India prove their golden age still has plenty of kick left

The echoing cackle of your fielders in an empty or silenced stadium because you have all but ended the home team's hope on a final morning of a Test has to be one of the sweetest sounds in sport. The difficulty, and thus the satisfaction, of winning an away Test match cannot be overstated.

It is a sound India became accustomed to creating from 2018 to 2021, but have been yearning for it since the last tour of South Africa when they couldn't defend decent totals two times in a row. Then they lost the series lead - earned the previous year - in England when they went to complete the Covid-19-affected series. They lost the World Test Championship final to Australia in England. Then the Centurion Test. By an innings and change.

India is a team in transition but it was inexcusable for the bowlers to concede 145 and 136 in two of three consecutive sessions. People were beginning to worry about the bad-old days of the waning dominance at home and struggles away. It would have been disturbing to think the golden age in India's Test cricket might be winding up with only two series wins in Australia to show to those who want nothing short of series wins in South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia.

Coming to Cape Town, India needed the bowlers to respond to that threat. To give them confidence and reassurance that they are still good enough to be competing when they go to these countries. The chance of winning the series might have gone, but there was still a Test to be won and hopes to be raised for their next two away tours, to Australia and England.

The leadership didn't take a backward step. In fact they did away with a bowler who was playing more for his batting ability than his striking ability. They replaced him with a specialist seamer. It takes trust in your side to do so immediately after a 131 all out.

They didn't know it when the Test started but the pitch was going to do them a favour. It wasn't going to test the depth of the attack as strongly as Centurion did. There was to be both lateral and vertical movement, not to mention so much pace that it gave batters less time to adjust.

Sometimes when a team's back-up bowlers are not having a great Test and you have to come back for spell after spell, your eyes can kind of deceive you. Is Jasprit Bumrah the same bowler after injury? Were we too quick to put Mohammed Siraj in the same category as Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ishant Sharma?

In their hearts the bowlers might know not much has changed, but they needed to back it up after a demoralising result. Even these kinds of pitches bring their own challenges. The action becomes crunched. There is no time for niceties. The batters want to do unto you before you do unto them. They are ready to pounce on every error. Every run is precious. It is an intensity of a different kind.

Bumrah and Siraj carried forward the hostility and accuracy of their first spells in Centurion to Cape Town. Of course they were getting wickets and wouldn't have refused a longer spell, but Siraj maintained that intensity across a nine-over spell in the first innings. After 23 Tests, Siraj now averages 28.25, behind only by a point on the going average in those Tests, 27.24. The man can handle himself.

Barely three hours later, these bowlers were once again asked to go back and arrest the slide of having lost six wickets for zero runs. Bumrah might not have got the wickets in the first innings, he might have bowled three indifferent overs to start the second innings, but pretty soon he was back to bowling bullets into the misbehaving good length area.

One moment, we were doubting him; next moment, he was ending the series with an average of 12.91 and 12 wickets in two Tests. Just a reminder: he averages 21.21 while the overall average in Tests he has played is 26.2. From the time we have started semi-doubting him, Bumrah has averaged 17.7 in seven Tests where the overall average has been 26.19.

That Bumrah spell on the second morning was another timely reminder of his quality as South Africa looked for quick runs. He bowled full only when he got to Keshhav Maharaj, and got him out immediately. The best Bumrah is the one who is not searching. Just kept bowling the hard lengths and cashed in his money in the bank accumulated from the last few innings.

We don't yet know who India's coach or captain will be after the end of the T20 World Cup in June, but we know that whoever leads the team to Australia and England will need Bumrah, Siraj and Shami fit and bowling at or close to their best for these series. Possibly one last time on a big away tour as India's next away tour will be at the end of 2026 to New Zealand.