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After
having lost the test series 1-0, India bounced back
strongly to lead the ODI series 3-1 against Pakistan. With
only one more match left to play, Rahul Dravid’s men
have already won the series. My prediction is that they
will rest a lot of the regular players in the final game,
and should. Irfan Pathan, Dravid himself, and possibly
Sachin Tendulkar will be rested as they have been playing
non-stop since their matches against Sri Lanka in India.
It would be a good time to briefly glimpse into the future
of Indian cricket with the youngsters taking to the field,
and possibly Mohammad Kaif (a former Under-19 captain)
leading the team. He is likely India’s future ODI
captain anyway. S. Sreeshanth and Rudra Pratap Singh could
get a taste for the game without stalwarts Pathan and
senior-player Agarkar, while opening batsman Wasim Jaffar
could finally get a chance to spank the ball around along
with Gautam Gambhir at the top. Meanwhile, Dravid and co.
should get as much rest as possible before an enthralling
series against England. Judging by Andrew Strauss’s
recent interview on BBC, it seems like England have learnt
well from their thrashing at the hands of Pakistan just a
few months ago. They are also a young side, and a very
talented one, and will provide tough opposition to the
Indians, who will be favored to win on home soil.
Although
the current ODI series isn’t over yet, having taken a
3-1 lead, India have secured the trophy in a 5-match
contest. Interestingly, a Bangladeshi colleague of mine
told me that at this juncture the score line would read
2-2, and there would be all to play for in the fifth
match. I told him India would win 3-1, but his reasoning
– money matters presided over cricket, and for the sake
of both countries’ cricket boards, it would be better to
have a final showdown in the 5th match and reap
the money on tickets sold. After all, this is India –
Pakistan we’re talking about, he concluded. Admittedly,
with the Indian board (BCCI) constantly flexing their
muscles for whatever random reasons from time to time, it
is understandable why he would have such a view. But the
bottom line is that those days of “match-fixing,” or
at least pre-ordaining results, are long over. This is the
21st. century, let’s be professionals and get
a move on. With John Wright having instilled this
professionalism in the Indians over the past five years, I
can only see it growing exponentially under people like
Greg Chappell and Rahul Dravid. So as my friend walked
away down the hallway, cock-sure of his prediction, I
thought to myself, “Correction, my friend: this is the
‘New India’ vs. Pakistan.”
New
India? Indeed. Banished as the all-time ‘chokers’ in
international cricket, it is quite startling that India
has now completed 12 consecutive wins in matches where
they have batted second. Chasing runs down is not an easy
task, but somehow the Indians have managed it with
incredible consistency of late. One look at the stars
behind this, and it becomes clearer that this is indeed a new
Indian team. Irfan Pathan, Mahendra Dhoni, and of course,
the dependable Rahul Dravid, are the sort of blokes that
are not going to lie down and be belted. Add the
maturation of Yuvraj Singh, and the legendary Sachin
Tendulkar, and you’ve got a team that will chase runs
with swaggering confidence almost! And why not? These are
some good players, with great talent, and we need to
repose faith in them. It is interesting how the same
journalists we read everyday, on venerable websites like
Cricinfo, were slaying the Indian team after having lost
the test series, but are now showering praise on the very
same 11 (okay, so no V.V.S. Laxman), as if victory was
inevitable. I recommend Rohit Brijnath’s articles that
appear from time to time on the BBC website (e.g.
“Making sense of Sachin” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4711292.stm),
above the poetry-laden writings on Cricinfo. As for the
test series, I reiterate, it was a one-off test match so
it is impossible to read too much into it, and the Indians
had lost interest after two dead games on pitches not up
to international standards (please see “India Idle in
Wasteful Series” on this website). It is a reflection of
our emotional weakness than anything else the way we
fluctuate in our opinions of our team. I don’t know if
any of these journalists has actually played the sport at
any competitive level to actually understand what goes
through the minds of some cricketers. Like I did to my
Bangladeshi friend, I tell you all to have faith in this
new Indian side. It is one for the future. And England are
about to get a bitter licking.
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