Virat Kohli's Indian team embarks upon one of its most important seasons, one that can make or mar a few careers. Playing 13 Test matches at home in the present-day demanding circumstances is not a small matter. It is a long home season, agreed. It could be tiring. The fitness of the players will be put to extreme test, as much as the quality of the opposition that India face – New Zealand (3 Tests), England (5), Australia (4) and Bangladesh (1).
While every Indian cricketer is keen to make an impression in the 13-Test home season, the focus would be to take one game at a time, look towards winning as many Tests as possible. Playing so many Tests at home in a stretch may be new to everyone of the current players. But this is not new to Indian cricket.
The Indian team played 13 Tests at home in the 1979-80 season – six Tests each against Australia and Pakistan and wound it up with the one-off Golden Jubilee Test against England in Mumbai – over 23 weeks, winning four and losing one with the remaining eight drawn.
One player who featured in all those 13 Tests – led by Sunil Gavaskar for first 11 Tests and by Gundappa Viswanath in the last two – Karsan Ghavri said that "it is a lot of asking to play that many Tests".
"It's definitely tough to play 13 Test matches against three different countries. Test cricket, as such, is quite demanding. A lot of steel and temperament is required," the 65-year-old Ghavri, who shared the new ball with a young Kapil Dev, then in his second international season, told dna.
Kapil went on to become one of the greatest all-rounders the game has ever seen, never missing out on a Test match for fitness issues.
Fitness of players has grown immensely in magnitude over the years. But Ghavri, who bowled left-arm medium-pace and took 109 wickets in 39 Tests, said players of his generation maintained fitness in their own way.
"Cricket today is not like earlier days. After many years, for the first time ever we played 13 Test matches on the trot. These days, cricket is so different. Over the last few years, the Indian team has been playing quite a lot of Tests. It is quite demanding on a players' body.
"Everyone has to be on the toes all the time and be on top of the world as far as maintaining fitness is concerned. Today's cricketers are professionals. They are well looked after. A niggle here and there is bound to happen
"In our time, everybody individually looked after his own fitness We never had trainers, we never had physios but we knew what to do and what not to do. Today's generation is different. Every player has his own trainer and knows how much work load should be given to him."
The first match, often, sets the tone for the series or the season. The Indian cricketers have been harping on this fact. But in 1979-80, India drew the first two matches of the season before winning the third. They went on to win 2-0 against Australia and by an identical margin against Pakistan while losing the one-off Golden Jubilee Test at the Wankhede largely due to Ian Botham's all-round heroics (6/58 & 7/48 and 114).
Ghavri agreed that the start has to be positive for India. "It bodes well really. When you play 13 Tests in a stretch at home and begin with a win, that boosts your morale. It gives you a great satisfaction. It gives great confidence to the players.
"Having said that, even a draw is safe but not lose. If you lose (the first Test), your morale is down, you will be short on confidence," said Ghavri, who picked up 31 wickets and scored 302 runs that season.
Asked to choose his personal highlight of that season, Ghavri said: "The highlight has to be winning the Test against Pakistan in Bombay (as Mumbai was then known). Winning against Pakistan in Bombay was very very special. Any game we play against Pakistan, be it Test, ODI or T20, is very special. It really stands out not only for the players but also for the fans. Players get utmost satisfaction when they do well against Pakistan."
Ghavri's contribution to India's win by 131 runs was 36 and 1 with the bat and 4/63 in the second innings after going wicketless in the first.
INDIA IN 1979-80
VS AUSTRALIA (India win 2-0)
1st Test in Chennai, Draw
2nd Test in Bengaluru, Draw
3rd Test in Kanpur, India win by 153 runs
4th Test in Delhi, Draw
5th Test in Kolkata, Draw
6th Test in Mumbai, India win by an innings and 100 runs
VS PAKISTAN (India win 2-0)
1st Test in Bengaluru, Draw
2nd Test in Delhi, Draw
3rd Test in Mumbai, India win by 131 runs
4th Test in Kanpur, Draw
5th Test in Chennai, India win by 10 wickets
6th Test in Kolkata, Draw
VS ENGLAND
One-off Test in Mumbai, India lose by 10 wickets
