Friends say there’s a surfeit of cricket being played all across and attracts undue attention to the detriment of other sports. Some would say it ranks third after political news and films in terms of our preoccupation and cricket anchors who are aplenty, remind us that it’s a religion in India. Cricket lovers of the vintage variety will argue that there’s never too much of a good thing and some can watch classics again and again like First Tied Test of 1960 between West Indies and Aussies or the 1983 Lord’s WC Win and Dhoni’s six to nail the 2011 WC in Wankhede Mumbai !
In the latest of brilliant sports films that have been made on the game of cricket, I was pleasantly surprised to find on ‘Jio Cinema’, a less talked about but nevertheless utterly engrossing true cricket story. Titled ‘Bandon Mein Tha Dum’, it is a documentary series which follows the Border-Gavaskar Trophy Test series of 2020-21 which resulted in India stunningly defeating Australia at their home turf of Gabba, where they hadn’t lost a test match in 32 years !
Interested you would quickly ask what’s the cast like.Well it has our very vintage cricket heroes, Ajinkya Rahane, Ravichandran Ashwin, Cheteshwar Pujara, Rishabh Pant, Hanuma Vihari, Mohammed Siraj of India, Coach Paddy Upton and the Aussies Tim Paine and Pat Cummins. Directed by the superb Neeraj Pandey (of the Special Ops 1 & 1.5 Series) and with the entire narrative told with telling effect by actor Jimmy Shergill, this is a real thriller in its own genre !
For the uninitiated , on the 2020-21, four-Tests tour ‘Down Under’, led by Virat Kohli, India badly lost the First Test after a batting collapse where the entire side was bundled out for a paltry 36 and all round humiliation followed thereafter. Virat returned to India for the birth of his child, Rahane took over reins of a battered side. What transpired thereafter makes the story of India’s ‘Men in White’ who led India’s biggest triumph in Test history..an impossible 3-2 series win facing all odds including lockdowns, innumerable injuries and a hostile Aussie attack.
What’s most fascinating are the insights in to what was on their minds and psyche battling the toughest challenges as shared in interviews with amazing clarity and sincerity by champions like Ajinkya Rahane courageously leading fight back with a century, his Vice-Capt the indomitable Pujara, astute planner Ashwin, master-blaster Pant and rookie pacer Md.Siraj and even Aussies shared grudging admiration for the way the Indians responded with sheer grit and courage.
One will be hooked with this four-part series that encapsulates the tension, the excitement of the four thrilling Test matches, the mind games, behind-the-scenes footage and candid narratives from the cricketers, coaches, and journalists involved. But for die-hard romantics, what lingers are memories of two great Test players, Rahane & Pujara, now not in reckoning and forgotten !
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