Test Cricket: Finally India Get a D(e) Jure(l) Wicketkeeper-Batsman!

During this England Tour of India-2023-24 things have really happened in the five-match Test Series. All the matches have produced results within four days each and there was no one-way traffic as both the teams fought tooth and nail to win. The first Test in Hyderabad that England won by 28 runs and the 4^th Test in Ranchi that India won by 5 wickets proved to be nail-biting suspense dramas. In between the Indian debutants shone bright in the Third Test in Rajkot that India won by a record margin. One of the debutants, Dhruv Jurel, went on to shine the brightest in this 4^th Test, his only second. On the second day at stumps of the 4^th test match this writer had left you stating that if India conceded more than 100 runs to England it would most likely prove fatal for the hosts. Dhruv Jurel changed that story in its entirety and scripted a brand-new chapter (in fact, this writer did hint on a coincidental partnership like that of England): with his team reeling at 219/7, still trailing by 134 runs, Jurel resumed on the third day and added 73 precious runs with Kuldeep Yadav, and still didn’t give up, adding more crucial runs with the debutant pacer Akash Deep. Thus he not only reduced the deficit to a number below hundred, but brought it down to below fifty which virtually took the edge off England’s potential lead, leaving the visitors to fight it out anew in the second innings. Jurel was the last wicket out for a tremendous 90 runs in 149 balls which witnessed four sixes and six fours with his team finishing at 307, conceding just a 46-run lead to England.

After Ravichandran Ashwin’s fifer and Kuldeep Yadav’s four wickets destroyed England scuttling them out for just 145 runs with Zak Crawley scoring the highest individual score of 60 followed by the second highest of 30 by Jonny Bairstow, India needed 192 runs to win which looked rather easy, made easier by the way Rohit and Jaiswal began—they finished the third day at 40 without loss and then on the  fourth day carried on the opening partnership to 84 runs at which stage it seemed India was cruising to seal the Series. However, any total of more than 150 runs on the fourth day on a turning pitch is never easy. With England spinners Bashir and Hartley in action from both ends anything could’ve happened. And the India wickets did tumble—from a position of strength they were tottering at 120 for 5 at which stage, again, the match could’ve gone to the English way with their aggressive captain Ben Stokes giving out everything for a win to stay alive in the Series.

Dhruv Jurel changed that, one more time. He found a strong companion in the form of another youngster of promise, Shubman Gill, who got his act together this time. Both of them kept on inching toward the target in a determined way, combining defence with cautious aggression and never delving into the proverbial shells. Nothing worked for England after that, and the duo achieved the win for their team with an invaluable unbeaten partnership of 72 memorable runs—Gill remaining not out on 52 and Jurel not out on 39 runs. India sealed the Test Series taking an unassailable lead of 3-1 with the fifth and the last Test starting from 7^th March in Dharamshala.

Dhruv Jurel was named the Player of the Match—a title only in his second Test. And for India, they have finally found a solid wicketkeeper-batsman of future after searching for one since MS Dhoni retired and then after Rishabh Pant unfortunately had a serious accident that put him out of action for a long time during which the Indian selectors tried on various options: from the likes of Sanju Samson to KS Bharat, not to speak of the sporadic KL Rahul episodes. Dhruv Jurel fits in nicely with all the requirements—his classy keeping and catching behind the stumps, his technically sound batting and a suitably calm temperament with his three innings so far being signs of things to come.  

Dreams that do indeed come true for so many of us human beings thanks to their relentless pursuits: Dhruv Jurel hailing from the modest family of a retired army havildar father and a homemaker mother in Agra, Uttar Pradesh, his mother reportedly selling her jewelries for the fulfilment of her son’s dreams, and Jurel achieving a place in Team India at the age of just 22; very similar to that of Sarfaraz Khan who also has very humble beginnings and who had really to fight hard all the way to find himself in the national team, how can we forget the tearful scenes with his father and his wife in the stadium of Rajkot during the third test! Enliven up your dreams, Young India! Amen!

