Indian cricket is on a big high. We are presently the number one Test and One-day cricket team in the world. A fact that has been driven home emphatically against the hapless Aussies in the on-going one-day international (ODI) series at home which has been won very comfortably by India.
One of the reasons for this emphatic series win is the emergence of the talented trio of all-rounder Hardik Pandya, leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the ranks.
Just sample the statistics. In the rain affected first ODI at Chennai, India were in deep trouble at 87 with half our batting side dismissed.
This is when Pandya (83), the all-rounder in the company of the ever reliable Dhoni (79) to put up a partnership of 118 runs to take India to a respectable 281 runs.
When the Aussies came to bat, Pandya the bowler grabbed two wickets for 28 runs and the spin twins, Chahal ( 2/33)and Yadav (3/30) shared five Aussies scalps between themselves to restrict the tourists to a meagre 137 for 9 wickets.
In the second ODI at Kolkata, India got only 252 runs on the board and looked vulnerable. Pandya contributed 20 runs with the bat.
When the Aussies came to bat, our talented bowling trio had them in knots. Yadav ‘hat-tricked' and grabbed 3/54,while Chahal 2/34 and Pandya 2/56 also chipped in to bowl out the Aussies for a lowly 202.
And in the series clincher at Indore, the Australians seemed to be running away to a big score having crossed 200 for the loss of only one wicket.
However, our bowling trio managed to restrict the run flow by taking crucial wickets. Yadav 2/75, Chahal 1/54 and Pandya 1/58 along with their pace bowling colleagues, Kumar and Bumrah restricted the tourists to 293.
Rohit Sharma (71) and Ajinkya Rahane (70 ) gave India a robust start, allowing Pandya to come in and play his naturally aggressive game, where he pulverised the Aussie attack scoring 78 in 72 balls with five boundary hits and four hits into the stadium.
The coming together of the Pandya-Chahal-Yadav trio has indeed been a boon for India. To a large extent, we have the IPL T20 tournament to thank.
The IPL has over the years allowed many young and talented cricketers to express themselves on the big stage.
This talented trio caught the eye of the national selectors in the annual jamboree and later consolidated their positions when given the India Cap.
Pandya (23) caught everybody's attention as the one of the key, Mumbai Indian all-rounders in the IPL, winning two, man-of-the-match awards enroute to his team's second title triumph.
Wearing the India cap, Pandya has continued with his winning streak.
Nowhere was his talent more visible than in India's dismal run-chase against Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy final.
Left with a hopeless situation, Pandya blasted a 43-ball, 76 before he was tragically run-out. And though India lost the game, a star was born.
Leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (27), a former national junior chess champion caught everybody's eyes when he became a key wicket-taker for the Royal Challengers team in the IPL.
Chahal got his big break when he played for India against Zimbabwe in 2016 in both the T20 and ODI formats of the game and was always among the wickets.
He raised the bar against the visiting England team in the winter of 2016-17, taking 6/25 in a T20, the second best ever figures for a bowler in a T20 international match.
With a solid series against Sri Lanka in the island nation and the present Australian series, Chahal could well be a key member of the Indian team for the 2019 World Cup in England.
The left arm chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav ( 22) grabbed eyeballs during the 2014 Under-19 World Cup by becoming India's leading wicket-taker and the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Under-19 World Cup history.
Playing for KKR in the 2016 IPL, Yadav grabbed six wickets in three matches to book his 2016 Duleep Trophy berth. Playing for ‘India Red', Yadav picked up 17 wickets in just
three matches to take his team to the finals.
His big moment came when he donned India colours in a Test match against the Aussies in Dharamsala in March 2017 and picked up four wickets on debut.
Later, playing for India in the Caribbean ODI series in mid-2017, Yadav finished as the joint highest wicket-taker.
The young spinner from UP has now become a house-hold name with his famous hat-trick in the present series against the Aussies at home.
As can be seen, the Indian cricket team is in robust health. Much of this is because the sport has a tried and tested system in place.
The regular age-group tournaments, a competitive domestic cricket calendar, the IPL T20 league, the presence of a national cricket academy, the grooming of future India players through the India A team etc.
