Changing trends in Indian cricket

The ongoing Test cricket series between England and India, with the host nation leading it 3-1 is for many, a done and dusted deal now. Fans can gloat that for the SENA (South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia) countries, India continues to be an invincible, impenetrable fortress as they have not been defeated since 2012, for 17 series in a row as of present.

No doubt, the players, a few of them who made their debuts in the last two tests of the five-match series at Rajkot and Ranchi respectively, showed a lot of grit and character. Rohit Sharma, the soft-spoken captain made many interesting observations about the victory the Indian cricket managed. He said that not much weightage is given when our team wins at home and it sort of seems that it is taken for granted for the local team to keep winning in familiar conditions. Secondly, he cautioned all those ‘entitled’ cricketers who seem to take their slots for granted by stating unequivocally that players who don’t exhibit the hunger to perform will not get their chances.

As has been written about and elaborately deliberated, Indian cricket team has shown hitherto unseen phases of commitment and zeal in the recent past when it comes to outperforming its rivals, both in India and outside. However, the long term observers of the willow game have often taken out vital chunks of the game proceedings to indulge in deep analysis to show that the traditional strengths of the country – playing comfortably against spinners and spin bowling – has got shaken up many a times, by visiting bowlers who have enjoyed rare achievements on Indian soil.

Two such records stand out. In 2021, a New Zealand spinner of Indian descent, Ajaz Patel, took all the 10 wickets to fall in the first test match of the two-match series at Kanpur, which was drawn. This was the third ever time it happened in the history of the game. In the same match, another Indian origin cricketer, Rachin Ravindra made his Test debut and he exhibited some of his best shots against the country where his parents continue to live.

In the most recent Test at Ranchi, Pakistani-origin Shoaib Bashir enjoyed his moments under the Jharkhand sun, when he bagged eight wickets, with a fifer in the first innings, which significantly raised his clout and stature among the community of spinners the world over.

With instant scoring formats like T20, altering the manner in which the game is being played across formats, as mentioned earlier, the Indian batters are playing like their contemporaries, accelerating the game and reorienting their approaches to playing different bowling methods like pace and spin.

Old world legends like Sunil Gavaskar, who has often mentioned such points in his commentary has also sort of agreed that it enables the game to be entertaining, despite the fact that Test cricket is often seen as a severe test of one’s playing skills.

The long format of the game, which has been under severe pressure for its time-consuming mode, has also seen many changes as the Test matches are now routinely getting over in four days. One is not sure whether this calls for a review of the process in which the game is being played currently. Whether or not, the game biggies would want to reduce the number of days, as it was a few decades ago is something one will have to wait and see. For the present, Indian cricket is awaiting a series of games across formats in the months ahead.