Akash Deep: How India’s debutant laid a trap for England batsmen in 4th IND vs ENG Test | Cricket News

The television screen on the ground kept playing the wickets of Akash Deep on a loop. The bowler, standing at mid-on, restlessly waiting to grab the ball again, would gaze sideways towards the screen and soak in the moments. The spectators on the stands beside, to the left of the MS Dhoni Pavilion, would chant his name. Flashing a coy smile, he would wave back at them.
A hero was born – his first six overs yielded three England wickets, just an hour into his Test career. The hours that made the hour were hard; from cramming into a train to Kolkata, sweating countless hours in maidan cricket, before breaking through the Bengal team in 2019, then acquiring an IPL contract with RCB three years later and finally realising the dream of playing for his country in the longest format.
In between, he suffered the death of his father, a school teacher, and elder brother.
Akash Deep’s composure against England
But it’s not the backstory that defines him now; but his craft, the utter nervelessness he displayed after receiving the Test cap from Rahul Dravid and falling into the warm embrace of his mother near the boundary ropes.
Akash Deep gets his debut cap from India head coach Rahul Dravid before the 4th IND vs ENG Test. (BCCI | X)
He calmly went about business, bustling into his run-up like a sturdy locomotive. It took just an over to figure out that he was an upgrade on his Bengal colleague Mukesh Kumar. Straightaway, he nudged 140kph, made the ball snap off the seam as well as growl into the batsman.
The last ball of the over beat the leave-shy Ben Duckett’s dangle of the bat, the ball clipping away off the seam from hard length, past his outside edge. The seam-presentation, the inward angle, and the late shape away would have appeased the connoisseurs. A similar ball, though tighter to the off-stump, would eventually consume Duckett, just at a time when England seemed to survive the harrowing first hour. Akash Deep swiveled around and thumped his chest in pride.
One fetched him two, partially a beneficiary of on-the-walk Ollie Pope’s injudiciousness and the delivery keeping a trifle low. But the length and inward seam-movement deserves mention. It was a reactive stroke — a classic Bazball reaction you could say — to the dread Akash Deep was dusting up off a surface that was already throwing up variable bounce.
Buoyed, he resumed his duel with Zak Crawley. He could have been his first wicket in Tests, when his fiendish nip-backer uprooted his leg-stump, only for his overstepping front-leg. He has violated the line before, once costing 21 runs in an over.
He was devastated. The spectacular effect of the delivery and the manner in which he had laid the trap with his away-seamers raised hope of more wickets around the corner.
Hugs of assurance from his captain could have soothed him too. The next ball was similar, though not as sharp and snappy, and Crawley somehow negated it to safety. Two balls later he made the ball hold the line a wee bit, to beat a nervy Crawley. He teased him repeatedly — an edge flew through the vacant gully region. Akash Deep would stare mercifully into the skies for a blessing.
Crawley would thump him through mid-on for a four, after he had plundered 18 runs off a Mohammed Siraj over.
The wait seemed longer as Rohit Sharma deliberated on introducing Ravi Ashwin. Akash Deep did not plead for another, he merely barged in and grabbed the ball. Rohit let him bowl his seventh exacting over of the morning on the spin. Crawley nudged a single; Root nurdled one, and just two overs remained for the hour-break and a potential change in bowling. Akash Deep required just one crack at the elusive wicket again. He produced another in-ducker — the most potent weapon in his arsenal — that snuck through Crawley’s half-open gate and trimmed the bails. The ball subjected Crawley to several dilemmas — whether to commit forward or back, whether to leave on the length or defend.
Akash Deep exhibited several virtues that foretells a long career. The most rewarding would be his control of lengths. He was not just comfortable with various lengths, but altered those without sacrificing his precision. If the first spell presented an account of his craft, the second showed his durability. The pitch, then, had lost much of its moure-laden foulness. The heat had intensified, but Akash Deep still speared in.
The screen would keep playing his golden hour of Akash Deep. Even in the dead of the evening, he could not res glaring at the screen and soaking in the dreamy debut.