Our football and hockey mandarins would do well to learn from this.
One of the reasons for this emphatic series win is the emergence of the talented trio of all-rounder Hardik Pandya, leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal and chinaman spinner Kuldeep Yadav in the ranks.
Just sample the statistics. In the rain affected first ODI at Chennai, India were in deep trouble at 87 with half our batting side dismissed.
This is when Pandya (83), the all-rounder in the company of the ever reliable Dhoni (79) to put up a partnership of 118 runs to take India to a respectable 281 runs.
When the Aussies came to bat, Pandya the bowler grabbed two wickets for 28 runs and the spin twins, Chahal ( 2/33)and Yadav (3/30) shared five Aussies scalps between themselves to restrict the tourists to a meagre 137 for 9 wickets.
In the second ODI at Kolkata, India got only 252 runs on the board and looked vulnerable. Pandya contributed 20 runs with the bat.
When the Aussies came to bat, our talented bowling trio had them in knots. Yadav ‘hat-tricked' and grabbed 3/54,while Chahal 2/34 and Pandya 2/56 also chipped in to bowl out the Aussies for a lowly 202.
And in the series clincher at Indore, the Australians seemed to be running away to a big score having crossed 200 for the loss of only one wicket.
However, our bowling trio managed to restrict the run flow by taking crucial wickets. Yadav 2/75, Chahal 1/54 and Pandya 1/58 along with their pace bowling colleagues, Kumar and Bumrah restricted the tourists to 293.
Rohit Sharma (71) and Ajinkya Rahane (70 ) gave India a robust start, allowing Pandya to come in and play his naturally aggressive game, where he pulverised the Aussie attack scoring 78 in 72 balls with five boundary hits and four hits into the stadium.
The coming together of the Pandya-Chahal-Yadav trio has indeed been a boon for India. To a large extent, we have the IPL T20 tournament to thank.
The IPL has over the years allowed many young and talented cricketers to express themselves on the big stage.
This talented trio caught the eye of the national selectors in the annual jamboree and later consolidated their positions when given the India Cap.
Pandya (23) caught everybody's attention as the one of the key, Mumbai Indian all-rounders in the IPL, winning two, man-of-the-match awards enroute to his team's second title triumph.
Wearing the India cap, Pandya has continued with his winning streak.
Nowhere was his talent more visible than in India's dismal run-chase against Pakistan in the 2017 Champions Trophy final.
Left with a hopeless situation, Pandya blasted a 43-ball, 76 before he was tragically run-out. And though India lost the game, a star was born.
Leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal (27), a former national junior chess champion caught everybody's eyes when he became a key wicket-taker for the Royal Challengers team in the IPL.
Chahal got his big break when he played for India against Zimbabwe in 2016 in both the T20 and ODI formats of the game and was always among the wickets.
He raised the bar against the visiting England team in the winter of 2016-17, taking 6/25 in a T20, the second best ever figures for a bowler in a T20 international match.
With a solid series against Sri Lanka in the island nation and the present Australian series, Chahal could well be a key member of the Indian team for the 2019 World Cup in England.
The left arm chinaman bowler, Kuldeep Yadav ( 22) grabbed eyeballs during the 2014 Under-19 World Cup by becoming India's leading wicket-taker and the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in Under-19 World Cup history.
Playing for KKR in the 2016 IPL, Yadav grabbed six wickets in three matches to book his 2016 Duleep Trophy berth. Playing for ‘India Red', Yadav picked up 17 wickets in just
three matches to take his team to the finals.
His big moment came when he donned India colours in a Test match against the Aussies in Dharamsala in March 2017 and picked up four wickets on debut.
Later, playing for India in the Caribbean ODI series in mid-2017, Yadav finished as the joint highest wicket-taker.
The young spinner from UP has now become a house-hold name with his famous hat-trick in the present series against the Aussies at home.
As can be seen, the Indian cricket team is in robust health. Much of this is because the sport has a tried and tested system in place.
The regular age-group tournaments, a competitive domestic cricket calendar, the IPL T20 league, the presence of a national cricket academy, the grooming of future India players through the India A team etc.
Our football and hockey mandarins would do well to learn from this.
