The Broken Barrier

Never in my dreams have I thought about India winning a test series in Australia. Have you?

But that was not the case this time around. India were the favourites going into the series. Two strong away performances against SA and England boosted their chances further. A  formidable line up was announced. Everything was falling in our place perfectly.

It was on 1st December 2018 ,  I fortuitously woke up at 5am. First time in many years were I happy that I got up at that time. Just a week before the Adelaide test , it was important that I get accustomed to the new routine.

On 5th December 2018 , there were nerves, excitement and enthusiasm. I planned to go to bed early.

Alarm was set at 5am!!

The day finally arrived, 6th December 2018.

Virat Kohli and Tim Paine walked up for the toss. Toss has been the deciding factor for Kohli's men when they travelled away. So it was very important to win the toss . The coin was tossed up and when it came down Indian crowd were all smiles. The board read "India have won the toss and chose to bat ".

But the similar conundrum followed. India were in deep trouble being reduced to 41-4 inside 21 overs. Openers asusual fell prey to good fast bowling and all onus were on Pujara and Kohli to do a rescue act. But that day was not Kohli's as he departed for a mere 3runs.Soon jinks followed. In came Rohit. His strokes showed positive signs of a  comeback but after stitching a good partnership with Pujara he played a usual "brainfade" shot and departed. With India 87-5 in walked Rishabh pant. Pujara was playing a blockathon at the other end. He was rock solid and wasn't perturbed by Oz's bowlers. He marched on with the tail to complete a century and give India a decent first innings total of 250. Now it was the time for Indian spearheads. They rattled the brittle middle order of the Australians and bowled them out for 235. India with the help of Pujara and jinks took the score to 307 in the second essay with Australia requiring 322 to win. The Australian collapse happened again but their tail stood tall. But there was Ravi Ashwin who came to the rescue and spun us to victory.

India 1-0 up by winning the first test of the series. 

Next we moved on to the newly built Perth Stadium. It was not WACA anymore. It was the first test at the stadium . Rohit and Ashwin were deemed unfit. Vihari replaced  them. This time around India lost the toss and so the match. India didn't play a spinner whereas Lyon was the man of the match. Australia never looked like Australia but they somehow managed to win. India on the other hand had so many things to worry about. Openers failing again,team selection, combination everything. But the standouts were once again the captain who compiled a gritty hundred on a tough pitch and the fast bowlers who bowled their hearts out.

Next up it was the boxing day test at the MCG. Indian squad was announced for the last two tests. Mayank Agarwal and Hardik Pandya received call-ups. The change in opening combination was the need of the hour and vihari was made the make-shift opener. Mayank was drafted into the XI straight away with Rohit playing at 6.

The toss went our way and the result was again toss oriented. India took an unassailable lead in the series and retained the Border Gavaskar trophy. We batted first. Mayank Agarwal sparkled on debut by taking on the bowlers whereas Vihari just erased off the impact of the new ball. It laid the perfect platform. Pujara scored century again!! Kohli,Jinks,Rohit,pant made vital contributions. India score a mammoth 443. In reply Australia struggled to the pace of the pace trio and could manage only 151. Bumrah was the pick of the bowlers with 6 wickets. Kohli refused to enforce the follow on and India were on the attack. The urge to score quick runs resulted in a collapse and India declared setting Australia a target of 399 to take a lead in the series. The pace battery were all fully charged. They made early inroads and rattled them for just 261 thereby taking the lead in the series.

The last hurdle for India was the New year test at Sydney. Ishant got injured.Rohit left Australia for his daughter's birth. Ash was deemed unfit just an hour before the toss. Kuldeep and Rahul were picked in the XI. One last chance for Rahul probably.

Kohli won the toss and chose to bat.Rahul failed. Mayank provided a good start, Pujara scored a century, Middle order provided vital contributions and Australian batsmen failing. All these seemed like a cliche. Everything was happening as per the script. But when you thought India were going to have wild celebrations in the field after winning the match and sealing the series, the most irritating part of the series happened. Rain!! Unfortunately  the test ended in a draw. We could not see the celebrations in the ground but the end result was important. India 2 Australia 1. We have created history. We have won an away series in Australia finally. What an incredible performance from the team! When Kohli lifted the trophy I was literally in tears.

