What if it's India vs ICC World XI now?
How many of you remember the Super Series in 2005 when the ICC World XI were beaten comprehensively by Australia down under? It was a fascinating event for the fans all across the globe as they got to see many cricketing superstars play together against an Australian side that was considered to be unbeatable. In fact, Australia was so dominant that they managed to clean sweep the World XI both in ODI and Test series.
Unfortunately, after this series, the ICC haven’t organised any such event and since then, the fans haven’t got an opportunity to witness such a mouth-watering clash. Now, given the meteoric rise of the Indian cricket in the past decade and the game’s immense popularity in the country, organizing a series in India between India and the ICC World XI would be a treat for the fans.
Even though there would be few cricketing teams that could be compared to the class of the Australian team of the early 2000s, the current Indian cricket team has been performing quite consistently over the past decade and if each of its players play to their best, this match would be something that no cricketing fan would want to miss.
So let’s see what could be in store if at all this high voltage match does happen now in the 50 over format.
#5 Super Series after 12 years
In 2005, when the ICC had announced that there would be matches played between the World XI side and Australia, many were excited to see some high-quality cricket. But much to the astonishment and disappointment of many, the World XI could not even manage to put up a fight in any match and the series ended up being one-sided.
Over these past 12 years, Cricket has seen some drastic changes in the way it is played. Be it the introduction of free hits, revised field restrictions, the DRS, the power of the modern day bats, or the advent of T20 cricket, the game has undergone a tremendous makeover and is no longer similar to the way it was played in 2005.
The batsmen are fearless, the bowlers are street smart, the fielders are as athletic as ever and there has been an emergence of many new superstars in last decade or so. In the current scenario, any side could beat any opposition on a given day and hence, it would be tough to predict the winner between India and the World XI. But one thing that we all can be assured of is that the contests wouldn’t be as one-sided as they were back in 2005.