India believe victory can be catalyst for a fightback for the ages

Batting support for Kohli and seam attack has the tourists targeting series win, writes Tim Wigmore

Sometimes, the ending gives no sense of the journey. And so it was here at 11.09am when, 17 balls into the fifth day’s play, the ball looped up from James Anderson’s glove and ballooned into the hands of slip. It was an almost absurdly facile end, but this was no facile victory.

Instead, this was a triumph of great resolve and great skill and sheer willpower.

On Saturday morning, India arrived at Trent Bridge after being bowled out for 107 and 130 at Lord’s: beaten in less than two days’ cricket. When England won the toss, the blithe assumption was that India’s remaining hopes in the series would swiftly whither and die.

Now there is talk – and this victory was so emphatic that it does not seem entirely outlandish – of India becoming only the second team to come from 2-0 down to win a Test series.

On the first occasion, Australia had Don Bradman. Away from home, India are now almost as dependent for runs upon Virat Kohli. He batted here with calculating, controlled magnificence, bending the game to his will with 97 in the first innings; then ensuring not just a huge defeat for England, but also that they had to toil through more than 200 spirit-sapping overs in the match.

And yet altogether more significant was the support Kohli received from the rest of the batting line-up. “Get ugly, look dirty, show some grit and determination,” head coach Ravi Shastri had implored the rest of the top order – and they did.

In the first two Tests, no Indian bar Kohli scored more than 33 in an innings. Here six did, and all the top seven depart for Southampton in good spirits. Kohli will always remain the best hope – but suddenly he does not feel like the only one.

To anyone who has observed India in recent years, the hostility of their seam attack was rather less surprising. The transformation in India’s fast bowlers has culminated in what Shastri calls the “best pace attack India has ever had – by a mile”. Already this series, three separate Indian quicks have taken a five-wicket haul – Ishant Sharma at Edgbaston, and then Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah here.

Shastri reckoned it the greatest Indian overseas victory in his four years in the job. Indian wins away from Asia have been rare: this was only their seventh in 60 Tests in England, and they have never won a series in Australia or South Africa.

But when they have come about they have often had an epic quality – think of the astounding win after conceding 556 in the first innings at Adelaide in 2003, the mesmerising swing bowling at Trent Bridge in 2007, the heist at the Waca in 2008, and the triumph on a spicy pitch at Johannesburg this January, when all 20 wickets were taken by pace.

Trent Bridge 2018 now stands as a worthy addition to that pantheon. It was a victory earned through meticulous batting discipline on the opening day; the multifaceted, relentless threats of a four-pronged seam attack, making up for Ravichandran Ashwin’s batting injury; and the phenomenal slip catching of KL Rahul, who snared all seven of the chances he was presented.

Now India believe that it can be something more: not just a brilliant Test victory in its own right, but the catalyst for a comeback for the ages. The path there, of course, remains arduous – India have made it so partly because of their slapdash preparation for the series, and England have become almost as well versed in responding to hammerings at home as in being thumped in the first place.

And yet there is a steeliness in this Indian team, a drive led by Kohli to achieve greatness in foreign climes as well as at home. The weight of history, you sense, is not regarded as a roadblock – only as an opportunity.