The New Faces of Indian Cricket

So throw sledgehammers at me because I never update when India is playing cricket better than they've ever played in their lives :P

Well TeamIndia went on to win the Border-Gavaskar trophy 2-0 and might I add that both the matches won came under Dhoni's leadership? :)

Kumble has retired and so has Ganguly, and I'm still not used to that fact, still can't accept that I will never watch these legends play again. It's like, they become immortal in your mind, and to erase them out of the Test side feels strange, like I'm doing something prohibited.

But needless to say, the reigns have now been handed permanently to Dhoni, the superman of Indian cricket. Now isn't that an apt analogy? :) 2-0 against Australia, no less! When he took over as captain, he seemed to make the same players look like different people entirely. Everyone was more energized, the team looked more bonded, everyone performed better. It was odd, but happily so.

And now the series against England. The first two matches were more of Yuvraj vs. England than anything else, but I'm not complaining, it helps to have a hero in every series. :)
Third match going on now and I'm loving it because I can finally WATCH rather than pathetically following commentary on Cricinfo (which is awesome, don't get me wrong... but there's nothing that can match up to the joys of actually watching a game of cricket).

So England is now 240 all out in 48.4 overs. Bhajji was brilliant and so was Yuvi. Ishant wasn't too good, with about 5 no balls and 2-3 wides. Zaks was good as usual and Munaf wasn't too bad :)
Plus we still have a battery of backup bowlers- RP and Sreesanth and Goni and Piyush Chawla and Amit Mishra and more.

Our batting is looking formidable with Viru and Gambhir as a solid opening pair, then Yuvraj who is in sparkling form, and Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Suresh Raina and still Badri and many more.

But above and beyond all this, what impresses me about the current Indian side is how different a fielding unit they look. The close in fielding is nothing short of impressive, with the youngsters showing tons of energy and diving and stopping the ball on a regular basis. You don't see that sight anymore- the one where one good stop got the whole team congregating to congratulate the fielder... because it's become a common occurence. The fielders near him will just give a few fives, maybe a couple of pats on the back, and that's all.

Even two or three years ago, we had maybe two good fielders in the side and nine average fielders. Now we have 3 or 4 brilliant fielders, about 5 or 6 good fielders and maybe 1 or 2 average fielders. Which is so heartnening to see.

And then of course we have Dhoni. Need I say more? :)

Here's to new highs in Indian cricket.