The year of 2011- A topsy turvy journey for Indian Cricket

It wouldn’t be wrong to say that 2011 has been the best and the worst year for the Indian cricket team. Our children will think of it as we thought of 1983, the year India won the World Cup. There have been many ups and downs from winning the world cup to the forgetful tour of England, from Virender Sehwag’s blazing 219 to Yuvraj Singh’s serious lung problem.

The team didn’t have a great start to the year. They started by losing the ODI series to South Africa (2-3), but not much was said about it because everybody, be it the players, critics, fans or the BCCI were focusing on the World Cup. On February 19^th, what an opening game did the tournament have, Virender Sehwag made an amazing 175 against Bangladesh as India avenged the 2007 World Cup defeat which had resulted in their eviction in the first stage. This time it was different, India played exciting games with England, South Africa and Australia to reach the semi finals. Now this was a real challenge for the team, the semi finals were against Pakistan, India was playing them after more than an year. The whole country was talking about this match, even those who hadn’t seen a cricket match all their lives and both the team was under immense pressure to perform, which they did! India beat Pakistan by 29 runs to reach the finals.

There’s no need to write about the Final, each and every Indian has it recorded in their minds forever. Gautam Gambhir made a terrific 97, but it was Dhoni who hit the final six and India won the Cricket World Cup after 28 years! The country was in a festive mood. Firecrackers lit up the sky, roads were jammed by people dancing madly at the middle of the night, and it was as if Diwali had come early. The team had given every Indian a reason to smile. After the World Cup Gary Kirsten’s tenure as the Indian coach ended and Duncan Fletcher became the new head coach.

All senior players were rested as a young Indian side, lead by Suresh Raina went to the West Indies, where they showed that the future of Indian cricket is bright, even without the likes of Tendulkar and Dravid. July came with a lot of excitement with India’s tour of England and Sachin’s return to cricket with everyone waiting for his 100^th century. India started as the favorites but what a turnaround it was! With their inability to play the short ball, all Indian batsmen except Dravid failed to perform and India lost the test series 0-4, and with this series, ended India’s reign as the best test team and England took over. Rain interrupted almost all the ODI games, India lost that series 0-3, though the performance was better than that in tests.

England came back to India in October, for the rightly named “Payback Series” as India defeated them 5-0. Then in November West Indies toured India for a return series. Critics of the game were not happy with the international cricket calendar as two encounters between India and West Indies in one year didn’t prove to be good for cricket viewership in India. Anyways, India defeated West Indies 2-0 in the 3 match test series and went on winning the 5 match ODI series 4-1. This series did some good things though, while Rohit Sharma found his lost form, India found a much needed all-rounder in Ravichandran Ashwin and Virender Sehwag broke God’s record scoring a breathtaking double hundred.

The much awaited tour of Australia started on the Boxing Day. India have lost the first match down under and are looking to bounce back in Sydney. Whether India will be able to perform and win overseas and whether Sachin Tendulkar makes his 100^th century on this tour remains a mystery which will be resolved in 2012.