Quite a lot has been made of the new look Indian team,
their performances of late and of course the leadership of MS Dhoni. India has
been losing matches sometimes badly and importantly very close matches as we
saw in the Asia cup recently. The most irritating aspect has been that India hasn`t
managed to win Test matches from winning positions as we saw in South Africa
and New Zealand. Many pundits, like ex- captain Sourav Ganguly, have put a
significant part of the blame on Dhoni`s captaincy and his defensive tactics. Dhoni
is a product of the one day school of cricket and hence it is futile to expect
him to be an attacking captain like Sourav. However, it was under the
leadership of Dhoni and Kirsten that India was winning matches across the
world. Can the blame be put on Duncan Fletcher or the Indian team? Fletcher I
don`t know but let us look at the Indian team. Can the new look Indian team be
blamed for the losses? Unfair I would say.
I am inclined to look at the team of early 2000`s, under
Sourav`s leadership, which proved we can win abroad in alien conditions. Like the
present Indian team, the seeds of 2000`s team was laid in second half of 1990`s
which saw the advent of people like Dravid, Ganguly and Laxman. These people
joined the likes of Tendulkar and Kumble and joined later by people like
Sehwag. In late 1990`s the Indian team was seen as a team with potential but
failed to win many matches. Be it the South African tour in 1997, world cup of
1999, Oz tour of 2000, the team was not very successful. However the seeds for
a successful team were laid during this period. We saw some outstanding performances
by the stars who formed the nucleus of the 2000`s team like Dravid`s century in
1997 South African team, Sourav`s performances as an opener in one dayers,
Kumble`s 10 wicket haul. Probably Sachin Tendulkar was the only consistent star
performer during this period. Infact, Laxman established himself only after the
stupendous Kolkotta effort in the Oz series of 2001 despite making his debut in
1997.
If history were to repeat itself, I would recommend
giving the new look Indian team some more time. Kohli has started becoming
consistent now along with Pujara. Dhawan and Rohit have just made their debuts
about a year back along with Rahane. In addition, these players have got more international
exposure as compared to the 2000`s team due to IPL. A couple of good overseas
tours will certainly help them play better in hostile overseas conditions. The
new look bowling attack of Shami and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar are taking strides for
becoming good bowlers and hopefully will do so under the tutelage of Zaheer
Khan.
The major problematic area seems to be Fletcher`s
coaching abilities. There has been a drastic change in fortunes since he took
over. Yes, the team was going a transition phase after he took over, however
his role in the value chain of the Indian team needs to be thoroughly looked
into. His combination with Dhoni vis a vis Dhoni`s combination with Kirsten needs
to be looked into to resolve the loopholes well before the world cup in 2015. However
unlike the performances of players, the decisions on the captain and coach are
taken by the bigwigs of BCCI whose working is anything but logical and
transparent. Let’s hope for the best !
In a gist I`am looking forward the developments of the
new Indian team.
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