I am writing this blog right after the stumps on the second day of the Mumbai Test match between India and Sri Lanka, during the 2009 - 2010 series. This was the day when the ruthless Sehwag amassed 280-odd runs in about 230-odd balls. Though, I am not here to talk about that innings per se, I want to use this opportunity to probably explain why this team has been doing so well and that too all around the world. When I say this team, in a broader sense of the word "team", I would refer to the 21st century Indian cricket team. To me this "all around the world" success started on a more consistent basis in 2001 under the captianship of Saurav Ganguly, when India reached the Champions Trophy final in Nairobi. Then of course followed the famous "top-naked" victory in the Natwest final in 2002 and the "first" away victories for decades followed in the years to come - first Test wins in Zimbabwe, Australia, England, West Indies, South Africa, New Zealand, Pakistan - though under different captains. Well, that exactly what I want to highlight in this article. With due credit to captainships of Ganguly, Dravid and now Dhoni, India still kept winning abroad. Different captains same results. Same could be said during whole of 1990's, infact since the 1987 World Cup till 2000 or thereabout. Different captains same result. However there was difference in the sameness, then and now. The common factor there was mostly losing abroad, the one now is mostly winning at least one test in an away series, and in couple of instances the series itself, a thought that was unthinkable till the start of this century.
Unthinkable more because it was said that we just didn't have the batsmen who can score runs on bouncy wickets. Let's take a closer look at what that means. As a batsman what is that special ability you need on bouncier wickets that you didn't quite require on the sub-continental wickets. And the answer would the horizontal bat shots. Basically the pull, the hook, the authentic square cut(not the flashy ones or the square drive) and the sweep shot. Of course, we are not talking about the more fancier horizontal bat shots that players deploy today! So does that mean that all the batsmen in the 90's didn't have any of these horizontal bat shots in their repertoire and all the batsmen in last 8 years or so have in theirs. Well I would put it this way. Most of the so-called mainstays in the India batting line-up in the 90's didn't have too much to boost about when it came to playing the horizontal bat shots, whereas most of the mainstays in the Indian cricket team over the last 8 years or so had horizontal bat shots in their repertoire.
Of course, Sachin Tendulkar is excluded from both the teams !
Let's analyse and see if this observation is indeed correct. Let's first have a look at a few main batsmen the team in the 90's. In the first half of the 90s we had Azharuddin, Sidhu, Manjrekar, Kambli and Amre were no. 3 and no.6 for at least 3 series in the 90s, Shashtri, Mongia. In the later half we had a fairly stable middle order in the test with Dravid, Ganguly, Sachin. India tried several no.6 batsman like Jadeja, Kanitkar, Laxman before settling for Laxman 2001. From all the batsmen I mentioned above only Sachin, Dravid and Laxman to quite an extent could play the horizontal bat shots. Talking about Dravid, though he was certainty in Tests since 1996, he was struggling to get into the ODI side. Even in the test side, since he was a more of sedate player then, he used to hardly deploy the pull shot. It was only early this decade that he started playing more shots. And Laxman never was a certainty. So that leaves us with only one batsman, the legend himself.
It was only under Ganguly during early on in this decade that India started finding it's feet on foriegn soil. I think the credit here should be given to Ganguly for his aggressive and adamant attitude. Aggressive on the field and adamant while choosing players on their talent during the team selections. Remember it was during Ganguly's reign that players were selected on their merit and potential. That's how you could see the Yuvraj's, Amey Khurasiya, Robin Singh, Sehwag being in the side inspite of low scores. Ganguly believed in their potential to strike the ball hard. If you notice carefully, all were string cutters and sweepers and stand-and-deliver sort of players. Some picks payed-off as in the case of Yuvraj and Sehwag, others didn't. But the results that followed made the selectors to practically do away with the quota system. That's how you see Ashish Nehra being picked up in place of Zaheer Khan and not Noel David an off-spinner in place of injured Javagal Srinath! That was a real shocker, wasn't it!
Coming back to the batsmen, just a look at the list of players we have had and still have in the Indian Cricket team for last 8-9 years will probably give you an idea of why away successes can well be related to having batsmen with horizontal bat shots. To name a few Yuvraj, Sehwag, more fluent Dravid, Laxman with a certain place in test side, Kaif had a good pull shot(remember he pulled the ball twice to six during the Natwest final). More recently, we have had Dhoni, Raina, Robin Uthappa, Gambhir. Though some of them were exposed and the shot was exposed in the recent T20 World Cup, they can still cut, sweep at will. Infact, people like Dhoni, Yuvraj, Dravid and Laxman can still pull at will. The only other time India was consistently successful on foreign soil was the team in the first half of 1980's. Not only did we win the all-famous World Cup in 1983, we also won the 1985 World Series in Australia, levelled the Test series in 1981 in Australia and did really well in the 1982 ODI series in West Indies and also won the Test series in England in 1986 2-0. And just to name a few of players who played during these series - Sandip Patil, Amarnath, Kapil Dev, Yashpal Sharma, Vishwanath, Srikanth and even Roger Binny. And all of them could play the horizontal bat shots very well. Just the other day, on the youtube, I had a look at Sandip Patil's 65 in the Sydney test, before he was hit on the head by Len Pasco. Just fabulous to watch. Yu just couldn't survive those missiles with tap-round-the-corner and flicks blow knee-height. Infact, there was no knee height balls in that series, probably! All that strokeplay without a helmet! Unbelievable!
