India’s attitudinal shift under Rohit has hit a different high with its daredevilry Premium

India's aggressive approach in the second Test against Bangladesh showcases a new era of turbo-charged cricket under Rohit Sharma.

The aftershocks of India’s seismic approach to the loss of two and half days in the second Test continue to reverberate around the cricket world, which is still boggled with awe and no little amazement by how a near-certain soporific stalemate was roused spectacularly into life.

Bangladesh might have braced themselves for a day and a half of leather-chasing at Kanpur’s Green Park; they could have been forgiven for thinking so, because 235 of the scheduled 270 overs were wiped out from days one through three owing to the lack of preparedness of the staging venue. When Bangladesh were bowled out for 233, midway through the second session on day four, the popular belief was that this would be a tedious draw, a mere going through of the motions. If Bangladesh bought into that belief, as most certainly they did, it took only seven deliveries of India’s reply to rudely jolt them wide awake.

The first over, Hasan Mahmud to Yashasvi Jaiswal, was routine — as routine as a 12-run over could be, that is. The left-handed opener smashed three boundaries, but each one was out of the textbook, each played to a delivery that deserved punishment in the exact direction in which the ball was despatched. It was ‘proper’ cricket.

Then came over No. 2, and Khaled Ahmed’s first ball of the series. It was also Rohit Sharma’s first ball of the match. Rohit had never played against Khaled previously, and conventional wisdom indicated a couple of quiet balls, sizing up the bowler.

Except that India’s captain, fantastic and fascinating, hared down the track faster than Khaled approached the bowling crease. His punishing bat came down in a scything arc, the giant sweet spot making excellent contact with the ball and sending it back in the direction from which it came, but with bountiful interest thrown in. The ball sailed way over the long-on fence and scattered the fans in the stands. For a second, there was stunned disbelief. A rubbing of the eyes to ascertain that this wasn’t Rohit in the India Blue. That this was Test cricket. Then, the studied hush gave way to a cacophony of noise, the atmosphere charged with electricity. One delivery. One Rohit slice of magic. That’s all it took to put the cricket world on notice.

Even a decade back, India, patient India, genteel India, would have settled for a draw in similar circumstances without a second thought. They would have filled their boots on a surface where run-making wasn’t extraordinarily difficult on day four and the early part of day five, at the very least. They might have bolstered their aggregate, enhanced their average, maybe increased their tally of hundreds or fifties, and no one would have complained. Indeed, they could have done the same in Kanpur earlier in the week and no one would have said a word. After all, when you lose 87% of the intended play over the first three days of a game, what else could you do?

Oh, you could score at 8.22 runs per over, you know? You could reach the team fifty in a ridiculous 19 deliveries, the hundred in a slightly more stately 62, you know? The fastest to each team milestone in the history of Test cricket. You could add to that the fastest 150, 200 and 250 in the 147-year existence of the Test format. You could destroy and decimate, you could exhilarate and electrify. You could go on the rampage, dump fours and sixes galore on an initially unsuspecting opposition that was now on a pounding to nothing. Simply put, you could score 285 (for nine declared) in 34.4 overs.