If there is god on earth . He is sitting in a Gwalior hotel now
He is Sachin, he is the greatest of them all ,
Today I saw a Sachin , that knows that he can now play like it is the year 1995, there is a Azharudding, Sidhu , and Jadeja
No, I think , he knows that India is now undoubtedly well on to its way to the no 1 spot in World cricket in all forms of the game. Wait till, the next T20 encounter.
Just think of the bowling teams plight, Rahul Dravid, Laxman and Tendulkar can nowadays be rested for a match or two, they play their own games and don’t have to bother much, the youngsters are all well set
Today when I ask my cousin who studies in class X , and is sitting for the exams, he says to me that there are parents who make their kids skip the exams, if there is a game sessions , or if the coach asks so … I ask him how difficult is it to make it to the Bengal team itself, With franchises and IPL and ICL , there is a ongoing cut throat competition for even the middle order of most of the state teams. Today just to make it to the 2nd division is a difficult and uphill task, and let alone play good, and play at the top levels consistently,
And that is exactly the reason , that we have a kitty full of newcomers who are all able, in the form of Suresh Raina, who once was said to be the next god of the left hand players off side, there is Dinesh Mongia, who though now lost is a very strong middle order batsman, we have Rohit Sharma who can do all the departments of cricket as good as any other great player.
Gambhir is an established , world no 1 ( not now may be ) , then there is a Robin Uthappa, and the funny part is Dinesh Karthik comes back as a batsman and not a wicketkeeper. And the prince of cricket . Virat Kohli , all of the above players have single handedly rescued India on more than once occasion. Irfan Pathan needs space to head in , whereas Yusuf is in sublime form. All of them above can enter the circuits and just perform as if the environment has not changed, they find the international level to be just very close notch to the first class in India today.
They all are best in the domestic circuits, and they are soon to be the next legends, but with a team which looks like the Real Madrid of cricket, Sachin knows that other than the new comers, there are the bullies of world cricket, If Pakistan boasts of a certain Shahid Afridi , and England still dreams that Kevin Pietersen will some day come back to his first shown form, What I can definitely say is there lies in the Indian team three such bullies, three Shahid Afridis with far better track record and control of the game and the shots, which makes Shahid Afridis, Centurions centuries look smaller in the context
We have a Sehwag , the impeccable form that he is in , and the way he feels that defensive game for him is the riskiest game, and the way he made a 290 knock in a single day of test cricket.
We have a Yuvraj, six sixers apart, he is a class of his own. I am sure that on one favorable day , when Yusuf and Yuvraj as partners to each other for 15 overs at a stretch , the opposition will have to look like kids in the training camp.
We have a Dhoni , who is consistently, playing not out innings and if he continues to do this for another year or so , I am sure that he will end up with more than a 100 half centuries behind him and the highest possible one day average. Today he played a different innings, that kind of innings that we had seen in his earlier days. He played that cushion to the Sachins 200 and as usual such a great land mark came fitfully in the 50 over itself which started with a Dhoni sixer
We in India, have a phenomenal batting order. Sachin can play his own game today , never was he more relaxed then he is now. Ponting almost caught him up on the centuries tally in the test arena with 39 centuries and Sachin 43, but then there were 4 consecutive centuries and Sachin is all well set for 50 international test centuries,
But the way he batted today , I don’t think, Gambhir should come top of the order. Gambhir should come to consolidate in case of a quick first wicket. Today Sachin from the word go just resounded his pledge, that the century that he missed in the first one dayer in Jaipur, due to a very unfortunate runout ( running is a department where is a master in his own zone , I am sure that we will soon see a 300 run partnership , between him and Dhoni with the minimum number of boundaries, , and it could be in any form of the game )
The batsmen of the Indian team are in such sublime form that the first test defeat in Nagpur where the Indian team went all out twice in score below three hundred is like having the probability as that of the chance of getting 20 tails consecutively . That was a rare , lapse, I am sure, since you have to read in to the teams colors, as it is now. It is a team where any great would want to play ,
And all this is an answer to that question “Cant a country of a billion people produce 11 gems who could dominate world cricket today “
Today , schools and parents and teachers are changing. Taare Zameen Par and Three Idiots are becoming block busters,
The not so important Physical Education dept in many schools in India, nowadays is a full fledged department with a head of the dept and many staff with multiple coaches,
Yes we may not yet be bringing the golds in Olympics, since in strength we are naturally not gifted like the Caucasian and the Nordic breed and in a country where we are cramping for space and food, we have some how never got it in terms of physical stamina and that is why you will find very occasional wrestlers or soccer players or sprinters who make it to the top circuits. Yes , we know that we are not yet there but in Cricket, when once we were asked “Cant a nation of 1 billion people produce 11 gems ?” we have finally answered the call,
We have those 11 gems, we have a team to beat which , you will need a team to make atleast 350 runs in every innings,
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