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Cricket News: India Cricket in 2021/22: Epic tail of frustration, missed opportunities, abrupt demise & dawn of ‘new era’ | India Cricket 2021/22 Review

And, so India’s 2021/22 international season came to an end with yet another commanding Test win at home; one that once again reminded us about our ruthless dominance in our backyard.

India didn’t drop a single game throughout the home season across formats: 14 wins and one draw in 15 games. And, let’s be honest, it should have been 15/15 had we been a bit more proactive with our declaration during the Kanpur Test against New Zealand.

Normally, the end of every international season is a time to sit back, reminisce, analyse the on-field performance but this season was different. And it would be a grave injustice if we look at it just through numbers.

This season was more than just about wins and defeats on the field; it was a season that was heavily dominated by off-field controversies, leaks, conflicting statements. It was a season that saw one of the most beautiful eras of Indian Test cricket die an abrupt, painful, anti-climatic death.

It was a season where skeletons came out of the closet in more than one way; a season that once again asserted the age-old saying “duniya humesha ugte suraj ko salaam karti hai”; it was a season where we squandered one golden opportunity after another; a season where “new era” was oversold at the expense of the existing golden era; a season where we saw the mighty from grace.

In short, this season was an epic stuff collective nightmare of a billion fans.

India cricket in 2021/22: The end of Virat Kohli as captain

On the evening of January 15, Virat Kohli posted yet another paragraph on his social media accounts; a paragraph that officially brought an end to the golden era.

But, how did it reach this point?

Well, this was just a culmination of the events that took place in the last six months both on and off the field.

Let’s rewind the clock back to June 2021. India are in England to play the World Test Championship Final against New Zealand. After having dominated Test cricket for a better part of the last five years, winning the inaugural WTC final was seen as a rubber stamp to the obvious: India are the best Test side of the current era.

For Virat, the final held even more importance. His Test form had been diabolical (by his very high standards) in the last year or so and with him having not won an ICC Final and Ajinkya Rahane leading India to a historic triumph in Australia despite his absence, murmurs over his captaincy future from a certain section had already started.

Of course, the bias against Kohli from his critics isn’t just restricted to his on-field activities. So, it was pretty clear that despite his stellar record as captain, losing the WTC Final wasn’t an option for him.

He didn’t just lose the final but also failed to score in the second innings. And as usual, the skeletons came out swinging from their closet. 

Kohli still had time to redeem himself and he stunningly did that during the series against England as India went on to script heist for the ages in London: Lord’s and Oval. 

These two victories saw the peak of Virat, the Test captain – an unapologetic, ruthless, ringmaster cajoling his troops to breathe hell on the opposition.

This was soon described as ‘Kohli-ism’ by a section of media; and despite those victories; one that showed how far India had come in overseas Tests, the overwhelming narrative in the cricket ecosystem was that Kohli didn’t play Ashwin because of an alleged ‘rift’ and that his teammates weren’t ‘happy’ with the way he went about things.

Ironically, these are the same people who criticized the management for playing both Ashwin and Jadeja in the WTC Final.

With the Oval Test win, one thing was clear. India won’t return from England with yet another series defeat. Kohli was just one Test away from becoming the first Indian skipper after Rahul Dravid to claim the coveted Pataudi Trophy.

The beginning of the end

And, then it all came crashing down! And a series of unfortunate and engineered events led to it. Firstly, a COVID outbreak in the Indian camp meant that the fifth and final Test at Old Trafford was called-off on the morning of the game.

Amid all this, a series of media reports started doing the rounds that not all was good in the Indian dressing room. Instead of analyzing, hailing what was one of the memorable England tour for an Indian side, everyone was busy outraging or peddling source-based leaks.

And then came a bombshell, courtesy of Virat when he posted on social media that the T20 World Cup would be his last assignment as skipper in that format.

Kohli’s record as T20 captain is legendary and so it came as a huge surprise as to why he decided to step-down, that too before such a big tournament.