India Struggling Under England Spinning Spell! Ranchi Test, Day2

England spinners, Shoaib Bashir and Tom Hartley, have made India struggle, once again after Hyderabad, and put the home team in a precarious position on the second day of the 4^th Test between India and England in Ranchi today. Bashir who replaced Rehan Ahmed is the chief damager, capturing four very important scalps that are Yashasvi Jaiswal (73), Shubman Gill (38), Rajat Patidar (17) and Ravindra Jadeja (12). This was followed up with gusto by the match-winner of the First Test, Tom Hartley who consumed one of the two debutant match-winners of the Third Test, Sarfaraz Khan and then dismissed R Ashwin whom the team dearly depended upon to hang on for the day and thus anchoring a partnership with Jurel, the second successful debutant of the Third Test. The two English spinners took absolute control of the proceedings after James Anderson removed captain Rohit Sharma cheaply and in just the third over of the India reply. Like in the previous outing a partnership was blooming between Jaiswal and Gill, but was cut short by Bashir getting Gill LBW at the team score of 86/2 (partnership restricted to 82 only). After that the Indian wickets started tumbling at regular intervals: 112/3 (Patidar), 130/4 (Jadeja), 161/5 (Jaiswal), 171/6 (Sarfaraz) and 177/7 (Ashwin). The inexperience of the team lay exposed this time.

Well, you can’t expect the youngsters to fire every time and take the team out of crisis or get it to a winning position every time. The captain, even though he did contribute a century in the previous test, must be determined to carry on and at least contribute a moderately good score; the same applies to the relatively more experienced Gill who failed to anchor the partnership in spite of Jaiswal going great guns at the other end; it’s okay to give another chance to Rajat Patidar who has been failing since the selectors were kind enough to include him in the playing eleven, but then the selectors should’ve first checked the availability of the relatively more experienced batsmen in the reserve—like for example, the axed Shreyas Iyer who doesn’t at all deserve a permanent deletion; and more disastrously, you can’t afford to drop your main strike bowler Jasprit Bumrah with the Series still undecided, particularly in the absence of the other strike pacer Mohd Shami.

If the would-be deficit is more than a 100 runs India would still face a huge challenge even if England manages to score only around 150 runs in their second innings; simply because as per the Hyderabad and other similar experiences on ‘home’ turfs where the ball turns, keeps low, induces vicious reverse swing and capitalizes on the pronounced uneven bounce, the home team invariably finds the pitch unplayable in the fourth innings. Now, the Indian spinners not at par with their counterparts of yore, it’s up to any good spinner of any visiting team to exploit the pitch for their teams better than the home spinners. Therefore, in a way, a Test match gets pre-determined by the toss—win it to win the match and vice versa. This also induces this writer to make an explosive statement: while nothing is wrong in making slow-turning pitches in here just like the way Australia or England or South Africa put up green turfs in their backyards, you cannot hope for your home team to win the toss every possible time; it makes you wonder if that was the case when they prepared the Ahmedabad pitch for the World Cup-2023 Final, hoping the home team to win the toss as they were consistent doing so during the tournament and then take the suitable call? If this speculation, howsoever ungrounded it may be, attract ire from some this writer would only welcome them to elucidate the issue further.

This writer agrees fully with England captain Ben Stokes on what he said after the last two consecutive defeats: he said the option of the ‘umpire’s call’ should be eliminated from the DRS rules. Rightly so, because the DRS has evolved to eliminate human mistakes and errors in judgement. Earlier there used to be ‘benefit of the doubt’ in LBW decisions expressed by the third umpires when the ball seemed to be just and only just touching the top or the sides of the off or the leg stumps and when it couldn’t be conclusively proved if the ball edged the bat or not. But now in such cases the DRS allows the ‘umpire’s call’, meaning if the umpire gave it Out originally then it has to be Out and vice versa, thus completely ignoring the ‘benefit of the doubt’ factor. If ‘err to human’ is true we cannot say the machines are bulletproof. Yes, like Ben said, ‘the umpire’s call’ should be taken out of the DRS and the entire decision should be left for the digital examination to decide, of course, if they could be convincing and conclusive. At the same time Ben Stokes was apparently benefiting today from the same clause he wanted removed!

