Saha and Bhuvi deliver for India, but the credit should go to captain Virat Kohli for using them

From Adelaide 2014 to Kolkata 2016, Virat Kohli has led India in 16 Tests thus far. In all this time, he has never played the same playing eleven in two consecutive Tests.

In the beginning, when he chopped and changed his side with glee, it seemed a learning curve for the young skipper. As time passed, this method has adorned a new phrase: horses for courses. It is no frivolity, and there is a certain planning that goes into every selection decision he makes.

This aspect became clear at the Eden Gardens on Saturday, as India turned the second Test around with powerful performances from Wriddhiman Saha and Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

The change in Saha

It was never going to be easy filling MS Dhoni’s immense shoes, but slowly Saha has carved out a positive space for himself in Indian cricket. There was never any doubt that he was the better gloves-man, but lost out in terms of batting. It was particularly seen in the manner Dhoni held the middle and lower order together at No. 6, as team India slowly moved towards the five-bowler ploy with regularity.

The team management, and Kohli in particular, acknowledged quickly enough that Saha was not cut out for that same job. While Dhoni’s cool persona allowed him to mellow for this role, Saha seemed stifled trying to replicate him. He is a naturally aggressive batsman, and the captain identified this trait and made changes accordingly. Now, R Ashwin bats above him and allows Saha to hit out freely.

This clever change around in the batting order ushered in at Antigua has borne fruit twice in two months, first in St Lucia where Saha – in partnership with Ashwin – saved India the blushes in the third Test with a maiden Test hundred. And in Kolkata on day two, when his aggressive maiden fifty on home soil pushed the Indian total past New Zealand’s reach.

Playing on his home turf, a ground that he has known since he took his first steps towards international cricket, Saha showcased how both the above factors have shaped the batsman he is now. The shackles have been long broken, and he attacked the New Zealand bowlers, who were looking to get the tail out early. At the same time he played a mature innings to guide his team to a total they badly desired after a disappointing first day.

Bhuvi takes five

Saha’s two crucial partnerships – with Ravindra Jadeja (41 runs) and Mohammed Shami (35 runs) - helped India reach a score of 316. Once there, the Indian skipper went on the offensive, with pace instead of spin this time around, much to the surprise of the Kiwis. It was an obvious thing to do, given the conditions available and how play panned out – half an hour before lunch, allowing Kohli to give an extended spell to his pacers, holding Ashwin back until the 16th over.

The rain was unplanned though, and it spiced up the pitch a bit more. It was the perfect setting for Bhuvi to come into his own, and wow, it is a joy to watch a swing bowler in all his glory in such conditions. Moving the ball treacherously, he was an obvious threat to the batsmen, and it was no surprise that he got enough wickets to totally decimate the New Zealand batting.

Kohli expected just such a return from this bowler on this particular track, never mind the rain. And this is where the "horses for courses" phrase rings in again. The Indian captain has a fit and raring squad available to him, and he will use it as per his understanding of conditions on offer and tactics he wants to deploy.

Gone are the days when captain Dhoni used to pick the same eleven, on form or just gut instinct. Bhuvi’s success, twice now when he has replaced another bowler, at St Lucia and in Kolkata, represents this significant shift in thinking of the leadership.

New Zealand’s woes

The visitors won’t like Kolkata too much. There wasn’t enough time between Tests to recover from the sapping heat and humidity of Kanpur, and they were instantly thrown into the cauldron that is Eden Gardens (even when more than half-empty as it is nowadays for Test cricket). It accounted for Kane Williamson’s flu, and half of New Zealand’s batting might went with his illness.

Umpire Rod Tucker took much of the the remainder away when he dismissed in-form Luke Ronchi with a doubtful LBW call. Some of his decisions in the first Test too were debatable, but this one was a sucker punch that the Kiwis couldn’t recover from.

Maybe they thought that rain would allow them to go to stumps and recover overnight. But the facilities here are better than in Port of Spain (or even Durban), where rain showers caused abandonment. Why, they are even better than in Kanpur, where the whole of the last session was washed out on day two.

Here, thanks to humongous covers, alert ground staff and three Super Soppers, we had 9.2 overs of play when a restart looked impossible. And the Black Caps’ list of woes grew ever longer.

The question is can they recover any more?