India performed as a team with their batters contributing finally after their disastrous time in England and South Africa. Pujara was the standout performer and I think there will be talks soon to have a statue in Gujarat for him and name it "Statue of Patience".Such grit ,calm ,composure shown by him in vital stages of game. Pant has been good with the bat but not with the gloves. Jinks and Mayank provided useful contributions too. I LL be looking forward to the youthful opening combo of Shaw and Mayank in the upcoming series.

And the BOWLERS deserve a special mention. They were running down throughout the year and their workloads have been managed excellently by the team Management. They deserve a special mention as well. It was an all round performance from the team.

They have got most wins outside sub-continent in a calendar year to their name. Thanks to their ruthless captain.

Kohli has simply outsmarted his opposite number in the series. There was some error in judgement indeed but that didn't affect the result. The way he marshalled the troops ,led them ,motivated them was scintillating. Kohli as a batsman was below par but as a captain he was at his best. India now have the best captain cum player with them. The importance he gives to fitness makes him unique. The standard of fielding and running between the wickets have leaped in his tenure. That's the difference from the other Indian teams of the past. It's high time that we carry this form and win many away series moving forward.

Next assignment is in the colours for India . After the Odis against Australia and New Zealand we wait for the Marquee event  of the year . ICC Cricket World Cup 2019.

Hope Kohli and his men lift the title and make us proud.

Come on INDIA

THE ADOPTED PRINCE OF KOLKATA

When it comes to Kolkata and Cricket the name that strikes first will forever be "Sourav Ganguly",  the Prince of Kolkata.

Fondly known as Dada, Sourav established himself as a player in the late 90s and soon became captain of the team. He was responsible for bringing many youth stars to the team. The likes of  MS, Raina, Yuvi, Viru, Irfan made their debuts under him and hold high stature now. The most aggressive captain India has ever had , Ganguly has seen many highs and lows throughout his captaincy career.

Who would forget the Nat-west series Finals celebration and the series victory against the mighty OZs? 

Who would also forget him being dropped from the team during the tenure of Greg Chappell? Who would forget India getting knocked out in the group stages of 2007 World-cup? The darkest days of Indian Cricket.

The bad omen never let him off in IPL too.

KKR having acquired DADA and many other  International stars wanted to stamp their authority in the newly commenced league. It all started on a strong note with a stellar performance from BAZ in the inaugural match of the tourney. Every KKR fan had a thought that their prince would be lifting the trophy.But It was not to be.They finished in the bottom three for the first three seasons. Sourav was stripped off captaincy. The KKR management were gutted and eventually released him.They needed a charismatic leader, a special player and a young team to go forward. 

In the 2011 auctions, the KKR management spent a whopping sum of 13 Crores  (the highest for a player then) to acquire the services of Gautam Gambhir.

So, Who was Gautam Gambhir? What has he achieved till that point?  Does he deserve to be the captain of our team? Is he the apt replacement for someone like Dada? All these questions were raised from KKR fans.

 A not so T20 player bought for such a huge sum, Gauti has captained the Delhi state team but hasn't had any international captaincy experience till then..He has had his best of days between 2007-2011.During that period he had won 2 world cups,awarded the best test player of the year in 2009 (not to forget the 11 hr marathon innings in Napier), smashed 1000+ runs in a calendar year in tests in 2008, scored runs all over the world and finally won the prestigious Arjuna Award .He had attained a stature of a legend. There was still a doubt on his leadership qualities though.

But what followed next is history! KKR never failed to make it to the playoffs barring two seasons.They were crowned champions in 2012 and 2014. Gauti joined Dhoni in becoming the most succesful IPL captain by winning 2 IPL trophies. He led the team with courage and aggression. Gambhir was the name in the lips of  all the KKR fans. They loved him. They saw their Prince in him. SRK the team Owner was awestruck by Gauti's accomplishments.

They almost went to the wire in 2016 and 2017 but could not make through . Amidst all what stood tall was their stupendous captain and his troops. His IPL graph was always going up since he joined KKR. But he was not able to replicate that form into the international arena.There was a significant dip in form after 2012. He was no more a certainty in ODIs. Dhoni's rotation policy had an effect on him. It also affected his test form when he was a gift wrapped wicket for England and Australia in 2015 .As a result India lost 8 tests in a row and soon he was dropped form all the squads .