A slight twist of good fortune for India at stumps today. Like the England seventh wicket partnership contributed more than 100 invaluable runs for the team with bowler Robinson notching up his highest Test score (58) in the company of Root from stumps yesterday to today morning session, the India seventh wicket partnership has so far contributed 42 runs as bowler Kuldeep Yadav is fighting it out with Jurel to end the day at 219/7, still trailing by 134 runs. The size of the lead to be conceded by India is very much going to decide the outcome of the match either in England’s or in India’s favor. However, should India crash to a defeat in the next two days, the behavior of this writer should not be labelled as ‘typical of an Indian supporter’, because during the next two or three days this writer happens to have some other engagement and may not be able to jot down the proceedings here, whoever wins or loses! Enjoy!

England Change Over from Bazball to Root Cricket! Ranchi, 4th Test, Day1

Although it wouldn’t be wholly correct to say that the visiting England team has lost the last two Tests thanks to their solid adherence to Bazball cricket, they apparently, trailing 1-2 in the five-match Series, did or had to change their tactics on the first day of the 4^th Test match that began in Ranchi today. To add to their ‘positive approach to Test Cricket’ they won the toss today choosing to bat first, and therefore, they decided to surge ahead with that aggressive cricket, the openers—Crawley (42) and Duckett (11)—keeping the run-rate nearly at five-an-over. One more debutant for the inexperienced Team India, pacer Akash Deep, replacing a roaring Bumrah for whatever reasons of ‘rest’ the selectors may have decided, however, got both of them out quickly including the danger man Ollie Pope for a duck in between them, and thus captured three scalps reducing England to 57/3, an ominous start batting first.  Nonetheless, Jonny Bairstow carried on with Bazball scoring 38 in 35, and maintaining the about-5 team run-rate. Unfortunately for him, the Indian spinners got active then and on a pitch that the English captain Ben Stokes reportedly condemned even before match began struck two vital blows—Ashwin dismissing Bairstow while Jadeja got Stokes for just 3 runs. Perhaps, Stokes, the co-founder of Bazball in association with Coach Brendon McCullum, was in a great dilemma about carrying on with Bazball or not wasting two or three overs in the process and before he could take the final call Jadeja consumed him.

In the meantime Joe Root was slowly spreading roots in the ground. He perhaps convinced his partner Ben Foakes (47 in 126) of the all-important changeover, and therefore, they began a phase of ‘Root cricket’ which has helped them stage a recovery with a partnership of 113 runs, when the team run-rate was just above three—a clear sign of traditional Test cricket. As the spinners were being defended quite easily by the ‘rooted’ cricketers India captain Rohit brought in Mohd Siraj who was Bazball-hit in his opening spell, and under ‘Root cricket’ he got a very well-set Foakes caught. Maybe Rohit capitalized on kind of a double changeover-woes for the visitors—first Bazball to Root Cricket and then onerous spin to sudden pace. Siraj continued to bowl furious sending Tom Hartley (13) too to the pavilion with England at 245/7 in 76^th over (run-rate reading 3.25 an over).

Why are we sort of ridiculing the Bazball approach? Well, this writer has earlier indicated that this kind of approach may not at all be good in the typical Indian pitches and should not be followed for the sake of it. Besides, there was quite a lot of international brouhaha over Bazball with former stalwarts questioning it or even cracking jokes about it. A few of them say that aggressive Test cricket is actually nothing new—teams like Australia among others having already demonstrated it on numerous occasions—and naming it Bazball now England cannot claim all the credit! Therefore, we also thought what could really go wrong if we too added in our contribution! All in the spirit of the glorious game, you see! Democracy must thrive at least in this beautiful gentleman game, if not in the countries that produce-enact it!

