For quite a few days, I had quite a few sleepless nights as its hard to connect with my relatives due to this crisis
Anyways, this sitting at home thing allowed me to enjoy Amazon Prime’s ‘The Test’ web-series on their digital platform
I was amazed to see the web-series just because of how original it was in presenting the story
What the web-series is all about?
amazon prime’s the test featuring mitchell starc, Justin Langer, Steven Smith, Pat Cummins
In March 2018, fans were in total disbelief as their favourite cricketers were accused of ball-tampering
There were many speculations on how Australia will recover from these testing times
But as we all know, they retained the Ashes in England and is now recognised as one of the best teams in the World
But, if you wanna know how they managed to rebuild their lost reputation, then ‘The Test.’ is for you
Amazon Prime’s ‘The Test’ presents you all the inside stories of Australian men’s cricket team in those 18 months
Yes, you can’t expect a 100% accurate picture of ‘Cricket Australia’ as they’ve given so much access to their dressing room
In bits and pieces, you understand this creative control, but still, it is something never experienced before
Here, I’m just trying not to give any spoilers, but think it will not be entirely possible
So, with that said let’s get back to business and talk about the five reasons which make it a must watch
Amazon Prime ‘The Test’ : Top 5 Reasons To Watch It Right Now
Justin Langer: The accidental coach who turned it around
In any web-series, we need someone playing the leading role, and Justin Langer played that kind of a part here
The story revolves very much around him as he was the one who took charge of Australia in this tough time
The Cape Town incident led to the ban of – Steve Smith and David Warner who were the backbone of their batting
Justin Langer, much like Rahul Dravid of Indian Cricket never got the credit he rightly deserved from Australian cricket
Post-ball-tampering scandal, making Langer the coach was also to improve the team’s image in the public eye
But what did he get? Two completely new captains with a bunch of talented players with limited international exposure
For Langer, the main thing was to inject the winning mentality in a dressing room which lost believing in themselves
It was a different experience for Langer as he was part of an Australian team which had this hunger to win
When in his first series as the coach, his team loses 5-0 against England, Langer uses the F-word every few seconds while lashing out
His authority even got resistance from the outspoken Usman Khawaja, but he convinced the team, and it finally reaped benefits
So, this journey through a ‘lot of failures’ to finally getting ‘success’ makes it a great watch
Tim Paine: The Unsung Hero who deserves your applause
So, Tim Paine and Aaron Finch were never expecting a captaincy job and suddenly was made the captain of the side
It is understandable when we talk about Finch as he was a senior member of the limited-overs format
He captained Australia in the T20s, and it was a no-brainer to give him the captaincy role
But, if you think about Tim Paine, I mean he is a decent enough wicket-keeper, but giving the captaincy job opened many eyes
We were feeling like, Oh Gosh!! Who is he? That’s how surprising it was to see him getting the captaincy job
Yes, Paine would have loved to perform better than what he did, but still, he made sure that the team believe that they could win
If you go through the movie, you will understand that Paine is someone who will always be the first one admit if he commits a mistake
That is what happens during the Perth Test in 2018 where he acknowledged that he shouldn’t have taken a dig on Kohli
So, this type of conversations where the captain admits to coach is shown, and management has agreed to that
Have you ever seen such things in any docuseries? That’s why you need to watch it now
A real picture of the psyche of the cricket players
This docuseries also give a real picture of how tough it is to be an international cricketer
It looks glamorous on the outside, but it shows how stressful it is for the cricketers in a very detailed way
It gives us a glimpse into mental preparations of players, so they don’t get mentally disintegrated
‘The Test’ reveals what failure does to players. In the field with so many people, you can’t show that much emotions
But, in the dressing room, your true feelings come out, and you get an idea of how leaders handle such situations and come out on top
Batsmen throwing things, Finch finding it wrong lecturing when he is not getting runs, it takes you in an emotional roller-coaster
Steve Smith battling his inner demons, Nathan Lyon getting emotional on giving Test cap to Travis Head, such access into a team is not to miss
An eye-opener when it comes to talking about team-bonding
In a cricket team, there are many individuals and all of them tries to work together so that the team gets benefited
So, you can take it like an office where all people are trying to increase the revenue of a firm, and that’s why they have to work together
In this way, in teams, with some players, you only have a professional relationship, and with some, it goes beyond that
This aspect is visible between Marcus Stoinis and Adam Zampa, Smith and Labuschagne where they bond which is more than professional
You would notice Langer emphasizing on ‘we’ and not ‘me.’, putting an arm around the shoulder, reminding me the ‘Chak De India’ movie
A happy ending to close the final chapter
As Indians, we like everything to end happily, and here the movie doesn’t disappoint us
The story which started with so many uncool moments and sadness finally came to a happy conclusion
We see someone like Steven Smith walking in to bat in the Ashes series with a hostile English crowd booing him
But while coming in the very end of the series, we see him emerge as a star and Australia retaining the Ashes
So, that was my take on ‘The Test.’ that I would highly suggest to all of you
Not only because of how real it is, but I want you to watch it as it will make your bond with cricket stronger