On rising pitches, which is generally what you get away from the sub-continent, it is important that your batsmen put up a decent total for your bowlers to defend. And I must say, to put up a decent total on bouncier tracks, you need to deploy the horizontal bat shots more often than not. Which is to me has been one of the deciding factors in why current Indian Cricket Team does well all over the world and the one in the 90's struggled to no ends.
Unthinkable more because it was said that we just didn't have the batsmen who can score runs on bouncy wickets. Let's take a closer look at what that means. As a batsman what is that special ability you need on bouncier wickets that you didn't quite require on the sub-continental wickets. And the answer would the horizontal bat shots. Basically the pull, the hook, the authentic square cut(not the flashy ones or the square drive) and the sweep shot. Of course, we are not talking about the more fancier horizontal bat shots that players deploy today! So does that mean that all the batsmen in the 90's didn't have any of these horizontal bat shots in their repertoire and all the batsmen in last 8 years or so have in theirs. Well I would put it this way. Most of the so-called mainstays in the India batting line-up in the 90's didn't have too much to boost about when it came to playing the horizontal bat shots, whereas most of the mainstays in the Indian cricket team over the last 8 years or so had horizontal bat shots in their repertoire.
Of course, Sachin Tendulkar is excluded from both the teams !
Let's analyse and see if this observation is indeed correct. Let's first have a look at a few main batsmen the team in the 90's. In the first half of the 90s we had Azharuddin, Sidhu, Manjrekar, Kambli and Amre were no. 3 and no.6 for at least 3 series in the 90s, Shashtri, Mongia. In the later half we had a fairly stable middle order in the test with Dravid, Ganguly, Sachin. India tried several no.6 batsman like Jadeja, Kanitkar, Laxman before settling for Laxman 2001. From all the batsmen I mentioned above only Sachin, Dravid and Laxman to quite an extent could play the horizontal bat shots. Talking about Dravid, though he was certainty in Tests since 1996, he was struggling to get into the ODI side. Even in the test side, since he was a more of sedate player then, he used to hardly deploy the pull shot. It was only early this decade that he started playing more shots. And Laxman never was a certainty. So that leaves us with only one batsman, the legend himself.
It was only under Ganguly during early on in this decade that India started finding it's feet on foriegn soil. I think the credit here should be given to Ganguly for his aggressive and adamant attitude. Aggressive on the field and adamant while choosing players on their talent during the team selections. Remember it was during Ganguly's reign that players were selected on their merit and potential. That's how you could see the Yuvraj's, Amey Khurasiya, Robin Singh, Sehwag being in the side inspite of low scores. Ganguly believed in their potential to strike the ball hard. If you notice carefully, all were string cutters and sweepers and stand-and-deliver sort of players. Some picks payed-off as in the case of Yuvraj and Sehwag, others didn't. But the results that followed made the selectors to practically do away with the quota system. That's how you see Ashish Nehra being picked up in place of Zaheer Khan and not Noel David an off-spinner in place of injured Javagal Srinath! That was a real shocker, wasn't it!
Coming back to the batsmen, just a look at the list of players we have had and still have in the Indian Cricket team for last 8-9 years will probably give you an idea of why away successes can well be related to having batsmen with horizontal bat shots. To name a few Yuvraj, Sehwag, more fluent Dravid, Laxman with a certain place in test side, Kaif had a good pull shot(remember he pulled the ball twice to six during the Natwest final). More recently, we have had Dhoni, Raina, Robin Uthappa, Gambhir. Though some of them were exposed and the shot was exposed in the recent T20 World Cup, they can still cut, sweep at will. Infact, people like Dhoni, Yuvraj, Dravid and Laxman can still pull at will. The only other time India was consistently successful on foreign soil was the team in the first half of 1980's. Not only did we win the all-famous World Cup in 1983, we also won the 1985 World Series in Australia, levelled the Test series in 1981 in Australia and did really well in the 1982 ODI series in West Indies and also won the Test series in England in 1986 2-0. And just to name a few of players who played during these series - Sandip Patil, Amarnath, Kapil Dev, Yashpal Sharma, Vishwanath, Srikanth and even Roger Binny. And all of them could play the horizontal bat shots very well. Just the other day, on the youtube, I had a look at Sandip Patil's 65 in the Sydney test, before he was hit on the head by Len Pasco. Just fabulous to watch. Yu just couldn't survive those missiles with tap-round-the-corner and flicks blow knee-height. Infact, there was no knee height balls in that series, probably! All that strokeplay without a helmet! Unbelievable!
On rising pitches, which is generally what you get away from the sub-continent, it is important that your batsmen put up a decent total for your bowlers to defend. And I must say, to put up a decent total on bouncier tracks, you need to deploy the horizontal bat shots more often than not. Which is to me has been one of the deciding factors in why current Indian Cricket Team does well all over the world and the one in the 90's struggled to no ends.
