England's Hyderabad Heist hands Stokes his 'Greatest Triumph'

In sports, there rarely comes a moment when an opponent's win pinches you, but as a hardcore fan of the game, you know something really special has just transpired. England's win over India in the first Test in Hyderabad falls into those rare special moments in Test cricket history that will be etched in the memories of cricket fans forever.

To keep things in perspective, I will rate this English win similar, if not ahead, to India's comeback win over Australia at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata in 2001. The current Indian head coach, Rahul Dravid, and VVS Laxman scripted one of the greatest turnarounds in Test cricket history over two decades ago. If Harbhajan Singh was the architect with the ball, then, in Hyderabad, debutant Tom Hartley ran away with the honors.

As much as Hartley deserves all the praise, the Indian cricket fans were lucky to have witnessed, as captain Rohit Sharma said, one of the best knocks by an overseas batter, by Ollie Pope. Not for a moment, he allowed the Indian spinners to dominate. Since the time I saw Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Ashwin bowling together, not many batters were able to score as freely as Ollie Pope did in Hyderabad.

His innings displayed that if you have the right intent, a positive frame of mind, and trust in your defense, then anything is possible. This largely comes when the dressing room backs you as a player and allows you to do what you want to achieve in the middle. A lot of credit has to go to Captain Ben Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum for this amazing Test victory in Hyderabad and mind you, they have been doing this for the past two years.

'It's not about how you start; it's about how you finish' Going by these lines, both India and England got the result they deserved at the end of the Hyderabad Test. India was never supposed to lose this test, but they eventually did. England would have never imagined ending up winning this one, but like they say in cricket, 'Never say never'.

Such was the magnitude of the win that it forced Ben Stokes to call it the 'greatest triumph' since he took over as full-time England captain. This wasn't a mere Test win for England; it was a 'Heist of the highest order'. Yes, a heist, similar to what Rishabh Pant did to Australia at the Gabba in early 2021.

When everything was stacked against England, they found a way to win. The pitch was conducive to Indian spinners, but it was the opposition spinner who had the last laugh. Indian batters are considered masters of playing spin; even then, Stokes dared to include two rookie spinners and back them to the hilt.

Watching the England team in action in Hyderabad tells you that they have no fear of losing, as also confirmed by Stokes at the end of the game. They realized they didn't play well in the first two days, and the writing was on the wall. Even after losing five wickets in the second innings, they backed their natural game and never went away from the plan. It was easier said than done, though.

As Stokes rightly said, at the end of the game, certain individuals led this fightback, but it was the whole group of players who were hungry to win. When the will to excel exceeds fear and doubt, then reaching the target becomes that much easier.

No matter what happens from here on, England has shown that they won't back away from playing their aggressive brand of cricket. There might be hiccups on the way, but they are on a mission to revive Test cricket and, in the process, extend their dominance around the world.

Indian captain Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid know they have a task on their hands: the Vizag Test. Though India has been a dominant force to reckon with at home in the last decade or so, it is England that has drawn the first blood and looks hungry for more. Ben Stokes promised they wouldn't make it easy for India to win at home, and they have indeed stayed true to their words. The Indian cricket fans will be expecting a fightback from here on, but to tame these English lions will indeed take a hell out of India, even though they are playing in their backyard.

As a Test cricket lover, I hope the see-saw battle continues in Vizag and for the rest of the series too. Well done, Bazball, but the series is far from over.

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(The author is a cricket expert and has worked as a sports writer for broadcast and multimedia platforms for nearly a decade.)