By the way! What are the crowds (in the picture above) celebrating for?  Definitely not for abandoning Bazball? Because, cricket fans, now fatally exposed to the irresistible charms of the shorter formats of cricket, would always love quick aggressive cricket! To put it more seriously, we also have welcomed result-oriented entertaining Test Cricket on numerous former occasions. However, Indian cricket fans don’t need no reasons to celebrate! I think I said earlier, in most probably in the IPL context, that Indian fans burst into merriment of the most boisterous order the moment the telecast cameras turn on them! Wonder of wonders! Even the most tensed-up suspenseful nail-biting faces dissolve into cheering bouts as the cameras explore and focus on them!

Joe Root, most deservedly, notched up his 10^th Test century, taking 219 balls to do that which is immensely traditional and this time helping England immensely too. Ollie Robinson, the replacement for Mark Wood, gave solid support to Root in evolving a crucial partnership in the last hour of the day. And they remained not out at stumps—Root on 106 and Robinson on 31 runs—a very important unbeaten partnership of 57 runs at the team score of 302 runs. The England supporters on the ground clapped emphatically as England reached the 300-run mark, because they like all of us know that scoring 300 in a day is very healthy—Bazball or no Bazball. The enthusiastic India cricketers, trying hard for an overkill perhaps, shouted ‘how’s that’ so much so intensely that their captain landed up exhausting all their reviews, and then the shouting turned hoarser as they knew they had none now to fall upon. Rohit took the last resort of Jaiswal as the bowler in the last over to break the partnership, but to no avail. In a Test in India anything above 300 is always considered good batting first, and England has crossed it with 3 wickets remaining. How well the batsmen of the most inexperienced Team India would reply is the all-important question for tomorrow even as the odd ball is already keeping low, and the England spinners have been very good in this Series so far. Definitely, this 4^th Test is set up!

The Most Inexperienced Team India Blasts Away the English Bazball! India Beat England by 434 Runs!

Arguably the most inexperienced playing eleven India had ever fielded in the international Test playing arena, has blasted away the much-talked-about Bazball approach to cricket that England adopted under their aggressive coach Brendon McCullum and an equally aggressive captain Ben Stokes in 2022, beating the visitors by the biggest-ever margin in terms of runs (434) in the last session of the fourth day of the Third Test between India and England in Rajkot today with India leading the five-match Series 2-1 now. The Indian selectors had reportedly included two debutants in the top seven of the playing eleven as far back as in 1999, and in 2024 for the third test match they had to do so by including debutant Sarfaraz Khan as a batsman and Dhruv Jurel as wicket keeper-batsman and a rookie batsman Rajat Patidar, apart from the other youngsters of great promise like Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal. This crucial decision had to be taken with the continuing absence of the two stalwarts Virat Kohli and KL Rahul, and the indifferent forms of Shreyas Iyer and the two wicket-keepers already tried in the first two tests. Therefore, fingers were crossed with the most inexperienced team in action and the traditionally tremendous batting depth of Team India slowly and almost inevitably remaining only on paper. On the other hand, even though the English bowling attack has not been much of a threat to India the Baz-positivity was ringing in the air and England must’ve definitely smelt the victory scent to go up in the Series. But what a match it turned out to be!

India captain Rohit Sharma won the toss which was always good in Indian pitches, and inevitably opted to bat first. Perhaps due to the overnight due the Rajkot pitch that looked perfect for batting had some moisture and taking full advantage of that Mark Wood proved nearly unplayable, capturing the dangerous Jaiswal and the sober Gill. Tom Hartley, the mainstay spinner of England in this tour of India, who was introduced early did further damage reducing India to 33/3. The inexperienced line-up was looming large and a collapse looked very much a possibility. However, Rohit (131) played like a captain this time and forged a huge partnership (204 runs) with the most experienced all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (112) who was moved up the order— and India were ‘out of the Wood’.

