Sourav Ganguly to Virat Kohli – the vision and passion for Indian Cricket

It honestly took almost two decades for India to call themselves the best test cricketing nation of the world. Well yes, we have won and retained the mace for a number of times now but 2021 will be defined as the best year for the Indian Cricket Team when it comes to test cricket. The dream that Sourav Ganguly and his boys saw back then is being fulfilled by Virat Kohli and his army in South Africa.

The Prince of Calcutta was the first Indian captain who gave team India the hope that they can go abroad and win test matches and test series there. The fearless and aggressive kind of cricket that Dada and his boys used to play became the template for Indian Cricket Team and with that, India is now winning series in every part of the world.

There’s no doubt that Ganguly had a vision back then and as the torch passed in Indian Cricket, the team got better and better. In 2021 itself, team India has won series against Australia, England, and New Zealand and is leading against South Africa in the ongoing series. Gabba, Lords, Oval, Centurion, the team has won in all the difficult places to win. Even though Ganguly had the vision, credit goes to Virat Kohli for making it a reality. The Indian captain has gone against all the odds and made team India the best test playing nation in the world.

Many can question his form or his absence in the last Australian series but truth be told that Kohli is the reason behind these bright days. Ever since he became the captain of the Indian team, Kohli gave a lot of attention to the fitness of all the players and also gave proper importance to all his bowlers. Of course, a lot of credit goes to Bharat Arun and Ravi Shastri as well but again, the template was of Virat Kohli.

Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are arguably the best duo in world cricket right now. Arguably because Starc and Cummins have literally killed England’s batting in the ongoing Ashes. However, Bumrah and Shami are a step ahead because of their success in the Border-Gavaskar tournament. Along with this duo, Mohammed Siraj has now joined the course and because of his form and most importantly the spirit, Ishant Sharma, the man who has played more than 100 tests fails to get a spot in the Indian team. Thus, it speaks volumes of the Indian cricket team. It will be unfair if we don’t mention Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Be it home or away from home, Ashwin has always delivered whenever he got a chance. Scoring a century at Chennai against England was probably one of the highlights of his career this year because fifer is something that he takes in every series. It is more a special achievement for this special cricketer.

Batting can be seen as the weakest link but it is so unpredictable. Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul have been absolutely brilliant but Rahane, Pujara and Kohli need to step up and make it count. If they don’t, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, Hanuma Vihari are sitting right in the bench to replace them. Whatever it is, as long as team India is winning, the fans have nothing to complain about.

To conclude, team India has finally become inevitable. Sourav Gangly as the board president, VVS Laxman as the head of the NCA and Rahul Dravid as the coach of the Indian Cricket Team are doing exactly what they started back in 2000. Their goal to make team India the number one test playing nation has finally come to light and under Virat Kohli’s regime, expect that to continue for a long period of time.