Its not the first time Indian team has lost matches overseas, or all the test matches of the series but this is the first time since 1999, after Ganguly took over the captaincy and joined by John Wright as coach.
in the decade of 2000, Sachin was at his peak and India got Dravid and Laxman, 2 batsmen of lifetime came together with 'one of its kind' ever to make Indian middle order one of the most strong of all times. On top , we had Sehwag, who just blew everything away, and with the Ball, we got Zaheer and Harbhajan and a champion who had aggression of fast bowler in his 6 step run up, Kumble. This Core team was supported by bunch of young players like Yuvraj, Kaif, Pathan, Gambhir, Dhoni and bunch of fast bowlers like Nehra, Agarkar , Sree santh etc. who can just play their own game and be themselves with bulk of pressure taken up by the core team.
What is lost in this golden period of Indian cricket is the realization that all these players were not part of any systematic development of cricket in India but just bunch of exceptionally gifted and driven cricketers coming together at the same time. They were also hampered by the same infrastructure as previous generations, no bouncy pitches at home etc, but they made it up with their talent and temperament when they travelled overseas. India fought well overseas , in SA, in Eng and in Australia, twice. They didn't dominate any series but won with enough regularity to shake off the poor traveller tag and for some reasons, Indian fans started to believe that all will be well now. It happened so often that Indian fans started to believe that Indians are getting good at playing overseas, which was not the case. Indians were not getting good, only the bunch of same players were getting better. There was nothing at home to sustain this success, no long term view to create second string of players who can carry this success forward. To be fair, it wasn't easy to do as well as there wasn't enough opportunity to induct fresh faces when you have 4-5 legends playing in team at same time.
When this happened to Australia, bunch of exceptionally gifted players came together around 1995 for next 12-14 years, likes of waugh brothers, warne, McGrath, Ponting, Hayden, Gilly etc. they just won everything, 3 world cups in the row and every single test and ODI series, this shows the difference in the set up. Not that Australian cricketers were more gifted during those times, they were just already better playing in any conditions where India just learnt as they went along. That's why India still lost few matches during this period, but we held off Australia, home and away(2001 & 2003). though we started loosing to them as well, 2003 WC final, 2006 series at home and 2008 away. but there was enough fight and controversy to keep the interest alive.
Now, when Australian legends retired between 2007-2009, they also started loosing, ask Ponting! how does it feel having lost Ashes 3 times, twice in Eng and worse, once at home. They knew they needed to rebuild and they did. India, however , still believed that our current set of core players are still good enough, though they were getting old, but easy thing was to ignore it.
Now , finally the truth has hit home. It has come right after when everything was looking ok, India just drew the series in SA and then won the big thing, WC 2011. No one thought that this will go downhill so fast, but it did. Indian legends found it difficult to repeat or better what they did in last 10 years. There was no hiding. their brain knew what needed to be done but body was not quite there.
I feel for Dhoni, no wonder he wants to hang around with Kohli's and raina's and Sharma's. He sees the hope there, he knows that he can't get much out of likes of Dravid and Laxman, or even sachin now. He can't even drop these folks and that's where the flaw of making some one captain with so less experience comes out. But then no captain can drop any of these 4 -5 guys. Only Selectors can do that. Kapil has asked why Raina was given so many chances, but what about Laxman, Sehwag or Dravid in tests? In Kapil's defence, he is anyway saying that these guys should retire, question is why are they not retiring?
Only Sachin, Dravid and Laxman can answer, and Sehwag need to find some answers soon , or some runs. They might still believe that they have it in them to actually go on, their bodies are so used to this that age doesn't matter. They can try another series, it might turn things around.
May be an injury might solve this , but that will be sad way to go for any of these guys. They need to pick the series and call it a day with head held high so India can have next batch of talented and driven players who can try to repeat what these guys did for last 10-12 years. If they delay it more, they will take India further back.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
in the decade of 2000, Sachin was at his peak and India got Dravid and Laxman, 2 batsmen of lifetime came together with 'one of its kind' ever to make Indian middle order one of the most strong of all times. On top , we had Sehwag, who just blew everything away, and with the Ball, we got Zaheer and Harbhajan and a champion who had aggression of fast bowler in his 6 step run up, Kumble. This Core team was supported by bunch of young players like Yuvraj, Kaif, Pathan, Gambhir, Dhoni and bunch of fast bowlers like Nehra, Agarkar , Sree santh etc. who can just play their own game and be themselves with bulk of pressure taken up by the core team.
 |
| Three Legends of Indian Cricket.. when will they bow out? |
When this happened to Australia, bunch of exceptionally gifted players came together around 1995 for next 12-14 years, likes of waugh brothers, warne, McGrath, Ponting, Hayden, Gilly etc. they just won everything, 3 world cups in the row and every single test and ODI series, this shows the difference in the set up. Not that Australian cricketers were more gifted during those times, they were just already better playing in any conditions where India just learnt as they went along. That's why India still lost few matches during this period, but we held off Australia, home and away(2001 & 2003). though we started loosing to them as well, 2003 WC final, 2006 series at home and 2008 away. but there was enough fight and controversy to keep the interest alive.
Now, when Australian legends retired between 2007-2009, they also started loosing, ask Ponting! how does it feel having lost Ashes 3 times, twice in Eng and worse, once at home. They knew they needed to rebuild and they did. India, however , still believed that our current set of core players are still good enough, though they were getting old, but easy thing was to ignore it.
Now , finally the truth has hit home. It has come right after when everything was looking ok, India just drew the series in SA and then won the big thing, WC 2011. No one thought that this will go downhill so fast, but it did. Indian legends found it difficult to repeat or better what they did in last 10 years. There was no hiding. their brain knew what needed to be done but body was not quite there.
I feel for Dhoni, no wonder he wants to hang around with Kohli's and raina's and Sharma's. He sees the hope there, he knows that he can't get much out of likes of Dravid and Laxman, or even sachin now. He can't even drop these folks and that's where the flaw of making some one captain with so less experience comes out. But then no captain can drop any of these 4 -5 guys. Only Selectors can do that. Kapil has asked why Raina was given so many chances, but what about Laxman, Sehwag or Dravid in tests? In Kapil's defence, he is anyway saying that these guys should retire, question is why are they not retiring?
Only Sachin, Dravid and Laxman can answer, and Sehwag need to find some answers soon , or some runs. They might still believe that they have it in them to actually go on, their bodies are so used to this that age doesn't matter. They can try another series, it might turn things around.
May be an injury might solve this , but that will be sad way to go for any of these guys. They need to pick the series and call it a day with head held high so India can have next batch of talented and driven players who can try to repeat what these guys did for last 10-12 years. If they delay it more, they will take India further back.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment