A Dream Cricket Season for India
- Pulkit Khurana
- Mar 29, 2017
- 4 min read
We come to an end of a long cricket season. These would be the words of the Indian players after having played 17 Tests with 13 Tests at Home and 4 in West Indies.
This was the beginning of the Kohli era with the captain leading from the front with match winning knocks. Virat Kohli scored 4 double hundreds in 4 consecutive Test series.
It began with the Indian team winning the Test series 2-0 against West Indies in pace and bouncy conditions. Also it was here that India came up with the 5 bowlers concept with wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and Ravichandran Ashwin doing well with the bat.
This was followed by a long home season where India played New Zealand, England, Bangladesh and Australia and won each of the series. The Indian team was tested in tough conditions like that in Kolkata which favored the Kiwis more, in Dharamshala which was like home for Australia. But in such conditions, the Indian pace attack comprising of Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma, Mohammad Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed its true character and brought victory to a touching distance.This season also witnssed the coming up of 6 new venues which included Rajkot, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Dharamshala, Ranchi and Indore.There were pressure situations where India lost the toss to England and trailed by over 400 in two successive matches in Mumbai and Chennai but these were the times when batsmen like Virat Kohli, Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul along with wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and all-rounders Ravichandran Ashwin,Ravindra Jadeja, Jayant Yadav stood up to provide India huge leads with the help of which India won 2 consecutive tests after conceding first innings lead which is a record. This series also included the triple century of Karun Nair, who became only the second Indian to achieve this feat after Virender Sehwag.
Also the 235 runs made by Virat Kohli was a match winning performance in the Mumbai Test as involved a crucial partnership with all-rounder Jayant Yadav, who was a new member of the team. Meanwhile Jayant Yadav also scored a century. The ODI and T20I series' that followed had some hard fought battles between the India and England players with India emerging victorious in both of them thanks to the all-round performance of the team. These limited overs series' saw the likes of Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina and Ashish Nehra make a great comeback to the Indian team. Also players like Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya and Yuzvendra Chahal produced some brilliant piece of cricket which showed their maturity at the international circuit. Following this was the Test Series against Bangladesh in which the double century by Kohli with the support of others helped in clinching victory.
As in most of the cases, the best is saved for the last and here also the season ended with a hard fought battle between India and Australia in a four Test match series. Aussies shocked everyone across the globe by their performance to win the first test in Pune. This Test acted as an eye opener for Indians who came back strongly to win the series 2-1. But it was not that easy with captain Kohli out of form and later out of the team in the final test. This was the real test of character of players where the Indians, made to bowl first, showed mental strength to outshine the Aussies in every department be it batting, fast bowling or spin bowling in the decider. The roles of Cheteshwar Pujara, KL Rahul and Ravindra Jadeja were essential as they took responsibilities in their departments to help India win. It is proven from this Test that India is not too much dependent on Virat Kohli.
Though Kohli did not perform up to the expectations, he was involved in bringing the support of the crowd and even though he was not playing in the last Test due to shoulder injury, he brought the largest cheer on the ground coming in as the drinksman.
This season has seen the emergence of Jadeja- the Test player who performed with both bat and ball. Also the role of Cheteshwar Pujara is quite significant has scored over 2000 first-class runs this season. Ashwin took around 80 wickets this season with his variations which is another record. Contributions of KL Rahul to provide starts when Murali Vijay did not score were vital.
Ashwin also won the ICC Cricketer of the Year 2016 for which he will receive Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy and the ICC Test Cricketer of the Year 2016
It might look a bit easy that India won because they played at home but the circumstances were not quite well each time and it was self-belief, determination and concentration of the players to play for longer hours which took the game away from the opposition.
All in all, this season has helped in the development of a pool of players from which a combination suitable in a particular situation can be selected in the future tours to foreign countries. This season also is an example of the fact that a team can be victorious in any circumstance if the players take the responsibilities to fight till they last.
India end the season as the No.1 side in the world in Test Cricket.
Wishing all the best to the Indian Cricket Team for the future series.
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