What would you just feel when you’re playing against an opposition who has the most feared bowlers in the world coming up against you? Tall, lanky and fierce. When they would step on the field to bowl they would just think about one thing, either to hit the stumps or hit the batsmen playing against them. As Steve Smith, who apparently was a talented batsmen in that time recalls, ‘They went with the attitude that they had to get you before you could get them.’
West Indies has been the land of fast bowlers since a long time. In the 1970s and 1980s, they were the most feared by the other cricketers. These legendary bowlers were fast, fierce, and what you call as devastating.
IPL, since its inception has been a game who promoted youngsters. A good platform for youngsters to show their talent on the big stage. Having some legends on the other side competing against them, some of them have truly shown some value and worth backing them. Some of them have already donned the Indian cap and are itching to make a comeback, while some have just put a step inching closer to make their dream come true.
IPL-4 has shown some tremendous performances by some youngsters. Here is the best XI who I would love to see donning the Indian jersey soon.
1. Paul Valthaty – Though quite an early stage to say this, but he has been exceptional with the bat for Kings XI Punjab. Having his career on the back-burner
‘Catching a bat after 5 months in my hand. I had zero confidence when I came on the ground to bat’. These words came off the mouth of a batsman of stature of Sourav Ganguly. Though emotions never flew literally, it was all from his heart.
Sourav Ganguly, who has scored around 1031 runs in 3 seasons of IPL and apart from 2nd season of IPL scored commendably have had a strike rate of 117. A player of his caliber was left out of the 2011 IPL auctions. How was this even possible? The headlines read as ‘Ganguly went unsold’. And entire universe had just one expression. Astound! Even ShahRukh didn’t have a place in his team for Ganguly, Kolkata being his home-ground. He was ready to get him as a mentor, but who is done
England who dethroned Pakistan to become the Twenty 20 champions last year, have inculcated the three-way vote of confidence into their team. England has opted for a captain for each format of the game, Andrew Strauss for tests, Alastair Cook for ODIs and Stuart Broad for Twenty 20 internationals. As a coin has two sides, having a captain for each format of the game also has a positive outlook as well as a negative outlook. It raises many questions but promises a fascinating ride.
Much to say, England’s new decision has been made out of necessity. Players have been continuously complaining about the brutality and ruthlessness on them because of the schedule for each team. They’ve been blaming the lethargy and the
I am certainly not talking about any natural disasters hitting India or IPL in any case. But they are no less than any tornado or cyclone creating havoc in all parts of IPL. And it’s quite visible that who I’m talking about are the two giants of Twenty20, or if I’m not mistaken, to speak the truth they are the masters of any format of game, Chris Gayle and Virendra Sehwag.
Chris Gayle, who apparently was left out of the auctions and went unsold, and on top of that was omitted from the squad against Pakistan, is back to world cricket to show his worth and all he does it, is in style. When he came into IPL as a replacement for injured Dirk Nannes, he was up for the challenge to show the world cricket to show what is it
IPL since its inception has been unpredictable. A team, who isn’t ever considered to even make it to the top 4, proves everyone’s apparent perceptions wrong and wins the cup on the basis of their sheer performance and another team who looks strongest on the paper is just lying far behind at the bottom of the table.
In ODI’s when you make assumptions about how a team will perform just on the basis of their players, you might just be proved right but when you talk about IPL, you can never perceive how a team will fare, as a T20 game can turn around anytime by a person single-handedly. On top of that, there are many domestic players who cannot be judged by the number of matches they have played at international level.
A team with so many legends playing to their best potential as always, with players of caliber as high as the everest, it was very difficult to ever imagine that it never succeeded in being the best test side and didn’t win the World cup since last 28 years.
With India winning the world cup after 28 years of anticipation and being the no.1 test side, it was a very tough job and undoubtedly done commendably. But, can the credit to Indian team’s resurgence be given to only the current team? No! The Indian team has been able to win just because of the way and the directions which have been shown by the former players. The foundations laid by our former players along with certain coaches have led to this resurgence and
As I go further, I would rank the rest of the captions in the ongoing IPL.
5. Mahela Jayawardene
With so many outstanding captains around, people haven’t been able to see the way he captains his side. Have been an outstanding captain for Sri Lanka, winning innumerable number of matches for his team. He leads his team from front. Even being in Kochi, his team was down and gone. But his inspirational captaincy just helped the team get confidence in themselves and start their game afresh and thus started winning games back again.
