2000 – 2010, a golden era in Indian Cricket

We are living in exciting times with team India being the number 1 test team in the world for a fair amount of time after achieving the feat in December 2009 in the second test match against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. As Coach Gary Kirsten and the team management describe it, it is all attributes to following a process that they had started post Gary’s induction into the team as coach in early 2008.

Year 2000: A fresh new approach in Indian cricket amidst the match-fixing saga

Since the beginning of the new millennium, times have changed in Indian cricket. Amidst the murky match-fixing saga, we saw the induction of a foreign coach in John Right, a new and aggressive skipper in Sourav Ganguly and better preparedness towards physical fitness and mental conditioning by employing a healthy support staff. Not to forget, the useful contributions made by video analysts like Mr. Ramky (S. Ramakrishnan) who has created a revolution of sorts as far as usage of technology in Indian sports is concerned.

Emergence of Ganguly, the leader, motivator and aggressor

According to many, the quest for being the #1 team in the world (for both tests and ODIs) had started from the Ganguly era who surely is one of the best captains to have led India. He wasn’t a great strategist, but was a great motivator and leader! It was his dynamic and aggressive leadership which has actually transformed Indian cricket and has brought it to the level where it is today. Not many people give him enough credit for forming a team almost from scratch when bans were imposed on experienced players like Azhar, Jadeja and Mongia. He challenged the system, took the BCCI administrators head on and changed a lot of things which were perennial problems in Indian cricket. for e.g. the Zonal selection policy which used to exist for years together had been given a whack.Ganguly always promoted young and talented players(read Yuvraj Singh, Mohd Kaif, Virender Sehwag), infested energy and aggression in them and look where they are today. Probably the 2001 Australia series played a major role in re-engineering India’s outlook towards test cricket and was a life changing one for a few players too. Harbhajan and Laxman would never have been what they are today without the successful experience of that series. Similarly the 2002 Natwest series final was one for Yuvraj Singh and Mohd Kaif.

Captaincy is not only about planning and making strategies, but also about getting the best out of your players and winning their respect. Ganguly always backed his players and led a young and energetic team all the way to the World Cup final in 2003. The manner in which they played the tournament was an example of what confidence and self belief could do. They only faltered against a stronger opposition in Australia who were mentally tuff and had the experience of playing 2 consecutive World Cup finals before. Who knows, had that final been played today with a more established and successful team, India would have even chased down the 369 put on board by the Aussies. A lot of stuff was being written about both his on and off field antics, but I guess some of the things are a part of one’s personality and behavior. Not everyone has the guts to take off his shirt on a Lords balcony the way he did. His comeback into the Indian side after the Greg Chappell tussle has to be regarded as one of the great comebacks in International cricket. It needs guts, determination and immense mental strength to do what he did.

Winning overseas becoming a habit

The emergence of talent through a positive and aggressive attitude became prevalent when India started registering overseas test match victories under Ganguly’s leadership. Most of us would have really sad memories of overseas tours of Indian teams of the past where they used to fail miserably in their batting except for a few talented players like Sachin, Rahul Dravid and Ganguly himself who used to salvage some pride with their batting prowess.

All this began to change with India registering its first overseas victory under Ganguly’s leadership in Port of Spain, West Indies in 2002 and continuing the momentum in the England tour where they won a test match in Headingley , victory in Zimbabwe, drawing a test series in Australia and most importantly a fantastic test series victory against arch rivals Pakistan in 2004. Suddenly Australia began to look at India as challengers and it became evident in the 2003-2004 and the 2007-2008 series played down under.

Ganguly’s successor Rahul Dravid made sure that the team carried the momentum forward and established a successful overseas record by registering India’s first ever victory in a test match against South Africa at Johannesburg(2006). This was followed by a series victory in the West Indies, England in 2007 and against New Zealand in 2009. India no longer carries the tag line of “Tigers at home and Lambs abroad”.

Foundation of a strong opening pair in test matches

India’s opening woes always used to add up to their batting problems with Sachin Tendulkar being their standard 20/2 man coming in when the bowlers used to be on top. We must have seen at least 10-15 difference opening pairs for every series between 1990-2005. A series of openers who come to one’s mind and had been tried out in this period are Vikram Rathore, Nayan Mongia, VVS Laxman, Navjot Sidhu, Shiv Sunder Das, Wasim Jaffer, Sanjay Bangar, Ajay Jadeja, Devang Gandhi, Rahul Dravid, MSK Prasad, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Aakash Chopra etc. Thankfully, this has been taken care of in the last 2-3 years with the emergence of a solid opening pair in Sehwag and Gambhir who have always been up to all the challenges that were thrown at them.

Sehwag’s blitzkrieg kind of batting and Gambhir’s measured and reliable approach is something that India has really been able to cash upon in recent times. Sehwag really puts the pressure back on the opposition right from ball one and does not allow any bowler to settle down to bowling a good line and length. His unorthodox batting has given way to unorthodox field placings with captains having a sweeper cover and deep backward point for him right from ball one. His kind of batting has a demoralizing effect on the opposition purely because of the rate at which he scores his runs. Not only does it mentally drain out the opposition, but more importantly it also allows the bowlers enough time to take 20 wickets for winning the game. His contributions both with bat and ball have been immense to help India reach the #1 ranking. Also, a young and talented Murali Vijay has been really doing well recently whenever he got an opportunity in the absence of the regular opening pair.

A Battery of fast bowlers bursting on to the scene

Almost till the year 2000, spin used to be the core strength of Indian bowling both at home and abroad. Barring a few exceptions like Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad, Indian fast bowling never used to be threatening to the opposition batsmen on overseas tours. Anil Kumble used to be the lone aggressor and fighter on overseas tours but was always used as a stock bowler to stop the flow of runs rather than attacking and picking up wickets because of the lack of runs on overseas tours. If we see the comparison today, it seems like the current Indian quickies have not only matched the spinners, but have also outperformed them in many occasions. Zaheer Khan has mastered the art of conventional as well as reverse swing both in Indian and overseas conditions and can literally make the ball talk. His performance over the last 3-4 years is a testimony to that. Sreesanth is also remarkable on his day where he can run through the best of sides in the world as he had shown with his 8 wicket haul in the epic test match at Johannesburg in 2006. Ishant Sharma had a great start to his career in Australia where he burst into the scene, lost his way in the middle, but is slowing getting back to be at his best again. Also, there is healthy bench strength as far as fast bowling as concerned with Ashish Nehra, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, Abhimanyu Mithun, Praveen Kumar and Irfan Pathan waiting in the sidelines.

Dhoni, as cool as a cucumber

Now, in the new Era after Ganguly and Dravid served the nation for a decent time frame, Mahendra Singh Dhoni took over and completely re-defined the meaning of captaincy for most of the young budding cricketers and followers of the game. His calmness both on and off the field, his management and team-handling skills, strategies and also his style is everything that you can ask for from the captain of the country’s national cricket team. Once again, adversity got the best out of him and the Indian team which had just gone through a rough patch after being chucked out of the 2007 world cup in a dismal way. He literally rocked the entire cricketing fraternity after he led a completely new and relatively in-experienced young brigade to win the 2007 ICC world Twenty20 tournament. Many management schools and corporate giants had framed up case studies and leadership lessons after watching him lead the team to a stupendous win over Pakistan in the final which was an intriguing contest. Watching Dhoni’s game and his leadership style gave a new lease of life both to Indian cricket and its fans.

With the 2011 World Cup just around the corner now, India look well poised to being one of the strong contenders to win the title.