Is the future of Indian cricket bright?

Indian cricket is going through a transition period. Ever since Gary Kirsten left the job after guiding the team to the 2011 World Cup, nothing seems to be going right, apart from 2 home series’ under Duncan Fletcher. Indian skipper MS Dhoni dispatched a length ball from Nuwan Kulasekara off the last ball in the final in Mumbai, and the whole of India including Indians from outside the country were beginning to think we have joined the leagues of Australia, Sri Lanka etc.

Duncan had a good start to his coaching career, winning the Test series, ODI series and the one-off Twenty20 in the West Indies. After that, India went to England hoping for good results as they had in the past. Sadly, that wasn’t the case as we were battered, brutalized and thrashed 4-0 in the Test series, where Rahul Dravid and Praveen Kumar were the lone performers.

India started brightly in the 2^nd Test taking the lead of 68 runs in Nottingham after a superb bowling performance inspired by Sreesanth and bowled out England for 224. But the 2^nd innings was more of England batting superbly with Ian Bell and Eoin Morgan scoring centuries leaving India a target of 478 to chase. Nothing went right, as a poor batting performance led to India getting bowled out for just 159. India hence lost their No.1 status in Tests. India had several of their World Cup squad members injured for the one-off Twenty20 at Old Trafford and for the ODI series.

India performed better in the T20 game, but collapsed for just 165 runs after Rahane and Dravid looked good. India were looking good for 180 at some stage. Indian bowlers again were not up to the mark; a penultimate over from Munaf Patel which cost only 3 runs, left 10 runs to win off the last over which made the Indians feel they were close to their first win of the summer. That didn’t happen either as Samit Patel hit three fours off Vinay Kumar to make things worse for India.

Then came the ODI series. The batting improved tremendously but our bowling attack looked too vulnerable as India were beaten 3-0 by the hosts. Indian captain MS Dhoni was named Man of the Series and it wasn’t a fitting farewell to one of our great cricketing legends, Rahul Dravid.

England came back to India days later and they got a taste of their own medicine as they got back what they gave us in England. Indians comfortably won the ODI series 5-0 and MS Dhoni again was named Man of the Series.

Then there was the Tour Down Under. Indians have never won a Test series in Australia, but have won the bilateral series there. Indians were again thrashed and beaten 4-0 in the Test series and none of them came good except for Umesh Yadav, the debutant, and the experienced Zaheer Khan. The ODI series was up next. Captain MS Dhoni was responsible for two games, the second one almost won as India looked set to go to the CB series finals. We then lost 3 games in a row and even a final game win over Sri Lanka wasn’t enough.

India was awaiting a much-easier New Zealand side that lost to the West Indies. Indians comfortably dispatched the Black Caps 2-0 in the 2-Test match series and MS Dhoni became the most successful Indian captain at home. Then came the ICC World Twenty20. India won the two group stage games comfortably including the thrashing 90-run win over the defending champions, England. However, we were beaten by the Aussies in the opening Super 8 game and our qualification hopes were hanging by a thread. Wins over arch-rivals Pakistan and South Africa were not enough as India bowed out of the World T20 once again in the super eight stage. People were made to wonder what is going on in Indian cricket.

England came to India for all the 3 formats. The stinging defeat against England at home in the Test series has left a dark shadow hovering over MS Dhoni’s captaincy. India lost the closely-fought 2^nd Twenty20 in Mumbai after winning the first one in Pune. Parvinder Awana and Ashok Dinda could not make their chances count. India lost to Pakistan in Bangalore in the first Twenty20; that game was also closely fought . It was a low-scoring thriller. Due to these poor performances, there are questions about MS Dhoni’s captaincy and performances of the seniors. With youngsters coming in and the shock retirement of the greatest batsman in cricketing history, Sachin Tendulkar, the BCCI is left with a lot to do. Youngsters should be given chances and Pujara has been able to make it count. Bhuvneshwar Kumar was really impressive against Pakistan. I expect a better performance from the Indian cricketers in the next 2-4 months after which we start touring.