The 12 `Mosts` Of Indian Test
Cricket
This piece is dedicated to the 12 men in
white who caused a turnaround in the black phase
of Indian test cricket, when losing abroad was a given. Not anymore!
Indian cricket in the last decade has turned a corner, and it took quite a while for it to shed the `tigers at home, lambs abroad` tag in test matches. The turnaround -- notwithstanding the astonishing aberration in England where they received a 4-0 drubbing in the test series (hopefully, the upcoming Australian series will prove that it was really just an aberration) -- happened over a period of time and it took the arrival of Saurav Ganguly as captain, in an environment rocked by match fixing controversies, to turn the tables for India.
Of course a captain is only as good as the team and the system that throws up players. But over the last decade, India has been blessed with players of such outstanding quality, temperament, class and caliber that the team is now both respected and feared. Perhaps it will be another decade before such a conglomeration of `stars` will assemble to form a cricket team of such brilliance and substance, not only in India but across test playing nations. But even for this team not winning a test series in Australia and South Africa remains a major gap in overseas performance -- of course, the upcoming Australian tour can address one of the gaps. But winning test series in Pakistan, West Indies, England and New Zealand are more than significant achievements.Yes, lack of a test series victory in Sri Lanka in a long time is also a pain point, but it also testifies to the difficulty level of beating Lanka at home.
In any case, the significant members who have created this transformation -- mind you, it's been gradual and there has been nothing dramatic about it -- deserve to be paid a tribute. This blog is just that -- a tribute to the 12 `Mosts` Of Indian Cricket through one line descriptions. These 12 men brought about the transformation in India's test cricket performance:
1. Saurav Ganguly -- The Most Inspiring Captain
2. Sachin Tendulkar -- The Most Consistent Batsman
3. Virender Sehwag -- The Most Destructive Batsman
4. Rahul Dravid -- The Most Dependable Batsman
5. VVS Laxman -- The Most Elegant Batsman
6. Gautam Gambhir -- The Most Focused Southpaw
7. Anil Kumble -- The Most Accurate Bowler
8. Harbhajan Singh -- The Most Excitable (not a bad thing of course) Bowler
9.Zaheer Khan -- The Most Crafty Bowler
10. MS Dhoni -- The Most Cool Leader
11. John Wright -- The Most Trusting Coach
12. Gary Kirsten -- The Most Approachable Coach
While Saurav Ganguly, Anil Kumble and both the coaches have moved on, they have left behind a legacy for others to take to a culmination point. The other guys are not finished yet -- far from it.
PS: Can we forget the selectors? Kudos to them too! They deserve it.
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