India will end the second decade of the millennium as arguably the most dominant side in cricket. They have a better win percentage in all three formats, having played fewer matches and winning more.
The decade did not begin all that well. India lost badly in England and Australia and their ambitions of winning a series in South Africa remained unfulfilled. They had problems winning in shorter formats, too.
India quickly recovered to win the World Cup in 2011 at home. Two years later, they added the Champions Trophy in England to their No 1 ranking in the longer format. That’s a record Mahendra Singh Dhoni achieved as captain. He had led the team to the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in South Africa in 2007.
For any captain to emulate Dhoni’s record will take some doing. Virat Kohli is carrying forward his legacy. In the newly introduced World Test Championship his team has started well, winning every series they played to be perched at the top. The former captain is still around, likely to play the shorter formats, though one thought he might call it a day from international cricket after the World Cup in England.
Perhaps, he wants to have one final shot at the Twenty20 World Cup 10 months from now. But the selectors, if not Virat Kohli, have decided to move on, dropping Dhoni from their calculations. Dhoni took a sabbatical, ostensibly to do a stint with the Territorial Army in Kashmir. He did not reveal on return what his cricket plans were.
Dhoni is expected to return for the IPL and see how it goes even as the Indian team is struggling with the unpredictability of his understudy Rishabh Pant, particularly as a wicketkeeper. The selectors and the team management rightly see potential in Pant and want to nurse him with the help of former India wicketkeeper Kiran More.
Now BCCI has a president who talks more cricket than his predecessors and anything he says carries weight. Sourav Ganguly speaks nothing but cricket, leaving the administration to his “fantastic” secretary Jay Shah, who according to him, works for the good of cricket.
Ganguly wants the National Cricket Academy to be a centre of excellence. He had a meeting with its director, Rahul Dravid, on Thursday. Both have strong views on how to run the NCA and both swear on making the academy the best place for cricketers to train and evolve.
They met in the wake of a controversial fitness test for Jasprit Bumrah, who trained with a trainer of his choice and not at NCA. If NCA did not want to take the risk of conducting the fitness test since the fast bowler was not under its care, Ganguly was equally firm, that every player has to go through the academy. Ganguly has the final say: “Everyone has to go through NCA.”
Next on Ganguly’s mind is to find a new chief selector as MSK Prasad has ended his tenure. He wants four-year terms for selectors and not five as suggested by the new constitution.
Prasad’s committee has done a reasonable job, keeping the future of the side in view and preparing the bench. They have more than one substitute for every position. No injured player was missed.
Prasad and his team can take heart from the team’s performance, India’s failure to win the World Cup notwithstanding. Against two stronger sides in the shorter formats, Bangaldesh and West Indies, they fought their way back.
The last ODI victory against West Indies was achieved when things got tight with neither Rohit Sharma nor Kohli out there to complete the job. Ravindra Jadeja carried Shardul Thakur to pull off an exciting victory chasing a 316-run target. This shows the team is on the right track to take on Australia and New Zealand next.
(The writer is a veteran commentator. Views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)