With the fall of Rohit, fourth down, in came the first debutant Sarfaraz Khan. Having a tremendous record in domestic cricket the 26-year-old never looked nervous or tentative and played brilliantly with fours and sixes all around the park. Another big partnership was evolving much to the detriment of England, but as a lucky break for them Sarfaraz was run out in a horrible mix-up with the experienced Jadeja at 99 making the former the sacrificial goat. Out at 62, Sarfaraz departed dejectedly and cried in the pavilion even as Rohit made his anger known publicly. Jadeja then stole that single to make to his 4^th Test century. On the second day the second debutant Dhruv Jurel (46) started rebuilding the innings with solid support from the veteran spinner all-rounder Ravichandran Ashwin (37). Thanks to a spirited cameo from the Indian strike pacer Jasprit Bumrah (26) India finished at 445, a much respectable total under any circumstances.

Very true to the result-oriented and positive Bazball philosophy the English openers scored fluently all around the park till Crawley (15) fell at the team total of 89; Ollie Pope (39) added to the batting mayhem; and of course, Ben Duckett raced to his century in just 88 balls and remained not out on 133 in the company of Joe Root at stumps on the second day with England at 207/2 in 35 overs—almost 6 runs an over which is unthinkable in a Test match. It proved again the fact that the pitch had no demons in it at all and that England were very much in with a chance to at least save the match if not win.

However, what transpired from the start of the third day was a lesson in tight and aggressive bowling, particularly by Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Jadeja who all seemed to be bowling to an attacking plan masterminded by the captain. Except for Duckett who made 153 no other English batsmen could stick out for long and the whole team folded up for 319—losing 8 wickets for just 112 runs and conceding an unexpected bounty of 126-run lead for India.

The Indian second innings belonged to Yashasvi Jaiswal almost in entirety. He notched up his century in a dominant T-20 style, then retired hurt at the end of the third day, resumed today, the fourth day, and made it a double hundred—his second back-to-back double century in two Tests and thus becoming only the third Indian cricketer to do, after Vinod Kambli and Virat Kohli. Gill played a master innings of 91 runs and got run out unfortunately. An unbeaten partnership of nearly 200 runs evolved between Jaiswal (214 in 236 balls not out) and Sarfaraz Khan (68 runs in 72 balls). Suddenly, the pitch became a T-20 ground and the two mavericks defied all orthodoxy reserved for the classic Test format. Jaiswal’s 12 sixes matched the highest sixes in a Test innings held by Wasim Akram. The mayhem could’ve continued had Rohit not declared at 430/4 giving England the well-nigh impossible task of making 557 runs to win.

The England second innings was a horror story—the highest individual score being 33 made by Mark Wood. The run-out of Duckett which was extremely inexplicable started the rot and the mad rush toward defeat. The England innings folded up for a paltry 122 in just 39.4 overs, giving India the 434-run win and it was all over at the fag end of the fourth day today, contrary to all expectations. The weak and aimless English bowling attack was pathetically matched by a batting display that totally lacked in any kind of application. Veteran James Anderson being hit for consecutive sixes by a 22-year-old reminded me of the rampaging acts of a young Sachin Tendulkar in the early nineties. Alas Bazball! England needs much introspection to do before the fourth test begins from 23^rd February, 2024, in Ranchi. 

Amusing Superstitions in Watching Cricket!

