INDIA AS FORCE IN WORLD CRICKET

INDIA AS FORCE IN WORLD CRICKET

Reporter, Magazine World of UGI

INDIA in cricket made its debut as a test playing nation in England in 1932 led by C.K Nayudu,well before Indian Independence,the team performed well but could not win.The match though played for 3 days was given status.The team though did’nt win but played well in patches.The team’s first series as an Independent nation was in 1948 against Australia in Brisbane,Australia was led by Sir Don Bradman and India was led by Lala Amarnath.Austalia cruised home by winning 4-0 the 5 match series.India’s first test victory came against England at Madras in 1952.India’s series victory came against Pakistan in 1952 and again in 1954 India drew a 5 match series against Pakistan 0-0.The batting strength at that time came from Vijay Manjrekar and Polly Umrigar and they became  great prospect for the team at that time and the prime bowler at that time was Subhash Gupte who picked 21 wickets in the series.India’ first comprehensive test victory came against New Zealand in1956 as India won the 5 match series 2-0 and M.H Mankad emerged as the best batsmen in the series by scoring 526 runs at an average of 105.2 and again the best bowler was Subhash Gupte by picking 34 wickets in the series.Though India has gone through some rough phase during that time as they lost to Australia and Westindies but made a strong comeback by winning series overseas against Newzealand in 1968 and the belief of winning overseas was instilled in the team by M.A.K Pataudi also known as ‘Tiger’.The team played well and won the series 3-0.The team gained strength from later 1970’s as Indian team had great players like M.A.K Pataudi,Kapil Dev,Sunil Gavaskar and the Indian spin quartet –Erapalli Prassana,Venkatraghvan,Bhagwat Chandrashekar(leg spinner),Bishan Singh Bedi(left arm spinner).The team played well during that period and Indian cricket team began to see success overseas beating England and Newzealand,holding Australia and Southafrica to draw.This period can be called as the golden era of Indaian cricket history.

World Cup Winning Cricket team of India 1983

The best batsmen at that time were Sunil Gavaskar and Gundappa Vishwanath and they also played an important role in victory against England and Westindies under the captaincy of Ajit Wadekar.During the 1980’s and 1990’s Indian team developed a more formidable batting attack with talented batsmen like Mohammed Azharudin,Dilip Vengsarkar,Ravi Shastri and players like Roger Binny,Syed Kirmani,Madan lal and others.Kapil Dev was made the captain of the Indian team in 1983 world cup and he instilled and brought such positive energy and belief in the team that the team went on to win the World Cup for the first time ever and this victory came against the mighty Westindies and the Indian team defended a very modest total of 183 and showed the world that we can beat the best team of the world in any format.The team though after winning the world cup in 1983, performed poorly in the test arena,including 28 consecutive test matches without a victory,however Indian team won the Asia cup in 1984 and World Championship Cricket in 1985.Traditionally much stronger team at home than abroad,Indian team has broken this myth and has done well and has improved its records of winning matches overseas under the leadership of Sourav Ganguly.

Master Blaster Sachinji Tendulkar

Indian team has prospered very well and the team also had a good coach like john wright who also played an important role in improving team’s performance and it can be called as the dream era of INDIAN Cricket as Indian team defeated Australia in 2001 and Indian team were joint champion along with Srilanka and runners up of 2003 ICC Cricket World Cup and from then INDIAN Team has become a strong potent force in world cricket.The team has produced great players like Virender Sehwag,Yuvraj Singh,Harbhajan Singh,Zaheer Khan and The great master blaster Sachin Tendulkar has been the vital player for INDIA since 1990 and has got many records to his name and Rahul Dravid the wall of Indian team and Anil kumble has played an important role in shaping and moulding the team and making the team a vital force in world cricket as Indian team has won many series from 2000’s in every format of the game like Natwest trophy in England,Test series in Pakistan,Westindies,England etc and have beaten them comprehensively under the leadership of Sourav ganguly,Rahul Dravid,Anil Kumble.In 2007 the first t-20 World cup was held in which the senior players did’nt took part and M.S.Dhoni was made the captain of that young INDIAN Team and the team went on to win the innaugral t-20 held in South Africa after beatin Pakistan by 5 runs in the final,Irfan pathan was man of the match.

ICC world cup winning cricket team 2011

After Kumble’s retirement in 2008 M.S Dhoni was made the captain of the team in every format and from then he and his team has led the INDIAN team to many glory which has brought cheer on faces of every Indian people.MS Dhoni led  the team to number one spot in test cricket from 2008-2010 end,winning Asia cup,Commonwealth Bank series in Australia,Compaq cup and many bilateral series and The Indian team also fulfilled the dream of every Indian fan and also of Sachin Tendulkar by winning the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 after 28 years by beating Srilanka in the final by 6 wickets.Thus Indian team became the best team of the world in ODI Format.Though Indian team lost to England and  Australia in tests abroad but did well in ODI’S and also succeded in beating Australia 4-0 in tests in home series and won the ICC Champions Trophy held this year in England by beating England by 5 runs in the finals.The team did’nt had the likes of yuvraj,gambhir,harbhajan,sehwag and zaheer and a new team was sent to England which still managed to win the trophy the team had good talented players like Shikhar Dhawan,Virat Kohli,Rohit Sharma,Suresh Raina,Ravindra Jadeja and in bowlers Bhuvneshwar kumar,Ishant Sharma,Ashwin and others who played tremendous cricket and won the trophy.Recently Indian team won a Tri series in West indies which also had Srilanka.The recent ICC Rankings clearly shows the dominance of INDIAN Team in World Cricket,Indian team is number one in ODI,no 3 in TEST,no 3 in T-20.By this we can see that how Indian team has emerged as force in World Cricket and has gone on to be the best team in the world.

Kalyan, Thane                                                                                        - Siddhant Sinha

23/Sept/2013                                                                                            Ramnarain Ruia College. Mumbai

                                                                                                                 Reporter, MWUGI

Siddhant Sinha

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