No, you certainly don`t need numbers to tell you that cricket over the past few decades has grown multifold, became faster or even frenetic. Your intuition, if it has survived the whirlwind that was the advent of T20 cricket, the shock of the ‘Big Three’ takeover and the clear shift from cricket as a live spectator experience to a broadcast business, will tell you batters now score runs faster, that Tests finish in results other than draws more often, that India-England-Australia dominate the yearly fixtures, and cricketers play significantly more matches.
Whether it is about the orthodox shots that disappeared without a trace or the ever-changing field restrictions, cricket should be best known as the sporting world’s ‘chameleon’, constantly adapting to try and keep up with the changing attitudes of fans and players.
The late 90s was a decade of sovereignty by the subcontinent in the cricket world, with all three of the Test-playing nations India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in command. However, the 2000s have seen the mantle shift more and more on to India, with the other two faltering consistently.
Leadership moved on from Sourav Ganguly to a very worthy MS Dhoni to a more zestful Kohli, to cool and competitive Rohit Sharma. Specialist captains emerged for different formats and there were dynamics like having a former captain become a senior team member, a young team member taking over as captain for short stints, etc. The winning mentality that Sourav instilled in his teammates, has remained with the Men in Blue as there have been no major flip-flops on the captaincy front, with the transfer of power being relatively smooth.
India now competes at the level of Australia and England in both the Test and ODI arenas, with its immediate neighbours struggling to avoid a slide into mediocrity similar to that of the West Indies in the late 1990s, and early and mid 2000s.
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Though it won’t cost much to say that India have been perennial underachievers in One Day International cricket. If you could equate Spain and India in any way, it would be that both the countries` major sports teams (football and cricket, respectively) fail at the big stage.
We have a rich history, including a World Cup crown in 1983. It has been 40 years, but we still find reasons to celebrate the image of Kapil Dev holding the trophy at Lord`s, seared into our memories.
But the game has changed today, it is now a place for dynamism and power. The Indian team in the 1990s had a considerable amount of talent, but the team was never a unit. It was a group of individuals, something which I must admit is changing today.
There was never a ‘second plan’ in place and the team would play extremely well one day and poorly on another. Overall, the team was average. Yes, we banked on the ageing attack of Ajay Jadeja for his fielding and Robin Singh shared much of the burden. We have always relied on Sachin Tendulkar, Mohammed Azharuddin and Sourav Ganguly in the batting department. The bowling was poor, but we still had some very stable bowlers in the form of Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble.
The distinguishing feature of that team was that we had specialists and no all-rounders and my list included fielders as well. The team relied on one or two players, who won some and lost some but invariably disappointed all the fans.
Fast forward to today, and one notices this Indian team is young and dynamic. Every player wears his heart on his sleeve and seems to give a hundred percent for the team. Each player has a role specified in the team. The fielding has improved considerably and the whole team fields as a complete unit.
Not because I’m a loyalist, Dhoni is most responsible for this paradigm shift in Indian cricket. If you had told any Indian 20 years ago that you would have a captain like him, the person would have laughed at you. Sure, there have been a few players who accumulated runs, took wickets by the bucketful and captained aggressively. Yet the ones who are remembered the most are those who cricket fans desired to watch, those who kept TV audiences glued to their seats even if a win seemed far-fetched.
Dhoni seemed to be above all the politics and interestingly, every decision he has taken as captain has seemed to have paid off till date. Then came an energetic version of the erstwhile captain. Virat Kohli. Seemingly impulsive selections and the fondness for outright aggressive options remained a marked tendency during his early years as captain. Unlike Dhoni, Kohli`s fire was as bright as daylight, seething and scorching. But it was short-lived.
Once the successor of Tendulkar at No. 4, Kohli was shown the door for opener Rohit Sharma to fill in his shoes – first as ODI captain and then in all formats. Since then, India failed to qualify for the T20 World Cup final in Australia, lost the World Test Championship (WTC) final and did poorly in a Test series in South Africa.
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Rohit, whose Test career has been stop-start because of selection and form in the initial years and, more recently, fitness issues. Will he continue playing all formats or do the selectors believe he should focus on Tests and ODIs, for him to be able to groom his successors? Only time will tell. Though there is no imminent threat to his Test captaincy, he has been raking up some significant numbers in the Caribbean to prevent a question mark over his leadership in the traditional format.
When you consider India’s hundreds of millions of cricket loyalists and the Indian Premier League, you might expect the side to win nearly every match it plays. But the team has only won two World Cups – a large thorn embedded into the deepest crevices in our hearts. Many expect that shaky record to change this year. If Rohit can marshal his troops in the right way, on and off the field, there is no reason why we cannot win the upcoming Asia Cup and most importantly, the ODI World Cup.
Meanwhile, much has been made about Australia’s superiority in international cricket. Former cricketers believe that this is the best Aussie side in recent times that they could go on to dominate this decade much like the 90s.
It just might be their best Test team since their golden generation ended 15 years ago. Their best XI in that period was probably Michael Clarke’s side during an 18-month purple patch starting in late 2013 with a forgetful Ashes whitewash and also included series victories over India and South Africa away.
But for now, this is about Australia and their ascension into potentially the ‘greatest team’. They have all the elements and are essentially stacked in all departments.
If there is one lesson to be learnt from India’s seismic defeat at the Oval, it is the following: It does not matter how many runs you have scored in your career, how many centuries you have under your belt, if you are not adequately primed, you will be shown up by better preparation and planning.
Reputation counts for nothing. On the field, it is only the performance that makes or breaks a team.
Victories have to be savoured, no doubt. But the pain of defeat has to be remembered and recalled and used to spur the team on and guard against complacency.
Because remember, success is a treadmill, you have to keep running to stay in the same spot.
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