When we were school students the Television was not there in our regions, and so, nothing about ‘watching’ cricket. Those days we caught up with the radio whenever India were playing, I remember lying awake the whole night till daylight, particularly when the matches were going on in the West Indies; and those were only the five-day Test matches as the shorter formats were also unknown except for our gully or home cricket being always limited-overs encounters. And we were free of any superstitious beliefs because listening didn’t necessarily involve them. It’s only when we started getting blessed with the live telecasts (early eighties in India) and began watching our favorite players in action that such superstitions began to emerge. Perhaps watching it live made the exchange of vibes or thoughts between us and the players possible with what you call the body language behaviors of both sides affecting the prospects, somewhat. And in came the superstitions, beliefs or say superstitious beliefs and biases/prejudices that mostly govern the rabid ‘home-side’ supporters. That day I was watching a Test match between India and England when all the memories regarding those rushed back, after a long time.

The first and foremost belief/superstition/prejudice was: based on circumstantial evidence we were of the firm opinion that when India were batting, the moment we got up from our seat and went out for some time or even went for a leak very much inside home one or two Indian wickets fell invariably—we cursing ourselves for the indiscretion while coming back to watch the horrid results. This ‘belief’ began to act so severely in our minds that we sat stuck to our seats till India finished their innings—in the process holding up biological needs, ignoring mother’s directives and other related issues that never failed to cause a lot of irritation around. However, we were sure that such ‘waves of irritation’, though essentially negative in nature, were not going to impact our batsmen adversely. And exactly the opposite was true, again based on ‘forensic’ evidence, when the opposition was batting—meaning if we sat stuck as in the Indian innings no wicket would ever fall and if we got up for a break one/two wickets fell invariably. So, during those periods we used to move around like free birds!

Although I don’t know much about astrology or astronomy and less about numerology, the numbers began to dominate our beliefs/superstitions/prejudices at a later stage, and unfortunately that streak still continues, at least in my personal case, notwithstanding the momentous fact that by now I am an ‘elderly, wise and experienced’ individual! How do we get the ‘concepts’ about all those special numbers? Well, maybe we’re influenced by some elaboration, talks, discussions or internet ‘insights’ over the years! For example, the number 13 is always beheld as the unluckiest number, even though numerology may say a lot of good things about it.

My ‘forensic’ evidence always shows that whenever an India batsman, particularly in case of the stalwarts like Virat or Rohit (not to speak of the greats of yore), reaches the individual score of 13 he succumbs to that piece of sheer bad luck, most often than not! It applies to the team score too, in fact, all other numbers that I’m going to talk about apply to both individual and team scores and that of the opposition players/teams as well. While I sit on as if thunderstruck when my favorite player fails to evade number 13, I sit up with delirious anticipation when players of the opposition do so! As per my ‘evidence’ the number 63 and 111 are even more dangerous and near-fatal! When a cricketer or his team reaches 63 some great tragedy is about to befall them, its effect being more ominous if he or the team stays on that score for one or two balls more or till the next over. Ditto for the number 111! And when both the episodes of 63 and 111 happen for a team, that team is bound to lose the match, as per my evidence again! And these are applicable for all playing teams.

You’d hardly believe me that once in a holy place I refused to take a very nice double-room offered by a good hotel, because the room bore the 111 number! And I caused undue hardship to my poor wife as she had to trudge along with me in search of a new hotel! But what to do? Maybe I thus prevented some absolutely hazardous bit of misfortune befalling us both if I had okayed the room. I know this much that astrology always suggest measures to get rid of probable misfortune and like the protective spirits/angels who are always with us to safeguard our journey of life as against the evil ones that want to harm us at every possible excuse. Such ‘Good Vs Evil’ battles are being constantly fought over every one of us like a balancing act, including the cricketers that some of them of their teams may be enabled to escape from the numbers as mentioned.

