Spare the cynicism - Many positives for a young Team India from overseas tours

Despite the results, there were positives for the young squad

The partnership between Brendon McCullum and BJ Watling in the second Test at Wellington was reminiscent of the epic partnership between VVS Laxman and Rahul Dravid in the 2001 Calcutta Test against Australia. It was a partnership that single-handedly took the match away from the Indian team who looked all set for a memorable win for two and half days of the Test match.

The match then meandered to a dull draw and India ended up losing their fourth successive Test series overseas. As a result of this, the calls for sacking MS Dhoni as Test captain have grown louder by the day. Cynics have termed his captaincy overly defensive while some have asked to show the pink slip to coach Duncan Fletcher since he just doesn’t exist.

But that is how the average Indian cricket fan has always been. They idolize their cricketers and hence want them to win every single game. They always see the glass as half empty as compared to half full. What they are not realizing is that how this young Indian side has come of age and improved drastically as compared to the horror tours of England 2011 and Australia 2012.

The disasters of England and Australia

Both the tours of England and Australia were disasters for the team that boasted of legends like Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman. While the rest of the team collapsed in a heap in England, it was Rahul Dravid who stood tall amongst the ruins; whereas the Australia tour was worse in terms of legends performing with the bat as they only came out croppers. The only positive that could be taken from the Australia tour was the arrival of Virat Kohli who can very well consider that tour as a watershed moment in his career and for him turning from a boy wonder to a world class player that he is today.

India landed in South Africa without Sehwag, Tendulkar, Dravid and Laxman. They had young guns like Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli, and Ajinkya Rahane at their disposal that were expected to meekly surrender to the world class fast bowling of Dale Steyn and Co.

The South African Odyssey

But the young Indian side put up a fantastic display with both bat and ball and almost ended up winning the game before heroics from Faf du Plessis and AB de Villers led to the game ending in a nail biting draw. The second Test in Durban also was a case of one bad session that cost India the game and the series. The positives from that tour were aplenty.

When the young turks were meekly expected to surrender, Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara had scored tons, Murli Vijay and Ajinkya Rahane almost scored tons (97 & 96 respectively) and Ravindra Jadeja had a six wicket haul to his name. All this for players who had no overseas Test match experience and match practice.

Lessons at the doors of Kiwis

When Team India landed in New Zealand three weeks later, a lot was expected of them since they exceeded everybody’s expectations in South Africa. It has to be admitted that the last two ODIs were disastrous for the team in terms of performances but everyone has bad days at the office.

India did lose the series 4-0 since the 3rd game was a tie. What people do not see was how close the first two games were and it could have gone either way. What they also fail to notice is the fighting spirit shown by the team in the 3rd ODI and from a precarious position, they managed to get a tie.

Same goes for the Test series. After being outclassed with both bat and ball in the first innings, the young guns pulled up their socks and almost ended up getting an improbable victory chasing a score of over 400. However, it was a case of so close yet so far as the match was lost by 40 runs, but the spirit was there to be seen.

The team looked well on course for their first overseas win in over three years but it was some memorable batting by the Kiwi skipper that led to the match ending in a draw. There were plenty of positives here as well.

Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Shikhar Dhawan all scored tons in the second Test (Dhawan scored a ton in the first, 98 in the second), the bowlers were successful in bowling out the home team for less than 200 on two occasions, and the epitome of bad bowling Ishant Sharma ended up bagging 15 wickets too!

It may not be entirely wrong to replace Dhoni as Test captain but the performance of this young Indian side in alien conditions has surely earned a lot of respect from the purists. They would surely return to the Pacific next year as a better team to retain their World Cup crown. Until then, sit back and give them some time and space!