He gave his best to come back to the team. He played the Ranji Trophy and scored big on occasions. He got a short-lived recall to the side which lasted just 4 innings in  2016. Still he never wanted to give up. He tried hard and failed miserably. One last chance was up for grabs when he was picked by his home team Delhi Daredevils in 2018 auction.

But!!

Gambhir dropped himself from the team after just 6 games.

That moment made him realize "The Time was over".He was depressed, haunted and wanted to call it a day.

On Decemeber 3 2018, Gambhir announced that he was going to retire and the Ranji match against Andhra was going to be his last. The Retirement Speech made the fans motionless. His final Ranji match attracted huge crowds. Fittingly Gambhir scored a hundred and made the fans happy.

Unfortunately he did not get an opportunity to lead the Indian team. But he is one of the best captains in the game.He has also had many on-field banters which made him infamous but that's his nature. He has been a dedicated servant to the game.

Yes,Gautam Gambhir has seen many lows and highs during his playing days.But he forever ll remain one of the best openers the country has produced. He had the aggression of Sehwag, calmness of Dravid, class of Sachin , elegance of Laxman , bravery of Ganguly. He has fans all round the world even today. He might have played for Delhi, but KKR and Edengardens define him.

 Kolkata is his adopted city and he is Kolkata's


"ADOPTED PRINCE"

Thunder Down Under

"5.30 Am"

Thinking of when I was last awake at that time I cogitated to recollect two such instances.

One was during late December 2016 when I travelled all the way to SASTRA only for my cricket practice. There were no classes at all!!

Going  further back to another such instance  was during the 2014 Indian winter. It was again related to the game of cricket. India after their humiliating loss in English soil were down and out .The next overseas assignment was the Tour Down Under where we haven't had much success.

 The Indian squad was about to be announced and me along with my cricket friends were eagerly waiting for the squad.We were constantly having a debate on the team combinations.

The squad was pretty good with lots  of variety in it.We were satisfied. Indians played against CA XI  and the Oz probables were having a go in Sheffield. What followed next was horrendous.

Sean Abbot an unknown bowler then bowled a normal bouncer (It's so common in Australia) which claimed the life of a fluent batsman Philip Hughes!!

The Ozs' were still mourning his death but the first test had to get underway. Ozs' played with the black band throughout the series. On the other side India had their own worries. No DHONI for the first test.

Yeah! Kohli was made the stand in captain for the first test. What I got up to watch so early was a shocker. Captain Kohli sprung in a surprise by bringing in Karn Sharma for the first test.It backfired and India lost fighting down to the wire.

Everyone was waiting for Dhoni's return to the team but he was also welcomed with a loss. The two losses jolted the team badly.The series was on the line with India needing to win both the tests to regain the trophy. Eventually the third test ended in a draw and India lost the series.

But what affected the cricket fraternity was the unexpected retirement of Dhoni from the tests. The team played through those emotions with Kohli taking charge as the full time test captain . Another draw followed.

Done and dusted. Australia sealed the series 2-0.

What we thought was going to one heck of a series turned out be an one sided affair. Ozs' dedicated the series victory to Hughesy. Steve Smith arrived and conquered. But there were a lot of take aways for us too. Kohli after his disastrous English tour annihilated the opponents and became the full time test captain. Vj and Rahul dazzled whereas Jinks proved his prowess. The bowling was unsatisfactory.

Now fast forward to 2018-19 India are again touring Australia for a 4 match series. In these 4 years India as a team and Kohli as an individual have gone heights. They lost to the same nemesis in WC 2015, beat them in WT20, thrashed them in the home Border-Gavaskar trophy in 2017 after a little hiccup and many more.

Then they toured SA and England and put up the best ever performance by any touring party.

Australia had their own problems too with rare positives being the WC triumph and the most important ASHES victory at home. But Smith and Warner stood tall amidst all struggles until the Sandpaper Gate incident happened. Now Australia are without their best players. But Ozs' sans them are always strong on their home turf .

But what makes this series interesting is the hunger for the victory.Their never give up attitude provides us the best opportunity to conquer Australia.

Bolstered with quick guns and a capable batting unit I think this is going to be the year the "UNTHINKABLE" is going to happen. All rests on the team's performance in the field

Wait till this Thursday for the series to start

Remember the time guys


It's " 5.30Am"