 Historically the main strength of Indian Team has always been batting and spin-bowling. Presently Indian Team has one of the strong batting line-ups in the world, with the likes of batting legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Virender Sehwag etc. India has always been known for producing quality spinners, but during the Super Test series between ICC World XI and Australia, the likes of Rahul, Sachin and Sehwag found place in the World XI squad. Previously it was a situation where India would field three spinners for a match, while the general norm among the teams had been to field one spinner. In the recent years, however, Indian pace bowling has improved, with the emerging talents of Irfan Pathan, Munaf Patel and Santhakumaran Sreesanth and many more playing in the national team.
Traditionally, India has never been able to perform well overseas, but its home record has been phenomenal. Since 2000, under the leadership of Saurav Ganguly, and proper help and guidance from Coach John Wright Indian team began to perform well overseas. The team played exceedingly well against Australia, which is usually considered a difficult tour. It was followed by a historic Test and ODI series win against arch-rivals Pakistan while playing in Pakistan. India has never had good record against the Australians in Australia, in the past. But the 2004-05 tour changed the scenario and India squared the test series, which was labeled as "The Final Frontier". The popular 2001 series against Australia at home saw Harbhajan Singh become the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick, in the second test match at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. India won the test series 2-1. Since 2004, there have been steep downslides in the Indian performances. Following the series loss to Australia, India collapsed on the final day in the Third Test in Bengaluruin early 2005 against Pakistan to squander a series victory, and then lost four consecutive ODIs against Pakistan. Greg Chappelltook over the reign from John Wright. There were some chopping and changing that took place in the side; Captain Ganguly lost his place in the side and also captaincy, which went to Rahul Dravid. Anil Kumble and VVS Laxman were left out of ODI scheme of things. Lots of young players came into the side and India defeated Sri Lanka 6-1 at home. Players like Suresh Raina, Gautam Gambhir and Irfan Pathan began to perform well for the side. The team played well and the rub of the green went in their favour. India won series against England, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan in both Tests and ODI. However India at the 2007 World Cup was a complete failure. They were unable to qualify to the second round. After winning the Test series against England in August 2007, Rahul Dravid stepped down as the captain of the team following which Mahendra Singh Dhoni was made the captain of the Twenty20 and ODI team. In September 2007, it won the first ever Twenty20 World Cup held in South Africa, beating Pakistan by 5 runs in a thrilling final. Then they toured Australia with a controversial series that they lost 2-1 in test but come back for a whitewash final against them. Recently, India won the Cricket World Cup in 2011, after a long time since 1983, under the captaincy of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Yuvraj Singh became the man of the tournament. The Indian team beat Sri Lanka by 6 wickets, in the final match which was played in Mumbai. Apparently, India became the first country to win the tournament in native soil. |
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