India tour of England, 2021

The current India-England series (we still don't know if it is complete or not) is proving to be quite extraordinary in more ways than one. It has been quite a seesaw affair. Apart from the Headingley Test, the other 3 could have been won by either team. 

The last Test at the Oval has brought so many new truths home. India has always been a team of great individuals who played fantastic cricket but couldn't gel with each other as a team to win matches. They were capable of walking into any world eleven on their own accord. Players like Merchant, Mushtaq, Hazare, Mankad, Manjrekar, Gupte, Ghulam Ahmed, Nawab of Pataudi, Farokh Engineer- the list is endless. Mankad's performance at Lord's in 1952 was of such a class that the MCC decided to label it as Mankad's Test. Freddie Trueman when asked about the players he didn't like bowling to mentioned Vijay Hazare. 

Boom: Once in a Lifetime Phenomenon !

India have played 550 plus tests till now. We've had history of flickers of good to fabulous bowling overshadowed by humongous runs piled by run machines like Hazare, Merchant, Tiger Pataudi, Vishwanath, Gavaskar, Mohindar, Azharuddin, Tendulkar, Dravid, Laxman, Sehwag and Kohli.

Except for a perfect 10 by Kumble, a couple of test hat-tricks and the legendary spin quartet of the yore, Indian Cricket is an enduring story of batsmen lording over barren brown patches and capitulating like greenhorns on greener surfaces. We always lionised our batsmen or condemned them because we never really had a bowling unit that could claim 20 wickets in overseas tests. Ajit Wadeker and Kapil Dev achieved some success in West Indies and England. But consistent success abroad was a mirage for the Indian fans.

Though Ganguly was the first ever captain to dream big and aim for overseas test wins, he never got the bowlers to work as a unit. It was mostly one of them bowling well with others misfiring. That consistent hostility of the West Indies of 1970s and 80s, Pakistan in the Imran Khan to Wasim - Waqar era, Australia in the first decade of new millennium had always remained an elusive dream for Indian Cricket fans.

MSD was a revolutionary Captain in ODI Cricket. But he somehow became a passive spectator in overseas tests as Indian bowlers practically threw in the towel when faced with flat decks. When it comes to Test Cricket, Kohli is a different Captain. He might err with team selection, he may not be quite imaginative in his handling of spinners but he has brought in a hitherto unknown element into Indian Cricket. The consistently aggressive fast bowling unit that can claim 20 wickets in most tests. We aren't talking about the 130kmph variety but those who can keep it above 140 to 150 kmph even in the third session of the day.

Virat - The new God of Cricket !

He taps the ball to short mid-wicket and sprints like a hare. He carves it wide of sweeper, races two and turns for a third while his partner will be panting to finish the second run. As the shock wave of the ball scorching the stitches on the webbing of his hand, he allows the nerves to absorb it without flinching. When long time aggressor Gautam gets unruly, he grins to himself and leaves Gambhir even more frustrated. When Morris tries to play mind game on Rahul, he doesn't ask him to cower but express positively and what we get is a six over fine leg by Rahul.

When Gayle, AB or Rahul is on song, he doesn't dance but plays the second fiddle to perfection. He doesn't compete with team mates playing well, he tries to complete them. He scores eighty and admits in post match conference that he took 10 balls too many. When boys his age are chasing girls and targets, he's chasing monuments. If you're playing against him and win the toss, don't bat first. You've lost it there, unless you pile up runs that a single human being can't chase.

Batting first, he piles runs and then hopelessly watches his bowlers leak runs like the municipality taps without anyone to bother. He comes back in the next match and scores even more. Winning is what matters to him as he seldom shows as much passion on personal achievement as he shows when he knows the team is winning. Given a choice between scoring a hundred and losing a match against scoring 99 and winning, he would choose 99, every single time. Very few have been where he is yet he admires Gayle and ABDV and backs Rahul to the hilt.

We have seen great players, match winners, record makers, record breakers, legends, absolutely selfless team players, God of the off side, the God and pretty much everything on the Cricket field. We have seen the Dravid tenacity. We've seen Tendulkar straight drive. We've seen the Sehwag upper cut. We've seen the Ganguly cover drive. We've loved the Laxman pull shot. We thought we have seen all that we could have hoped to see.

The Law of Appreciations

Cricket is a funny game. Famous quote that ‘the game is a great leveller’ isn’t an understatement. Statistics play a vital role in the game, probably more than they do in any other sport. Sooner or later, the perennial ‘law of averages’ catches up with the best of the best in the sport. No one is spared, ironically, not even the greatest of them all, Sir Don Bradman. And along with these averages, the age of a player also catches up with him. The skills don’t leave a sportsperson, but his reflexes, agility and physical and mental strength definitely become weaker with time. It is unrealistic and foolhardy not to expect that. The case of Mahendra Singh Dhoni is also not any different.

