iSporter Anmol Sign Diddan list the reasons on why India do not have the aura commanded the previous number one teams in World Test Cricket.
Through the years of evolution for any sport there are champions that emerge and often rule for decades. Be it Micheal Schumacher in F1 or Roger Federer and Pete Sampras in tennis or Maradona in football. One thing was common in all the above mentioned. They had their time and then moved on. We can’t quite say that about Federer just yet but he has done enough to be hailed as a champion already.
Similarly, cricket is no exception. From the era of the West Indian dominance in the 70s and 80s we moved on to getting used to Australia being a dominant force in the 90s and through the early half of the millennium.
Who can forget the utter disdain that the likes of Sir Viv Richards and Sir Clive Lloyd dished out to the bowlers of their era? Or the way Australia snuffed out with equal ease first Pakistan in 1999, then India in 2003 and Sri Lanka in 2007 to win a hat-trick of world cups.
But there was one element common between both these sides – besides their startling strength in batting; they had some breath taking bowling to back it up. Be it Malcolm Marshall or Micheal Holding or Glenn Mcgrath or Shane Warne. These were names that were instrumental in their team’s overall success.
Currently, cricket is going through a transition. Australia facing a flurry of retirements has been struggling to cope up to their reputation built over the past decade and a half. India on the other hand backed by good performances over the past few years has emerged to take top spot from the baggy greens. I am of course talking about real cricket (Test cricket) here.
Australia has failed to replace greats like Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath after retirement which has turned out to be a principal reason of their downfall. If you look at it then Australia are still the No.1 ODI side by a long way. Bowling for 2 days on the trot is much tougher than bowling 10 overs after all.
The process that eventually crowned India was set in place first during the latter stages of Rahul Dravid’s captaincy and was then carried forward under Anil Kumble. That was a time when we had a battery of pace bowlers coming in along with the potent spin twins Kumble and Harbhajan Singh.
I remember R.P. Singh and Zaheer Khan winning us the 2nd Test at Nottingham in 2007. Later that year and in early 2008 Ishant Sharma burst onto the scene in Australia giving nightmares to the likes of Ricky Ponting. He was instrumental along with R.P. Singh in winning India the famous third Test at Perth.
Following that we beat Australia comprehensively in the home series later that year. Again, Ishant played a crucial role. After this series we lost a vital kingpin in our bowling attack; the stalwart Anil Kumble. Despite that and backed by an impressive performance by Harbhajan, we won a Test series in New Zealand in the spring of 2009. At that time we really had the aura of a champion team.
Our batting as always was giving bowlers sleepless nights and for once our pacers were giving nightmares to the opposition batsmen; something that was unheard of since we started playing International cricket. Ishant, Zaheer, R.P. Singh, Sreesanth were all firing on all cylinders.
All was great and we finally took the No.1 spot in Mumbai against Sri Lanka last year; a piece of history I gleefully witnessed at the stadium itself. And what better place than Brabourne to do it!
But, since then our bowling has fallen rather flat. Ishant has lost all the zing that he showed in his first year, R.P. Singh and Irfan Pathan get spanked even in the IPL, Sreesanth is all bark no bite when he is not injured. Even Zaheer is in and out with injury. Bhajji has just turned into a run saving bowler because of an overdose of ODIs and T20s. His last 5 wicket haul came in New Zealand in March 2009.
We have pathetically struggled to replace Kumble with Amit Mishra and Pragyan Ojha falling flat on their backsides. Even our pace bench strength has been left horribly exposed. Abhimanyu Mithun did bowl well in patches in Galle but in actuality all four bowlers were miserable. The SSC wicket; well was just not fit for cricket at all.
Our strength has always been our batting but with the likes of Laxman, Dravid and Tendulkar all expected to retire in the next two years maximum I fear the worst. We still have only a stop gap replacement for Dada.
Yes, we are the No.1 Test team right now. But, the question is whether we are as good as the West Indian side of the 70s and 80s and the Australian side of the past decade and a half. With our dismal bench strength in bowling and even a flat frontline bowling attack, I fear I have to be a pessimist. We sadly do not have the aura of a No. 1 Test team.