Although I cannot help but being number-conscious I don’t capsize to their hold of my mind, and I always hope for a clean way out. Now, number 4 is considered to be influenced by Rahu, number 7 by Ketu or number 8 is supposed to be governed by Saturn and the summation of numbers that result in these numbers; but they don’t always harm you, they may in fact do tremendous good to you if you happen to be looked upon favorably by the concerned planets. I don’t want to go for more explanations or justification or whatever. The moot point is that these number games or most of the superstitious beliefs we hold as far as cricket is concerned are always amusing and even humorous. Besides, who has the time nowadays to sit glued to TV sets (or even head-phoned mobiles for that matter)! Because you have to work, nah? Our cricketers earn millions of bucks all the time, and this obvious fact makes us lesser mortals work harder, right? So, as I mentioned I was amused that day by those memories. You should be too!

Social Media Visibility @ZERO!

Well! What the heck! Invisibility is infinite because our own God Himself is invisible! Some scientists say that even ZERO is a concept akin to being infinite! Therefore, both ways, it’s only great to be invisible! While God hides Himself behind whatever you don’t need to know, He has created the humans that are immensely visible; once you’re born as one you cannot hide anywhere in the universe until you drop dead in which case you’re either burnt to ashes or buried under, making you finally invisible as far as the ‘real you’ is concerned, because you continue to exist virtually in family albums and the social media, and if you happen to be a huge celebrity you continue to have an extremely dominant virtual existence till perhaps when earth itself gets obliterated. However, problems are more obnoxious when you and other ordinary mortals like us are kicking alive! Even if you wish to disappear instantly from all human views, like Sita in Ramayana did, you fail to accomplish that. In this digital world God has given us the great gift of the virtual existence like the one where He perhaps exists too, not for nothing. Here, you are empowered to do what you wish to do with your unwelcome physical appearance and other related attributes, not instantly, of course, but over a very short period of time. Yes! You can really make yourself disappear!

Now the question comes as to why you should want to disappear yourself from your very own fellow human beings! In mean virtually! Well, for that you’re quick to blame only them, because actually your fellow human beings is the primal cause. Moving on with the modern times and to keep yourself in circulation you do join the virtual world—the social media platforms you know. There you show your face, pen down your thoughts and tagging along other virtual creatures too. And most of you do quite well. But alas! Other fellas cannot tolerate your getting noticed and so, they turn themselves into fraudsters, hackers, cheats or whatever of that ilk to steal your profile from no one else than you only, steal everything possible of your enriching virtual existence and move on as perfect parasites, at times, achieving much more than the real you ever did! And then there come the dangers—looming insecurity for all your material wealth, for your pace of mind or for your possible loss of reputation, apart from the identity theft.

It is indeed hard to understand why God has gifted the Artificial Intelligence or AI tools to humankind at this vulnerable juncture, because, apparently, it immediately helps the fraudsters, cheats or whatever of that ilk to make your life worse! They can now be the real you, for all surreal and virtual purposes! Perhaps He wants to make your proposed ‘disappearance’ act fast-tracked. Obviously, the IT giants, the top CEOs or the industry tycoons would only sing hoarsely in praise of His gift! Why would they bother themselves for ordinary mortals like you? They wouldn’t stand to lose any of the customers either, because the real you will have to go on purchasing the essentials for your physical mortal cocktail existence! A bit complicated, you know!

Anyway, we can really fast-track ourselves too in the disappearance act thanks to all the gifts! Virtually, mind you! Maybe, God had sent the Pandemic to get us involved more intimately in the virtual world so that when the time comes we should be ready for the all-important act. Following your tragic example, this namesake writer has also decided to disappear himself from the virtual world—instantly from the main social media platforms and gradually from the other related terrains. Of course, he will always stick to his books or writings even if those are suffering from as much loss of visibility as his invisible self, and for that simple reason only he continues to write today here, particularly for you! The writer has still kept one platform, because there he has just a solitary follower there which fact would greatly discourage antagonistic-fellas from adopting, adapting, impersonating, taking over or whatever as well as safeguarding him from related dangers.

Let there be light, and there was light. Let them disappear, and they disappeared. God can be omniscient, omnipresent and so on, but He too has to adapt Himself to the changing times. Right?