After the T20I series loss to South Africa, all the pressure was on Team India, even more on its already burdened captain. His bat has not fired in recent times the way we are used to it. The team’s performance has also been not too good in the limited overs format under him since the World Cup. On top of that, the historic series win in Sri Lanka under young gun Kohli has put Dhoni under more scrutiny, which is kind of implausible rather than sardonic, given the simple fact that we are talking about arguably one of India’s greatest captain, at least statistically (given that I am also a die hard dada fan). The point is not to compare Sourav’s and MSD’s captaincy records or any other captain’s for that matter, it is about the incredible and often improbable set of expectations that we have from our players. 

The Crown of Thorns !

Indian Cricket Captaincy is a Crown of Thorns that rests uneasy on the heads of those that have dared to take it on. Very few have understood it and enjoyed it for long. From Sunny ‪#‎Gavaskar‬ and ‪#‎Kapildev‬ musical chairs to the taint that demolished the stylish Azaruddin; it has gutted people of great substance. Saurav ‪#‎Ganguly‬ relished it initially but was later hunted out of Captaincy.‪#‎SRT‬ was the most miserable Captain we saw in his era. Rahul the Gentleman ‪#‎Dravid‬ resigned after winning a test series in England. Nobody knows why. ‪#‎Kumble‬ was almost driven out by the Indian fans keen to see the Messiah of those days take over the reigns. Thus‪#‎Dhoni‬ ruled, enjoyed and had huge success that culminated in 2011 World Cup win. But before the next world cup could begin, the thorns had grown too long and were pricking and hurting all over. Even his place in the side was being questioned. His defensive style was criticised by all and sundries, including myself. But I must admit, ‪#‎MSD‬ could have done precious little with a bowling unit that could not defend 450+ fourth innings targets and could take 20 wickets in an overseas test just once in a blue moon.

The Crown now is on the volatile head of the hyper talented and hyper aggressive Virat.

Will he buckle under pressure like SRT and RD ?
Will he go the ‪#‎Dada‬ way ?
Will he get Dhonied by the pressure ?
Or will he just show his middle finger and carry on being ‪#‎Virat‬ ?

Let's wait and watch. But for now, let's pledge all our goodwill and support to the Champion as he starts a new chapter in Indian Cricket 

Govind Raj Shenoy for DieHard Cricket Fans

Forgotten XI... Or Maybe Not

The following is an eleven comprising of Indian cricketers whose names are likely to be remembered only by either their own families or the most diehard of cricket followers. Like any "fantasy XI" I have picked the ones which I recall from my cricket watching career. There can be quite a few alternative XIs.

1. Iqbal Siddique - In his debut Test for India, opened the bowling and batting. Also hit the the winning runs. And never played for India again. 
2. Sujith Somasundar - Opened for India in 2 ODIs with a lineup comprising of Tendulkar, Dravid, Azhar, Ganguly and Ajay Jadeja following up. His failures lead to India experimenting with Ganguly as Tendulkar's opening partner and the rest as they is history.
3. Gagan Khoda - Scored 89 in his 2nd ODI earning him the Man of the Match award. And never played for India again. Just plain bad luck. 
4. Amay Khurasiya - In contrast to Khoda, An attacking 50 on his ODI debut earned Khurasiya place in the 1999 World Cup squad. The innings warded off competition from the likes of VVS Laxman and Virender Sehwag. A few games later he was dropped for good.

The ICC Champions Trophy History (and Preview)

So here we are in England for the last edition of the ICC Knockout / Mini World Cup / ICC Champions Trophy / Thing.

This is a strange little tournament purposely offset in between the 'real' fifty over world cups, designed to be a quick-smart affair all over in a couple of weeks (take note IPL). However fifty over cricket must die according to the powers that be, and the idea has now been thrown out and we won't see it again.

I'm going to disagree with the majority and say that I like the tournament. This would be the only other time that all the leading teams of world cricket will be assembled.  That was until the rise of T20 cricket came along and demanded its own little World Cup, and the other problem is that a couple of the tournaments did suck and slipped in and out of memory without much of a second thought.  Here's hoping for a memorable showing in the next fortnight to resurrect interest.

Let's have a quick look at its history:

1998 - South Africa Finally Wins Something
... and it's the only cricketing tournament they have ever won. There was a Tendulkar pummelling that eliminated Australia, but apart from that it was a pretty ho-hum affair.

2000 - The Cairns Show
India were on a nice roll courtesy of a pair of Ganguly tons and young renegades on debut namely Yuvraj Singh and Zaheer Khan, both of who were responsible for again dismantling Australia in the quarter final. The script was set for India, but they hit a roadblock in the form of a "how did they get this far anyway" New Zealand team.  Chris Cairns fired one of his few shots as a gun batsman, and stomped all over a lazy Indian performance in the final.

I remember that day because it was one of those rare occasions the patented Fleming Frown disappeared, at least for a while.

"Why couldn't I be Australian". © Getty