6. Sachin Tendulkar
The greatest batsman of all time couldn’t make a mark when he was made the captain of the Indian team but this never affected his batting performance. But change in
A T20 game has always been a game with a pressure-cooker like situation. The game turns around any moment and can go in either side’s favour with just a wicket or an over with flourishing fours and sixes. A game where all the strategies of the captain just goes down the drain as it comes down to nought and the pressure just multiplies when such a huge amount of prize money is at stake. Therefore a calm and composed captain who can keep his nerve even during tough situations can take his team all the way through and change the destiny of his team to the positive side.
For a captain he always has to maintain a positive approach in the field as well as outside field if his side isn’t doing well. Planning strategies well
BCCI has been world’s richest cricket board since years. And being the richest has all of its advantages. To go about it, ICC has always been supportive to India. On top of that, the other boards couldn’t hold on to BCCI’s pace and BCCI thus, always remained a priority. Priority? They just banned the players who played in ICL, a rebel tournament.
IPL got glamour, stars, money with it. But big bucks always have controversies surrounding it. IPL has led to problems with the other cricket boards which no-one would ever want. And with the money you get in IPL, players are ready to sacrifice their country for the matches played here. This is quite sad!
ECB being in the forefront hasn’t allowed most of their players from
When it comes to cricket, India can never back off. India was just not over the joy of winning the world’s most priceless trophy, the world cup and IPL already arrived. But Indian fans never say ‘no’ to a cricket match and IPL is still followed the way it usually is.
With the World Cup’11 over, the preparations for next world cup have already been started and search for a young dynamic player is going on, an all-rounder always being an asset.
Just a couple of matches old, its just too early to say, but he has been an exceptional find. Paul Valthaty, an exceptional all-rounder has always been around but unnoticed. With an eye-injury he was out of action and just couldn’t see his dreams being fulfilled. But as
World champions to somewhere down the drain? West Indies, from being 2-time world champions have just had a great slump in cricket. Decades after decades they’ve just had a downfall. They dominated the cricketing world in the 70’s and now they are nowhere around. They always had the talent but couldn’t ever play like the way they did in their dominating days.
Having said that, West Indies cricket is taking a U-turn. A U-turn which can take them to a death valley or just boost their chances to dominate cricket world all over again. A decision which according to me would have been extremely difficult for West Indian selectors to take.
Apparently, they’ve decided to axe 2 experienced players from their side. Chris
People have been continuously asking whether ‘Is the Australian domination over?’ ‘With the legends retiring, will they ever be able to bounce back into the game?’ And Shane Watson has replied very aptly with his bat. Though one knock is just not going to be enough to shut everyone’s mouth.
Shane Watson has been in tremendous form since last year and has become one of the pillars in the Australian side. Haydos and Gilly already retired, and the onus was completely on Watto. Watto had huge shoes to fill and he’s doing quite a good job.
After a jaw-dropping century by Watson against Bangladesh in the 2nd ODI match of the ongoing ODI series, where he scored 185 runs off just 96 balls, he just has emerged into the
Top ranking in tests, World Cup triumph, Asia Cup and many more exceptional victories have come up for India in these last 3 years. And who influenced this young and vibrant team coupled with some extremely experienced players? One and only person, Gary Kirsten!
Gary Kirsten was extremely shy and never came into the limelight and the scandals, unlike Greg Chappel. One of his best qualities is that he prefers to remain backstage and let his players hog the limelight. He got the best out of each and every player in the team. His contributions to the team in all the aspects of the game won’t be forgotten that soon and will be implemented somewhere, somehow! The only thing that got India and Sri Lanka poles apart in the
Sahara Group has been associated with cricket since years. And after years they’ve got a full-fledged opportunity to get their own team and they’ve grabbed it with both their hands. Buying the Pune franchise for a record $370mn bid, they truly deserve to get their own team. Not playing in the last 2 editions, they’re all ready to go and win the cup. And for that they’ve played well to get their player combinations right!
Strengths
They have an exceptional batting line up with a fusion of desi as well as overseas batsmen. Young players like Mitchell Marsh, Manish Pandey, Robin Uthappa, Angelo Matthews will be key to their success. On top of that, Yuvraj Singh’s form with both bat and ball is a blessing in disguise.
