Few important indian cricket stats before further exposition.
No of wins/No of losses(in Test Cricket): 99/136 (i just checked it from two sites, correct if newer stats available)
One would like to think that most of these losses are attributed to periods when India was just born as a cricketing nation.
If we again have a quick look at stats, India has progressed slower than most of the nations who started playing cricket.
Bangladesh, is doing wonders if we consider what India did in similar amount of time, Srilanka has outlived itself, Newzeland are playing cricket because australians play cricket, and hell they do well. I admit that i am comparing different times and condtitions (esp when one considers cricketing knowledge is so much more accessible and exposure is enormous).
If somebody was born around the time(84-85-86), and became a very big cricket buff very early in childhood (well thats the only sport we know of, and yes hockey, if you’re northindia, you will know there’s another sport that co-exists), and if you’ve been following indian cricket since then, watching all the matches, with heart and soul, failing exams sometimes, not sleeping enough other times, getting beaten by parents, scorned by teacher, etc, etc, etcetra, then you have to admit that at present, Indian cricket is doing wonders when compared to other indian cricket teams of the past.
Before i forget to write this- Cricket has changed a lot in every sense of word, i think the change has favoured india a lot. What are those changes?
1. Pitches, which are becoming more and more batting friendly and without bounce, indian batsmen play very very poorly on good seaming pitches, compared to other batsman who also struggle these days on seaming pitches. If recent T20 world cup was any proof of that( people are tired of bending their backs and trying to bowl bouncers which endup being comforable short deliveries, on most of the pitches these days).
2. Except navjot siddhu, sixes were rare from indian batsmen, that has changed, good bats, shorter boundaries, people like kaif(until they were sorted out by bowlers) started clearing boundaries easily, sorry kaif fans, really am.
3. Lot of money in cricket these days, atleast few cricketers will play fearlessly to win a cricket match rather than playing for a fifty or hundred and for a reservation in the next squad.
4. Fitness has become important, so fitter players in india too(comparatively), means the gap in fielding between indian team and other teams has lessened, which actually reflects in the spirit of the team.
5. Media knows lot of things these days, it seems BCCI atleast feels responsible atleast once in a year.
Please complete the list if you can think of other reasons.
Sourav ganguly deserves special mention, i think he did lot of things which lot of other people did not, atleast for years before he came, or may be, he did few things and they clicked also. But sourav ganguly forgot in the middle that he has to be a major contributor in the team, and pointed to his average when asked about his bad form. Result, he was replaced. Mind you if sourav didn’t have rahul dravid, all the test wins wouldn’t have been possible, esp. overseas wins.
There’s obesession with Sachin, as a great admirer of him, its painful for me to see him bat like this(the way he is since 2-3 years), lets not talk about the records, but one thinks he deserves to be in the side for all the good work he has done in the past(in losing teams). But thats emotional. Even if one wants to throw out sachin, who is there to follow? I think that is where indian selection is faulty, they sack players without finding replacements.
Fast bowler search is still on, a genuine quick bowler, ishant sharma already seems to be one of those bowlers for india who arrived like a storm and went away like a gentle breeze. I hope it doesnt happen like that. I think dhoni is very good captain, its too early to criticize him, may be he is lucky, but if thats the case, his luck has gone wrong only once, So lets not loose hair over T20 worldcup now, we just couldnt get going, though he made some tactical errors, those would have clicked on his day.
Note: If you have got any additions to this article, please send them to me in comments, i will edit(if required) and add them as follow up to this article