Team India: A New look and phasing out the Big three

When a team with a great fan following fails to live up to the slightest hopes of their fans, they are looked at only in a negative light. No one gives them a chance against any side thereafter. Their fans give up on them and don't follow any type of improvements that are coming about. Any number of triumphs are looked a with very little interest. This has been the story for team India.

The World Twenty20 triumph for India came as a huge surprise to the entire cricketing world. Most pointed out the lack of a killer instinct, the imbalance of the side, lack of experienced players and finally the fact that India had played only 1 T20 International. With no one coaching this talented side it appeared as if the team stood no chance without their guidance.

What the fans had forgotten was that this was an Indian team who for the most part were involved in Test and One day series wins over teams rated higher in those conditions. The most Impressive factor was that they had achieved this success without a coach. The main reason for this success was the new policy which the BCCI appears to have quietly implemented over the previous year. The biggest change I had noticed was giving the players chances. Prior to Greg Chappell taking over as coach of the team, players were given hardly any time to prove themselves as worthy of playing in Indian colors. 4-7 One Dayers was all that they were given and even an above average performance was not acceptable. One of the major changes seen under Chappell was that any player could be dropped. The biggest victims of this policy in the first few months of Chappell's tenure were Ganguly, Sehwag, and Harbhajan Singh. These players were given ample time to prove themselves. Their only success though came in the form of politics in the dressing room.

Since then Indian players have constantly been given enough time to prove themselves. One of the best examples is Ajit Agarkar. He has been in the One Day team since the retirement of Javagal Srinath. While initially proving his worth as an opening bowler, he has only fired once in every 7-10 matches, often times going wicketless in the last 2 years. After effectively being dropped from the team midway through the World T20, it appears unlikely he will make a return to the team any time soon.

The change in captaincy has also been a key factor in the T20 success. Mahendra Singh Dhoni appears to have matured into a sensible cricketer during the England tour. He adapted well to each situation while batting and improved a great deal in his technique behind the stumps. The captaincy was handed to him based on his consistency and ability to stay calm under pressure. Dhoni has responded very well as captain. He has shot back with the best answers at Press conferences and has executed his game plans to the fullest. Every member of his squad has been equal importance and, regardless of what the situation may be during a match, he does not change his game plan. Whenever the team has responded to Dhoni's strategies, it seems like an automatic win.

The Problem which India face now is with the big three. The Tendulkar-Ganguly opening combination made a comeback during the ODIs in Ireland. Since then they have constantly been involved in a number of 50 and 100 run partnerships. They have used every bit of experience which they gained over the years to see out the early new ball overs and then accelerate to end up with a total of over 100 by the end of the Powerplays. This has set the platform for many Indian victories. However this opening stand at the moment seems hard to replace. The ideal combination to replace this pair would be that of Gautham Gambhir and Virender Sehwag. Gambhir was very consistent during the One Day series in England and went into overdrive when playing the Twenty20s. The Twenty20s have also seen Gambhir and Sehwag gel well giving the batting lineup good starts on a regular basis during the World Twenty20. Sehwag needs to be given another shot in ODIs and India will need to rotate the opening combination in the upcoming ODIs. Though he just turned 29, Sehwag's best years are not over and he still has a chance to redeem himself as an opener for India.

Rahul Dravid has played a prominent role in the success of the Indian batting lineup over the last decade. Despite his failure to come up with big scores in the recently concluded 7 ODI series against Australia, India will need Dravid for some time. The younger members of the Indian team are yet to travel abroad and Tour the big teams. The next few months will be the best time for India to build up their Middle order. There are 3 batsmen who can take over the number 3 and 4 slots. The England Tour showed us that India might have just found the perfect replacement for Dravid. Dinesh Karthik was India's highest runscorer in the Tests and his strokeplay was among the cleanest the game had seen since the Wall himself. Effortless hitting is what Dravid has given the Indian team over the years and it is only a matter of time before Karthik displays the same class of batting in One Day cricket for India. Rohit Sharma is one who has displayed many similarities to Dravid in Limited overs cricket. Although he has only been tried in T20 cricket, Rohit has shown maturity in his batting that is well beyond his years. He has taken his time at the crease and hit out after getting set in. The third man who can fill any spot in the lineup is Robin Uthappa. After being shuffled around the batting order for months, Uthappa has consistently batted according to the situation and delivered when India needed it most. His ability to bat in any situation means that Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik will have to fight it out for the last spot in the lineup. The team management should spend the next series rotating these 4 batsmen in the ODI batting lineup.

Age is not the only reason that Indian needs to think beyond the big three. As it has been proven over the years, great fielding wins you matches. This has always been the difference between India and other top sides. The World T20 win for India came down to some key performances in the field. Dinesh Karthik held on to a brilliant catch to dismiss danger man Graeme Smith early on in the South Africa match while Rohit Sharma and Robin Uthappa came up with key runouts which turned a couple of matches India's way. Indias batting was not the key to their Twenty20 success. Their improvements in the field made the difference and there is proof in this simply because India did not produce the highest totals in the competition. Ganguly's fielding of late has been lazy to say the least. He rarely dives to stop a ball on the boundary and prefers not to field in positions where catching might be slightly challenging. Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid have had a couple of drops in the field. However Dravid's fitness level is the best among the three and while Dravid's efforts in the field can match the youngsters', Sachin still has one of the quickest throws in the Team.

The team management at the moment have more options than they have ever had in the past. For the first time since the Big Three had become a permanent fixture in the team India has a group of youngsters who are only a few matches away from permanent national selection. It is high time Indian cricket began a real rotation policy and started picking youth over experience.