Indian cricket's young brigade – The transition towards hope

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies. “

All the hoopla that was created when Sachin took retirement from ODI’s last December, with people saying that they would stop watching cricket if God retired, has proven to be quite untrue. Gone are the days when the hopes of an entire nation were focused on one man. India has moved on. With India demolishing its opponents in the ongoing Champions Trophy, we have had very few reasons to miss him.

With the ferociousness of Sehwag being superseded by the muscling stroke-play of Shikhar Dhawan, the aggression of Gambhir being replaced by the graceful stroke-play of Rohit Sharma, the middle order stability of the Fab Four being replaced by the audacious Raina, the impudent Dhoni, the opportunist Karthik and the consistent Kohli, and not to forget a certain Sir Jadeja, India has seen the transition period go off pretty smoothly.

Sluggish, tardy and lazy were often the words associated with the Indian fielding (staying true to our ancestral roots), where the finger used to be pointed out to the deep fielder even before the ball had passed the in-field. With the new fielding standards that the current team has set, only lightening fast, agile, electric, and lively seem appropriate adjectives. With the young legs infusing a new life into the team, encouraging and backing each other right through, it’s like India have found an extra player thanks to their efforts in the field.

Apart from Zaheer Khan, whose best days are behind him, India have not been able to produce a genuine swing bowler in recent times. India may not have found a Dale Steyn yet, but Bhuvneshwar Kumar comes close to answering India’s woes in the bowling department. He is quite adept at swinging the new ball both ways, and is not afraid to pitch the ball right up to the batsmen. His medium-pace is well complemented by the pace of Umesh and Ishant. With Ashwin and Jadeja handling the spin department with great success, India now have a decent bowling attack, good enough to trouble any team in the world.

A lot has been said about Dhoni’s indifference in pre-match conferences about the spot fixing saga in the IPL and his conflict of interest in Rhiti Sports, but he’s shown why he is known as ‘Captain Cool’. Completely focused to the task at hand, he has led the young brigade to some stellar performances over the past fortnight. The energy the team brings on the field in commendable. Had India been ousted from the Champions Trophy in the league stage, the media would have taken no time to blame the IPL fatigue for their lacklustre performance. But to the dismay of the media, the journey so far has been quite the opposite. Finally, the Indian cricket team is grabbing the headlines for the right reasons.

It might still be early days, but unlike the Aussies, who are still struggling to find a foothold in international cricket after their transition period, India seem to be on the right track. With the average age of the Indian team being less than 27 years , and with Dhoni being the only player above the age 30, a billion fanatics can bank their hopes on this young team to claim the Champions Trophy.