–53, PM Siddle 3–42)

Australia won by 122 runs

2nd Test. Sydney. 3–6 January 2012

India 191 (MS Dhoni 57*,
SR Tendulkar 41
; JL Pattinson 4–43, BW Hilfenhaus 3–51, PM Siddle 3–55) and 400 (G Gambhir 83,
SR Tendulkar 80
, VVS Laxman 66, R Ashwin 62; BW Hilfenhaus 5–106, PM Siddle 2–88)

Australia 659–4 dec (MJ Clarke 329*, MEK Hussey 150*, RT Ponting 134; Z Khan 3–122)

Australia won by an innings and 68 runs

3rd Test. Perth. 13–15 January 2012

India 161 (V Kohli 44,
SR Tendulkar 15
; BW Hilfenhaus 4–43, PM Siddle 3–42) and 171 (V Kohli 75, R Dravid 47,
SR Tendulkar 8
; BW Hilfenhaus 4–54, PM Siddle 3–43)

Australia 369 (DA Warner 180, EJM Cowan 74; UT Yadav 5–93)

Australia won by an innings and 37 runs

4th Test. Adelaide. 24–28 January 2012

Australia 604–7 dec (RT Ponting 221, MJ Clarke 210, BJ Haddin 42*; R Ashwin 3–194) and 167–5 dec (RT Ponting 60*; R Ashwin 2–73)

India 272 (V Kohli 116, WP Saha 35,
SR Tendulkar 25
; PM Siddle 5–49, BW Hilfenhaus 3–62) and 201 (V Sehwag 62,
SR Tendulkar 13
; NM Lyon 4–63, RJ Harris 3–41)

Australia won by 298 runs

Australia won the series 4–0

With the 100th hundred finally out of the way, I was looking forward to a busy season of Test cricket at home. For once, we were not touring much and in 2012–13 we were due to host New Zealand, England and Australia. You don’t often get to play ten uninterrupted Test matches at home. I had prepared well but must concede things rarely went to plan from a personal point of view. In the lead-up to the season I continued to be bothered by the toe injury, so much so that I visited BKS Iyengar, one of the foremost yoga gurus in the world, together with Zaheer Khan for a day in May 2012, during the fifth edition of the IPL. I had been introduced to Guruji in 1999 by Kiran More when I was suffering from the back injury and had spent a week with him in Pune at the time. In June 2012 I travelled to Germany to the Adidas factory to get some special shoes made and during this visit I was accompanied by Prof. Cathy Speed, who had travelled from London to be with me.

In August 2012, we won both Tests against New Zealand, with Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha bowling well and getting us wickets at regular intervals. In each of my three innings in the series, I got a start before being bowled, which prompted a lot of speculation in the press about my technique – had my reflexes slowed down and was I the batsman I once was? In my mind, however, there was nothing seriously wrong with my technique or my approach. One problem, perhaps, was that in the off season I had trained a lot indoors and had got too used to the high indoor bounce. In Hyderabad in the first Test, for example, I was dismissed for 19 by a delivery from Trent Boult that I expected to bounce more.

I travelled to the second Test match in Bangalore determined to play a big innings. However, this time round I was bowled for 17 by a ball from the right-arm fast bowler Doug Bracewell that didn’t swing as much as expected and continued going straight. When I went out to bat in the second innings I tried to play myself in, hoping that spending some time at the crease would help. I managed to hit a few fours before getting out for 27 to a Tim Southee delivery that swung back in to knock me over.

It was not the best start to the season, but I put it behind me and focused my attention on the England series that started in November 2012. As part of the preparation I played for Mumbai in a Ranji Trophy game against Railways on 2 November. In my one innings, I had to battle physical exhaustion, as I had had serious food poisoning just before the game and was feeling extremely weak; so much so, in fact, that I asked Rohit Sharma to bat ahead of me. By the time I went in, I had recovered enough to make 137, which was a very satisfying knock considering how I’d felt a few hours earlier. Suddenly I was playing my shots and feeling positive again.

I thought I started well against England in the first Test at Ahmedabad on 15 November. My body position and balance were perfect and I was getting into a really good rhythm. From the off, I played some cracking strokes, including a very pleasing lofted shot against Swann over midwicket. I set out to bat aggressively and not hold myself back, because that was how I had scored the Ranji Trophy hundred. Seeing me go over the short midwicket fielder, Swann pushed a man back and I decided to counter him by going over mid on. The ball had drift, however, and instead of playing it over mid on, I hit it straight to the midwicket fielder and I was out for 13. I was very angry with myself for not making the most of my good form.

In the context of the match, my failure in Ahmedabad did not matter in the end, with Sehwag making 117 and Cheteshwar Pujara going on to score an excellent double century. He paced his innings beautifully and has the temperament and the patience to be a top-class Test batsman in the years to come. He has all the shots and is a much-improved player since his debut against Australia in 2010. Pragyan Ojha and Ravi Ashwin then got in on the act and ran through England in both innings.

The second Test started in Mumbai on 23 November and rather unexpectedly England turned things around on the first day. I had always been worried about the Mumbai match and had shared my concerns with coach Duncan Fletcher. I felt that the pace and bounce of the Wankhede wicket would help the England bowlers. England had beaten us at the Wankhede in 2006 and I thought we should have prepared a good batting wicket instead of a turner.

