From Dada's Men to Dhoni's Boys

                                               

Choosing the team was not an easy task for Saurav, a team which needed to come out of the so called attitude of favouritism is what was needed. That structure to put into place started to be initiated with the advent of Saurav as Captain. That has what has continued even with the advent of MS Dhoni in the contemporary times. Not to mention that there have been players who had already established themselves in the likes of Dravid, Ganguly himself and not to forget Tendulkar the prodigy who had turned quite a pro. It was quite a tea yet not quite complete. The players that were needed in the fold was a destructive batsman apart from Tendulkar and a prolific keeper batsman later coming in the form of Sehwag and Dhoni respectively.

The middle order was not yet quite complete and was needed to be reshuffled. In came the young and fresh blood in the form of Yuvraj, Kaif who were a fresh addition to life the fielding quality of the team. India always has had that lack in fielding standard apart from the occasional brilliant players in fielding from Azhar to Robin Singh in the just the era preceding Saurav. It was the changes not only cosmetic but had far reaching implications. This kind of change continued even in the context of the bowlers that came in the realm.

Even in the context of the bowlers the inclusion of the left arm pacer sensation Zaheer khan and a young sardar from Punjab nicknamed the Turbonator in the form of Harbhajan Singh who came out trumps in the historic India-Australia test series of 2001. These kinds of changes were the first steps towards creating an Indian team that was open to recognizing the talent and to believe in creating a system which gives space for the young guns to fire. It was this initiation that was very important for the team to rise and become slowly assertive. In this context also the question of mentality also comes in discussion. That is very important to bring in an aggressive fighting mentality. It came with the right blend of the players who were experienced as well as the youngsters in the ranks. Also certain decision of skipper Saurav had far reaching consequences which is being discussed below.

Asking the Master Blaster Tendulkar to leave his opening slot to accommodate Sehwag and keep the left –hand right combination with the skipper himself was a bold move. Bringing in Tendulkar at middle order was not in the equation since the time he had gained that opening order position. Not only that asking a classic player in the form of Dravid to keep gloves in One day format for the benefit of the team was also a visionary move. Even in test matches bringing in Bangar in the opening position as well as trying to use him for bowling swingers apart from himself which he did very well in the historic Eden Gardens test match to accommodate spinners in 2001.

The trend that caught up with modern Indian cricket thought of playing 6 classy batsman and one pseudo batsman/bowler after the Kapil Dev era was used frequently by Dada. However finding genuine all rounder was hard though Robin Singh, Yuvraj and to an extent Dinesh Mongia did it to a large extent. Then came the milestone when India found their perhaps first real destructive keeper batsman in the form of Dhoni. It was a milestone for the Indian cricket team which still is reaping benefits even today. The Indian cricket team needed some fire power in the bowling with Nehra in the reckoning even in those days along came a swinging prodigy Irfan Pathan to look out.

Ganguly’s aggression created the team that was being built on the base of new vision of a team that would take on any opponent in any corner of the world. The 2003-2004 series onwards, India has had historic success of fiercely competing against the Aussies in their home turf and even defeating them in the historic series win against them in 2008 ODI when the realm of captaincy had moved into the so called hands of Captain Cool. This so called Captain Cool who followed the trend laid down by his predecessor was none other than Dhoni whose heroics with his mighty willow and keeping saga had transcended on to his captaincy style. More on that in the next episode as for now it is to reflect the shift from Dada’s vision to Captain Cool. Again a new era begun which was even more ferocious in approach.