Indian cricket fans all over the world at heart broken. England was thought to be an anomaly but Australia showed that the Indian team was very poor and it could not be blamed to injuries or the like any longer.
However, instead of mourning, we should celebrate what has been a golden age for Indian cricket. The thing about golden ages is that you do not realize you are in the midst of one while you are in it. More often that not, only with the benefit of hindsight do you realize how lucky you have been to experience such an era of greatness.
Between 1932 and 2000, India played 157 matches away from home winning only 14. From 2001, India has played 72 games winning 23. The last decade or so has included series win in England, West Indies and more than 12 months when the team were the number 1 team in test cricket despite stiff competition from the likes of South Africa.
Between April 2007 and March 2011, India won 7 tests abroad and lost just 4. For a team which couldn’t bat even if their lives depended upon it (remember Durban where India was bowled out for 100?), it was a giant leap. If I was told in 1996 that India could win another of the world’s fastest pitches, at Perth in 12 years time, you would have forgiven me to think the person was not sane.
You might blame T20 but batting techniques all over the world have declined because of T20. That is not it. One has to realize that Indian pitches are very different to the ones outside the subcontinent. The extra bounce, pace compared to the extra turn and dead Indian wickets means it is almost impossible for a team coming from the region to win consistently abroad.
Even when you do produce a few batsmen like say Gavaskar and Vishwanath, you do not produce the bowlers. So, the combination with Zaheer Khan leading was a rare phenomenon.
It was a great team with leaders like Ganguly and Kumble and Dhoni, batsmen like Tendulkar, Dravid, Sehwag and Laxman, and bowlers like Kumble, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh.
The likes of you, we will never see again.
Good bye.
Written on the eve of the Adelaide test. In the most beautiful ground in the world, these greats will come to perform for one more hurrah.