The year 2015 has been a mixed bag for team India which witnessed both rise and slump in performance. Let us take a look at the things that unfolded on and off the field this year for the Men in Blue.
The Ups: ‘Border-Gavaskar Trophy’- Kohli Leading the Side After Dhoni’s Sudden Retirement from Test Cricket Team India was yet to recover from Dhoni’s shocking decision to retire from longest form of the game mid-series against Australia. When India was already trailing 2-0 in the ‘Border-Gavaskar Trophy’ series, Virat Kholi led the young side in the final test match at the start of the year 2015. Batting resilience of Ajinkya Rahane and Bhuvneshwar Kumar on the final day of the Test match ensured that India drew the fourth and final test match which resulted in Australia regaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (2-0) back from India. ‘2015 Indian Premier League’- Mumbai Indians Lift the Trophy for the Second Time Just a week after 2015 Cricket World Cup, the cash rich eighth edition of the IPL league bought all the international cricketers back to India. Amidst much controversy surrounding IPL, the tournament produced some of the best matches in T-20 cricket. Mumbai Indians won the IPL after convincingly defeating the two time champions Chennai Super Kings in the finals by 41 runs. David Warner of Sunrisers Hyderabad won the ’Orange Cap’ for the most runs scored (542 in 14 matches) and Dwayne Bravo of Chennai Super Kings won the ‘Purple cap’ for the most number of wickets taken (26 in 17 matches). ‘India-Zimbabwe Series’- Senior Players Rested The BCCI decided to rest the senior players after their jam packed schedule in the year. A young inexperienced side led by Ajinkya Rahane went to Zimbabwe who themselves were struggling to retain their place in the top 10 rankings in ODI. India won all the three ODIs to lift the series convincingly. The side won the first T-20 and lost the second one. ‘India-Sri Lanka Test Series’- Kohli leads India to a Test Series Win in Sri Lankan Soil After 22 Years This series was a test to analyze Virat Kohli as Test captain which proved to be more than a test series as India defeated Lankan Lions 2-1 in the three match test series. Virat Kohli’s side lost the first test match after being on the verge of victory. But Kohli’s side came back stronger from the defeat and won the remaining two test matches convincingly which witnessed India winning a Test series in Sri Lanka after 22 years. ‘Man of the Series’ Ravichandran Ashwin’s contribution as bowler played a huge role in India’s success. This marked the farewell test series of the illustrious Sri Lankan batsmen Kumar Sangakkara. The brave and attacking decisions taken by Virat on field were widely appreciated by cricket legends. ‘India-South Africa Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela Series’- Dhoni Falls but Virat Rises Mahatma Gandhi-Nelson Mandela Series was considered to be the most important series for India who were fighting to improve the rankings. This series saw a slump in Dhoni’s captaincy to a new low as India lost both the ODI and T-20 series to the Proteas (3-2 in ODI and 2-0 in T-20). South Africa clinched their first ever ODI series in India after a massive 214 runs win over the hosts in the 5 ODI. All eyes were set on Kohli after the teams defeat in ODI and T-20. But Kohli’s captaincy and South Africa’s in-ability to play in spinning tracks proved costly for the Proteas as they ended up losing 3 of the 4 test matches tamely. This defeat handed the African nation their first away test series defeat in nine years. |
The Downs: ‘Carlton Mid-Triangular Series’- India’s Miserable Run Continues After a disappointing loss in the Test series, Indian team were desperate to get back to winning ways, played the host Australia and England at the ‘Carlton Mid Triangular Series’ in Mid-January. Many cricket experts saw this as an opportunity for both India and England to get used to the Australian conditions, as Australia-New Zealand were co-hosts for the 2015 Cricket World Cup. But the misery followed for team India as they lost 3 of the 4 matches with one yielding no-result. ‘2015 Cricket World Cup’- India's Successive 7 Match Winning Streak and Eventual Defeat India proved their defending champions tag as they bounced back from the consecutive Test and Tri Series losses in Australia to win seven consecutive matches in the 2015 Cricket World Cup. MS Dhoni led a young blue brigade which consisted only four players from 2011 World Cup winning team. India started their campaign against their arch-rival Pakistan in a high octane clash. The match had its moments saw India keeping their world cup winning streak against Pakistan intact when they won by 76 runs. India went on to win all the teams they were pitted against in the group stages. India topped the group stage with 12 points winning all their 6 outings. In the quarter-finals the ‘Men in Blue’ came against the confident Bangladesh side. India won the match by 109 runs which was also the 100 victory for MS Dhoni as captain. He became only the third person to notch 100 victories as captain. But the defending champions had to bow out in the semi-finals to the eventual champions Australia. ‘India-Bangladesh Series’- India’s First Ever ODI Series Loss to Bangladesh India’s new full time Test captain Virat Kholi’s led the side in the only test match between India and Bangladesh which ended in a draw after heavy showers played spoil sport for most of the five days. Coming with an impressive performance in the World Cup everyone expected MS Dhoni’s ODI side to defeat the Bangla Tigers with ease. But to everyone’s surprise Bangladesh displayed some fine performance defeated the visitors 2-1 to clinch their first ever series win over India. This humiliating series defeat put MS Dhoni under a lot of pressure where there were lots of questions arising related to Dhoni’s captaincy techniques from critics and fellow team mates themselves. Indian Cricketers Who Called it Quits in 2015 ‘Nawab of Najafgarh’ Virender Sehwag(37) and bowling spearhead Zaheer Khan(37) decided to end their illustrious career and announced their retirement from all forms of International cricket. Both Shewag and Zaheer were part of the 2011 World Cup winning team. |
Controversies Off the Cricket Field in 2015
Two New IPL Franchises
The two suspended IPL teams CSK and RR were replaced by un-named franchise from Pune and Rajkot. Top players from CSK an RR like Jadeja, Raina, McCullum, Ashwin, Dhoni, Rahane, Watson, Faulkner were drafter to the new franchises.
India retained the second position in both ICC ODI and Test rankings but are placed seventh in T-20.
India started the year with successive defeats but went on to win a memorable test series at the end of the year. The cricketing calendar 2015 was definitely a year that had both moments to cherish and forget for team India. The Indian team will start their new year when they travel back to Australia for a 5 match ODI series and 3 match T-20 series. This series is sure to decide the future of the India ODI and T-20 captain MS Dhoni. Every cricket lover will have to wait and watch if Dhoni has still got it to guide the team to success.