The inclusion of Monty Panesar in the team was an inspired selection and I got out to him on the first morning before lunch for eight, to a ball that spun from leg stump to hit the top of my off stump. Nobody expects the ball to turn square at the Wankhede in the first session of the first day of a Test. Not only that but, when Monty was bowling, I had chatted with Pujara, who was batting at the other end, and he said the ball was not turning at all. I had scored thousands of runs playing the shot I tried against Monty. When there’s not much turn you can just smother the spin and turn a ball pitched on leg stump to square leg for a single, but the shot isn’t on if there’s vicious turn. It was just my luck that it was the first delivery that spun square. I was gutted at having failed in front of my home crowd.

Monty had taken Sehwag’s wicket earlier in the innings and triggered a rare batting collapse on home soil, which handed England control of the match. Only Pujara, who scored a brilliant 135, stood up against the English spinners, Panesar and Swann, and we squandered the advantage of winning the toss and batting first.

England then batted excellently, with skipper Alastair Cook and Kevin Pietersen playing extremely well in difficult batting conditions to set up the game. Cook made 122 and Pietersen an imperious 186. They were instrumental in giving their team a first-innings lead of 86. Cook showed great patience and throughout the series played spin better than most visiting batsmen have done in recent times.

In the second innings, I again got out to Monty Panesar. This time the ball came on with the arm while I played for turn. Gautam Gambhir was batting at the other end and at the end of the day’s play, he told me that, as I was walking back to the pavilion, Monty had said to Gautam, ‘
Ball apne aap seedha nikal gaya!
’ (The delivery went straight on its own!) I was out fair and square, but couldn’t help feeling unlucky to get out to an arm-ball that wasn’t even intended by the bowler! To add to the frustration, we lost the match in under four days. Losing at home was not something we were accustomed to and it came as something of a rude jolt.

I realized that I needed to take my mind off cricket for a while, so I called Yuvi, Zaheer and Bhajji and suggested that we should watch a movie in the hotel room on reaching Kolkata for the third Test. I had already seen
Barfi!
– an award-winning film about a deaf mute – but it was so good that I really wanted to watch it again. Forty-five minutes into the film Bhajji said, ‘
Paaji yeh log kuch bolenge ki film aise hi chalta rahega?
’ (Brother, are they going to say anything or is it going to continue in this silent vein for the whole movie?) Only Harbhajan could have come out with something like that!

After a string of failures, I decided to change my approach in the third Test in Kolkata, starting on 5 December 2012. I would stop being aggressive and instead play within myself, even though it was a really good batting pitch. Because of this defensive mind-set I missed out on a number of balls that in normal circumstances I would have put away for four, but I was mindful that I had done something similar in Australia in 2003–04 when I had scored a double hundred. This time I managed 76 before getting out to a good delivery from James Anderson straight after a drinks break. Anderson bowled beautifully throughout the series and was the central figure in the English attack. He used reverse swing well and picked up wickets at critical moments.

Yet again we had failed to make the most of our opportunities and we were all out for a modest 316. England were brilliant in response and Cook again led from the front with a spectacular 190. A skipper leading from the front is always good for a team and England put us under pressure again with a 207-run lead. Our second innings was nothing to write home about and I got out for five, caught at slip off Graeme Swann. None of the batsmen played to their potential and we lost the Test in four days.

We went to Nagpur for the last Test on 13 December 2012, needing a win to draw the series. Virat Kohli made a hundred and Dhoni was run out on 99, but my poor series continued as I was bowled by James Anderson for two in my only innings. It seemed that things were just not going my way and as I went into bat, I faced two balls from Monty Panesar that spun viciously. Till then the wicket had appeared flat and even the England players were surprised. That’s what seems to happen when you’re going through a bad patch. Trott made a hundred in England’s second innings and the game ended in a draw, meaning that we had lost the series 2–1.

England were easily the better team in the series but I must say I was terribly disappointed with the way I performed in the six innings I played in those four Test matches. Anjali had actually come to Nagpur because my frame of mind was not good and when the press saw that she was there, they assumed that I was going to announce my retirement. Something that helped me regain some perspective at the time was a conversation with Ravi Shastri. Ravi and I have always been good friends and in Nagpur we had dinner in my room and he repeatedly told me that I should not start to doubt myself after a few failures. His confidence in me was reassuring and I greatly appreciated the gesture.

I took some time off after the England series to clear my mind after all the scrutiny and speculation and to think carefully about my career. I gave retirement some serious thought, but I concluded that I still had the hunger and runs left in me. I might not have made many runs in the England series, but the way I was batting had given me enough confidence to carry on.

One-day cricket was another matter, and India were due to play three ODIs against Pakistan at the end of 2012. I had not played ODI cricket between March and December and I had to ask myself whether I was realistically going to take part in the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand in 2015. If not, what goals would I have left in ODI cricket? I realized I had to accept that I was not going to be around till then. The next question was whether I wanted to play a farewell ODI series against Pakistan before calling it a day. I decided that it was better to take a break and focus my energies on the Australia Test series in February–March 2013.

Having informed the BCCI, the chairman of selectors and Duncan Fletcher of my decision to retire from ODIs, I boarded a flight for Dehradun on my way to Mussoorie, a quiet hill station in the North Indian state of Uttarakhand that I love to visit. A break in Mussoorie is a great way to escape from city life and unwind, and that’s what I needed. The news of my retirement had become public while I was in the air between Mumbai and Delhi and as soon as we landed in Delhi I got a series of messages from friends and well-wishers. As the same aircraft was continuing on to Dehradun, I told Anjali that I was going to sit with the captain in the cockpit while the new passengers boarded, as I didn’t feel like speaking to anyone for the time being.