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a guest
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... 1. The process of becoming the no.1 team started under Dadas leadership .. and not dravids.. 2. I dont think there is a single soul alive who has even bothered to compare the present no.1 test team with the australian and west indian teams of the last 3 decades.. there is no sense in even discussing ! 3. Is a team called no.1 only if it is all conquering and as dominating as the Aus and WI teams of the past ? NO ! |
Saurabh Joshi
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... Hey Anmol.. very well written article.. while i agree to your concerns in the bowling department and the retirement woes. I do not see a worry in batting. Raina, Yuvraj, Sharma, Pujara, Virat all can come to the party if the transition is right. Bowlers a big worry. Injuries are unfortunate. But i think rather cribbing about pace, which was never our strength, we need one good spinner, Bhajji will have his days...but we need one more ... I back Ojha and Ashwin. The new bowlers need to play more matches only then their character will be tested I agree with Puneet we need not demonstrate what WI and Aussies did.. It would be a great feat even if we end the year as number 1... Its not easy but possible. |
Rajas Joshi
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... Comparison is only valid with current teams... and i beg to differ we are number one, probably tied with SA. WI and Aus of different era's were great and hence number one THAT time. We are great now and hence Number 1. plus yes some one mentioned our quest for #1 began under Dada's leadership and i agree with that, with all the following leaders playing their part, least of all Dhoni. Ithink it started in 2001, and its taken s good 9 years... we deserve it. but we need some sting in with the ball to maintain this spot! |
Parul
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... A team becomes No. 1 if it sustains that over a period of time, true that India has not been a No 1 test team for long, however no team becomes No. 1 in just 1 year. Australia has been lucky to get world class bowlers and batsmen over a perod of time, so its not just India but with each and any team that they need to find absolute successors to their stars. It is very difficult to fill in the shoes of Shane Warne, Glenn Mcgrath , Anil Kumble or Murali for that matter and as you yourself rightly pointed out, the process of becoming a test team isnt a short process. Allan Border took a really long time to build a strong Aussie team, which Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting took forward. The sole reason had been a strong domestic set up and tough selection policies. The administration of sports is as imp. as passion for sports, u do see great players but how many of them get chances at National level in India. No comparison between the west Indies team of 70's or 80' because they domintaed the world of cricket for almost 20 years with continuos churning of talent in bowling and batting, in the end it as been the adminstration which has led the game to almost die down and now that thir Test Captain himself int sure if he would be able to carry on. Anyways, good read though. |
Anmol Singh Diddan
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... Thanks for all ur comments.debate on an article is great. The motivation behind this article was the lack lustre bowling display by our bowlers in the part few days. Nd my apologies for not mentioning dada.i agree he set the process in motion.but i honestly feel we will lack the depth in batting once our stalwarts go.i don think yuvi can fill such boots.raina looks promising but it is still very early days for him. |
a guest
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... I agree with your view anmol. Agreed that its incorrect to compare teams of different eras but its important to realize that overall performance in all departments and consistency has to maintained for a team to be recognized as no 1. The champion side is the one which not only ranks number 1 but retains that ranking for a considerable amount of time. Apart from just the result of a series or a match the thing to look at is the overall performance throughout the game. Yes every team has its off day or a session that goes badly but a champion side has very few such days or sessions. And as far as injuries go no 1 side has to have a good enough bench strength to minimize the loss one or two injured players. A no 1 team can't use one or two injured players as an excuse for a bad performance especially nowadays with the amount of cricket being played injuries are bound to be there. Comparison of individual performances and talent of different eras is not the criteria for being the number 1 team but there are certain basic criteria such as consistency, overall performance not being very affected by the absence of a couple of players, domination on most days and session, nd more importantly not losing ur dominating position very easily that a champion side is expected to posses which is still questionable as far as the current team India is concerned. Undoubtedly team India's test match results over the past few years have been good but they still have a few things left to prove in order to show that they have the aura of being the champion side. - Tanvi |
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