But, then, instead of asking ‘Why’, his detractors were like, “Good riddance! Please step down from other formats too!’

Nevertheless, the T20 World Cup was a perfect opportunity for Virat to cap off his stint by ending India’s 14-year wait for a title in this format.

But, something just didn’t feel right leading into that campaign. That said, no one would have predicted what was about to take place. India not only lost their proud WC streak to Pakistan in the most humiliating manner, but also to New Zealand to bow out of their party in the group-stage itself.

Kohli was the lone spearhead for his side against Pakistan but still he was the one who was subjected to intense criticism. That would have been fair enough had the criticism been restricted to his on-field performance but it certainly wasn’t about that.

Anyways, winds of change were blowing in full flow in Indian cricket. Rahul Dravid was appointed head coach, replacing the outgoing Ravi Shastri and Rohit replaced Virat in the shortest format.

But, by then, it was pretty clear that it won’t be long before Rohit takes over as ODI captain as well. And, it happened just a month later as India got ready for a crucial South African tour.

The BCCI, as usual, brought an abrupt end to his ODI captaincy career with a tweet; one that sent the cricket ecosystem in a frenzy.

BCCI’s logic was that we can’t have different captains for T20Is and ODIs, conveniently forgetting that the same process is in place in women cricket, with Mithali Raj leading the Test and ODI teams and Harmanpreet Kaur captaining in the shortest format.

Kohli’s record as ODI captain is amongst the best in the world. His win percentage of 70.43 is rivaled only by Ricky Ponting and Hansie Cronje, and, so it made little sense to replace him as captain.

Of course, that is not to say that Rohit isn’t a good white-ball skipper but Kohli’s stellar record did not suggest that India needed a change in leadership. 

It would still have been justified had a proper explanation been given for the change in guard. But, instead, what we got was a series of conflicting statements from the top-brass, selectors, and Virat.

Missed opportunity in South Africa

And, the fact that all of this happened on the eve of an extremely crucial, legacy-defining tour of South Africa made this even more distressing.

Kohli led India to a 1-0 series win at home against New Zealand but all eyes were on the South African tour.

“Will India finally breach the African barrier?” was the question in everyone’s mind even as off-field controversies continued to dominate the narrative leading into the tour.

What made India’s situation even more deplorable was the fact that Rohit Sharma and Ravindra Jadeja were ruled out of the entire series due to their respective injuries.

Nevertheless, the visitors asserted their dominance in the opening game at Centurion courtesy of an epic hundred from KL Rahul and an all-round seam-bowling display.

All of a sudden, India were 1-0 up and within touching distance of history. But, it just didn’t feel right, did it? After all, it was Kohli at the helm, and given his luck in recent times, it just felt too good to be true.

Unfortunately, that’s exactly how it panned out. Kohli sat out of the second Test; Indian batting once again failed to come to the party and surprisingly bowlers too failed to defend 240 in the fourth innings.

Kohli returned for the decider; played an epic knock in the first innings; Pant did the same in the second but once again rest of the batsmen fell like ninepins and bowlers for the second time in as many Tests failed to defend a 200+ target.

And, just like that, a golden chance to win an elusive Test series in South Africa and for Virat to sign off his glorious captaincy stint with yet another legacy enhancing heist.

Instead, what we got was the sight of him venting his frustration on the stump mic; a politically correct version of which came in the form of a couple of long paragraphs on his social media accounts in its immediate aftermath.

Indian cricket, just like life, stops for no one. And, it didn’t here either. Even before the ashes of the last era were immersed, the chants of the ‘’new dawn’’ started in full flow. A 0-3 whitewash in the ODI series in South Africa hardly mattered to both the moaners of the previous era and the perpetrators of the new dawn. 

In came West Indies and Sri Lanka to do their bit towards the ‘new era’ and following a series of whitewashes, thus ended the season with players celebrating behind the winners banner with yet another PayTm Trophy.

They all are winners, of course! But, was Indian cricket a winner at the end of it all?

Written by Yash Mittal. Follow Yash on Twitter today.