Indians are gelling into a formidable outfit
Deepak Joshi - 08 July 2002

At the time of writing this article, India has won three out of the four matches in the ongoing three-way tussle that is the NatWest series in England. Already in the finals, India has done splendidly, and Sourav Ganguly and his men deserve to be praised for the way they have gone about the task at hand.

Cynics would say that India has only beaten a depleted England in the first match while also pointing out that the Indians nearly made a hash of things on both the occasions that they faced Sri Lanka. Agreed, India did huff and puff before finally brushing aside the challenge of the islanders on both the occasions. But then one should not forget that other side is competing equally hard and in contests like these, there will invariably be tensions on occasions, even when the task on hand seems to be quite simple to accomplish.

Putting that aside, then, let us harp on the positives as far as the Indian team is concerned. They seem to have started their campaign towards making a good showing in the World Cup 2003, right from their one-day series against the West Indies. Playing Rahul Dravid as the wicket-keeper has done wonders to the composition of the Indian XI, and in a way, right at the moment, India seems to be suffering from an embarrassment of riches. So much so that even with Dravid providing an additional slot for either a batsman or a bowler, poor VVS Laxman still can't make it to the playing eleven, despite being the most successful Indian batsman against the West Indians in the recently- concluded Test Series there.

It is indeed heartening to see Dravid finally doing justice to the immense talent that he possesses by playing really playing positive cricket right from the moment he makes his way to the crease in England. Again, he can afford the luxury of being a positive player only because of the fact that his shouldering the additional responsibility as a wicket-keeper has ensured India now has a long and powerful batting line-up.

In today's scenario, the Indian innings is launched by two belligerent assassins answering to the name of Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly. They are followed by a very determined and focussed Dinesh Mongia, who can either graft or attack according to the demands of the situation. The fall of the second wicket leads to the arrival of Sachin Tendulkar, that scourge of bowlers. And on a really bad day, if a third wicket too falls early, Dravid has the luxury to still walk in with a comfortable feeling that he will still be followed by Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif. No wonder, he has suddenly started playing the positive game that his critics always felt he was incapable of.

The other members are also pulling their weight and the team, as whole, is clicking. There has been no unhealthy dependence on the great Tendulkar. The little master made an unbeaten 105 against the English side in the second match between the two eventual finalists. It certainly was an innings that every budding cricketer could learn from. Unfortunately, the match was rained off, with India decidedly in the driver's seat when the drizzle turned into a downpour. The three wins, however, contained only one vital knock of 49 from the little master. But the others rising to the occasion meant that the Indians have now become the dominant team in the competition.

Inspite of Ganguly getting dismissed off the first ball against England and then Sehwag following in his footsteps against Sri Lanka in the latest match involving the Indians, both of them always look capable of coming good in the very next match. Dinesh Mongia is struggling a bit but he surely has it in him to make up for the early disappointments. Tendulkar is in good nick and Dravid and Yuvraj have set themselves nicely for the Man of The Series honour at this stage of the tournament. This certainly augurs well for the Indians and after a long time, one gets reminded of the hey days of 1983, when the Indians really gelled together as a team, to bring glory to themselves and their country.

On the bowling front too, Ajit Agarkar, Ashish Nehra and Zaheer Khan seem to be settling into a nice groove, although Zaheer needs to tighten up a bit during the opening spells. Ajit Agarkar, I have always believed to be one of the most talented fast medium -pacers that India has, and when in rhythm, he can be a handful for any batsman.

One thing the India, however, definitely need to do is to put in place a policy of rotating the players, so that the first eleven are not placed under too much of stress. To be a good one-day side, a team needs 14 quality players, who are all well-settled and confident to step in and deliver on any given day.

In the name of not disturbing the winning combination, the medium- pacers are the ones who are most likely to get stressed or injured and suddenly we might have a situation that in the all-important final, suddenly you may have to throw Tinu Yohannan in front of a marauding Marcus Trescothick and belligerent Nick Knight. Hopefully, the Indian think-tank would keep this in mind and bring in Laxman and Yohannan into the side for the next two games. In fact, to avoid giving Englishmen any more practice against Kumble before the final, the team would also do well to consider bringing in Harbhajan Singh in their last inconsequential match against England.

The views expressed above are solely those of the guest contributor and are carried as written, with only minor editing for grammar, to preserve the original voice. These contributed columns are solely personal opinion pieces and reflect only the feelings of the guest contributor. Their being published on CricInfo.com does not amount to an endorsement by CricInfo's editorial staff of the opinions expressed.
© CricInfo