The Ashes have often unfurled surprising outcomes here. It was here that India lifted their maiden world cup in 1983. Dravid struck his most phenomenal hundred here back in 2011, after missing out on one during his debut. Tendulkar hasn’t struck a hundred on this ground. England have massacred many touring teams here. Ganguly opened his international account with a dogged 131 in 1996.
The MCG might be the Mecca in Australia. But the Lord’s is where it all begins and ends.
It’s called the home of International Cricket for a reason. Rewind the clocks back to the era of the Romans and the Gladiators. They entered a ring of the death of sorts, facing the worst enemy that there really was, risking life as they wielded the weapon.
What else but fear is what set apart the fearless from the gullible. The Lord’s is the amphitheatre where modern Gladiators wield a different weapon. The shine of the red cherry and the bludgeoning power of the bat separates the modern gladiators, casting aside the boys from the men.
They all win when they play here at Lord’s. It’s akin to the beautifully indescribable feeling of having arrived in life, whilst driving a car that only a few get to own.
Lord’s is that premier duplex apartment that you end up owning but aren’t born into.
It’s an overpowering feeling. It’s more thrilling than playing Michael Jackson’s Thriller to a packed crowd at the Superbowl.
It’s Cricket’s version of a star-struck kid holding a scrapbook to get an autograph of a player. You are a star automatically when you play at Lord’s. It a ground where a final match could well be an encounter as well as a decisive nail in one’s coffin.
So as Virat Kohli enters the Lord’s on August 9, 2018, in a bid to clash with England, there’ll be one feeling on his mind: how to get the better of England?
With the ignominy of the defeat at Edgbaston having snowballed into a social media frenzy (Indian fans read frenzy), fans resorting to memes, trolls and indignant butchering of the Indian cricket team, the dominant cartoon showing Kohli’s compilation of runs on the one hand and the rest of the team’s on the other, the former clearly outweighing the latter, there runs a very real risk.
Either Virat Kohli will succumb to the pressure of having to score on the rest of the team’s behalf. Or, India will see it’s rather top-heavy batting alignment rise back from the Ashes. In either case, we have a sort of a funny predicament on our hands.
It’s as if, India is playing its own version of the Ashes with England, that too on England’s most vital 22 yards in its cricketing history. The only concern in front of India is that England have already gone off to a flier. This, despite being a 5-match series now entrusts on Virat’s shoulders- have they tired already- the enormous task of not only bouncing back from being 1-0 behind but drawing level and making the odds even.
Should India manage a 1-1, that will automatically imbue the side to go for the kill in the Third Test that is a fortnight away? But before that, out here in Cricket’s lofty parameter known as the Lord’s, Kohli’s got to address the following issues with rich aplomb:
Should KL Rahul be made into a makeshift opener along with Murali Vijay?
Should Shikhar Dhawan continue to have the luxury of being feted in the side, despite having produced four back-to-back batting failures starting with the Tour game against Essex?
There’s the inevitable Pujara question. Should Pujara be dropped again, what does this mean for his own career and Kohli’s standing as the spinner?
How long can Indian cricket afford to place Hardik Pandya in the main fray when talented names like Karun Nair, Rishabh Pant and others are around?
Against all of this, Lord’s, quintessential to its penchant for throwing something massive holds the answer to what lies ahead in the next 5 days. That said, another loss to India would mean having to embrace the enormity of challenge; which would mean finding a way to bounce back 2-0 against England. That’s something that hasn’t happened to India in the last decade and a half of competing on English turf.
Moreover, here’s a stat that’ll leave Virat in the cold. Not since 2012 have India chased a target of 200 against England, in England. But of course, Cricket is a sport embedded in the ‘now.’ A great knock from Rahane, supported by the top order with Kohli doing what he usually does best with familiar flair and consistency could re-write the record books. For now, let’s occupy our seats for the best possible view at the Lord’s cricket ground.