The Last Time India Lost a Test

On 15 August 2015, Virat & his men liberated themselves from inner & outer restrictions, writes Nishant Arora.

The day was 15 August. The country was celebrating Independence Day and not very far from our shores, I was preparing to start my first assignment as the media manager of the Indian Cricket Team.

India had just lost a Test match that they should have won.

The team had dominated Sri Lanka in seven sessions of the match but lost the momentum in one bad session. Dinesh Chandimal swept and reverse swept and swept and reverse swept till he reversed the outcome of the match. We were in Galle, playing our first Test of a three-match series against Sri Lanka. It was the first time this young Indian team, under the boisterous leadership of captain Virat Kohli, was on a full overseas tour.

I quietly went up to my captain, who was sitting in one corner of the dressing room, pondering what went wrong; all his belongings (kit bag and personal effects) neatly arranged around him. I was a little apprehensive about approaching him. I waited for him to make eye contact. And he did. Virat looked at me and said, “Nishant, if the media is ready, let's go and finish this.”

It was my first time on the other side of a press conference. For years as a journalist, I had been the one asking questions, but today, I just stood behind the skipper and watch the bombardment start.

How could we lose a match like this? What went wrong? Did we choke? Can’t we handle pressure? Have we lost the art of playing spin? Bad umpiring, why doesn't India accept DRS? (At that point India was not playing with DRS and two horrible decisions went against them on day three just before lunch or the game may have finished before tea on day three itself.)

All the questions were valid. Some, I myself would have asked if I had been on the other side. But somehow, the media was going a little easy. They lobbed excuses at Virat, expecting him to pick one. To my, and everyone else’s surprise, Virat did not bite.

He said, “We were tentative and fearful while chasing 176. We were let down by our batting. There are no excuses there. The need of the hour in the second innings was to take calculated risks when you are chasing a small total in the fourth innings. Our intent was lacking. We let the opposition in and everyone is disappointed. We dominated throughout and it is disappointing to be on the losing side. I don't think the wicket had too many demons in it. Cricket is a game of pressure: when the pressure is mounted on you, the wicket looks difficult. If it's not, it looks easy."

Virat Kohli walked out of that press conference having spoken nothing but the truth. He had clarity of thought and a sense of purpose while we walked back to the dressing room.

I could sense something special. What had transpired in that press conference, was something very unusual. Imagine the press throwing excuse after excuse to a losing skipper, but instead of choosing the comforts of their defense, this new skipper decided simply to own up to an erroneous defeat.

Virat Kohli was something different.

After a game like that, players were bound to feel down and devastated. But the players were urged to leave their disappointment in the dressing room and not carry any of it to the hotel.

I recall team director Ravi Shastri’s strict diktat, “we all will meet by the pool for dinner". Having just lost a match like that, a dinner sounded a bit over the top to me. But I too was learning. A few minutes in and I could see just how much this time together was helping the players overcome a bad day at work. It helped negate some of their brooding and encouraged them to think of the future.

That evening, the entire Indian team sat by the pool and enjoyed each other’s company. There were laughs and giggles, anecdotes and banter. The mood was so light it felt like we had won the match, not Sri Lanka.

This team was something different

This team’s ways and attitude was simply refreshing and somewhat contagious. There was no fear of failure. No baggage of history or apprehension stemming from a pre-envisaged view of themselves, of how the world would look at them.

This was the Indian Cricket Team as on 15 August 2015, the 68th Independence Day of the country. This was the day Captain Virat and his men liberated themselves from inner and outer restrictions.

After that evening in Galle, the Indian cricket team never looked back. After that loss, celebrations haven't stopped.

Following that opening Test defeat, the Indian Cricket Team conquered Sri Lanka after 23 long years, then clean swept South Africa who were ranked number one in the world and then went to the West Indies and defeated them comprehensively. There’s more – at the end of 2016, they trounced New Zealand and then dominated England like champions just last month.

But all these victories, and it is that one defeat that I hold dear. That one evening in Galle, I believe, was the stepping-stone of the beginning of the ‘Virat Era’. Dashing, daring and uninhibited, willing to throw everything on the line in the pursuit of excellence. Disciplined and determined. Fit and committed. Exuberant and energetic. Secure, and assured of their place and talent – the Indian Cricket Team.

I was extremely fortunate to witness this side in the making very, very closely. It is a team lead by the passion of their leader Virat, driven by the then team director Ravi Shastri and now nurtured by one of the finest match-winners India has ever produced, Anil Kumble, and it has some of the most exhilarating players pursuing their journey to glory. Together.

And now, just as they start on the last hurdle of the great Indian cricket season against Australia, a season when a non-cricketing slugfest has made more news than on-field glory, this is a polite reminder to all the stakeholders of the game – and currently there are too many well-wishers to keep count – it is not they who have kept Indian cricket running. It's Virat and his boys.

The author is an award-winning cricket journalist, and most recently, the media manager of the Indian Cricket Team. He also co-authored the best-sellinf book on Yuvraj Singh’s battle with cancer.