Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Indias cricket team is being made anew. The old guard wasnt missed in the Champions Trophy
In the year-and-a-half before the 2011 World Cup,Indias ODI squad went through a frenzied period of rotation. In 2010 alone,India used 33 different players in 27 matches. With the likes of Sachin Tendulkar he only played two of those 27 matches,Harbhajan Singh 6,Zaheer Khan 10 and Virender Sehwag 12 sitting out most of them,scores of young contenders were given the opportunity. Most of them,however,failed to find a place in the World Cup squad. Ravindra Jadeja lost out to Yusuf Pathan as the teams spin-bowling all-rounder. Dinesh Karthik fell by the wayside,having reached double figures in 13 successive innings while crossing 50 only twice. Ishant Sharma lost out in a six-way battle for four pace-bowling slots. A sequence of failures in South Africa in early 2011,meanwhile,ended Rohit Sharmas hopes. Shikhar Dhawan,one of the 11 ODI debutants for India in 2010,batted only once and failed to open his account. Now,two years after missing out on the World Cup squad,these five men have played important roles in winning India the Champions Trophy.
In a team that had only four survivors from the World Cup,these five comeback men were symbolic of a new wave sweeping through Indian cricket. Crucially,India barely missed the old guard,with bat,ball or especially in the field. For the likes of Sehwag,Gautam Gambhir,Yuvraj Singh,Harbhajan and Zaheer,a similar comeback seems increasingly improbable.
