How Dravid, Sachin, Sourav, Kumble, Sehwag and Zaheer are back in the Indian team
If you’ve watched the current Indian team playing the World Cup Down Under, do you get the feeling that you’ve seen them all before in a different avatar?
If you did, you wouldn’t be wrong.
If you look closely, the man playing that superbly timed drive through extra cover may well be Rahul Dravid in his prime, even though it’s actually Ajinkhya Rahane smashing the lethal Dale Steyn just wide of cover in the India-South Africa match.
Whether by design – after all these current players have grown up watching their idols – ,or by accident, there seems to be total identification with the style, if not the substance, of their heroes.
Ajinkya Rahane: The Wall Version 2.0
The same poise, the same dignity, Rahane ‘the peaceful warrior’ seems by all accounts to have modeled himself on Rahul Dravid, his idol. In fact, it was during his stint with Dravid in Rajasthan Royals that Rahane’s batting took wings.
He added to his already considerable repertoire, the lofted shots and shots played in anger. Not only this, like his idol, he was a complete team man, ready to nod to every demand made of him by the team; coming in at number 7 in the game against Pakistan is also just like his idol. It won’t take a very brave man to put money on Rahane making 10,000 ODI runs like Dravid.
Sachin’s talent + Sourav’s attitude = Virat Kohli
That about sums up the bad boy of Indian cricket we’ve all come to love and respect.
In the inventiveness of his stroke play and the balance on the crease, he’s just about nudging Sachin’s status. And in his sometimes naked aggression, he’s a throwback to the era of Ganguly, who did not believe in taking prisoners and gave back as good as he got.
Kohli is in the Ganguly mode in his attitude and in the Sachin territory in the originality of his stroke making. A double-whammy for opponents and double the treat for fans of Indian cricket.
Shikhar Dhawan: The new Virender Sehwag
If fear exists, there are two people on this globe who will be unable to recognise it – Viru and Dhawan. Ravi Shastri relates a story about when he once asked Sehwag how how he dealt with the moving ball. He replied, “I go hard at it”. Puzzled, Shastri asked him why he would do that. The simple answer was: “Because then it stops moving”!!
That lack of complication, the ‘Viru se takkhar?’ attitude is becoming the hallmark of his cricketing clone. That same nonchalance, the same understated swagger, the quick grin; both are guys who live in the moment and immensely enjoy the sound and feel of willow on leather. The only caution: Dhawan has some distance more to go before he gets into Viru’s class. But if his 137 against South Africa is any indication, he is well on his way. Going forward, you’re likely to miss Viru a little less!
Ravichandran Ashwin: The ‘Jumbo’ spinner
As bowlers, they’re not exactly alike. Anil Kumble, fondly known as Jumbo, was a master of variation, accuracy and pace off the wicket. Guile was his calling card, and not necessarily turn. Ashwin is more orthodox in that it is the turn and the creation of angles from the bowling crease that make his play.
However, what marks him out to be Kumble’s certified chela is his attitude. One sees the same aggression, the same propensity to out-think batsmen; almost like the pacies, they both constantly come at the batters. One tiny blink from the batsman, and it’s curtains.
There is one issue though. Kumble has proved himself in all conditions, home and away, Ashwin is still short on that score. This World Cup could well be the occasion when he addresses this shortfall.
Mohammed Shami: Zak is back!
Zaheer Khan was, in the words of his skipper M S Dhoni, the “Sachin Tendulkar of Indian bowling”. High praise indeed, but richly deserved. He had the rare knack of being effective with the new ball as well as the old. He swung the new and reversed with the old; plus, he had a lethal yorker.
If you were to draft Shami’s bowling bio, you’d be surprised at how much he has in common with Zaheer; he shows the same ability to swing the new ball and reverse the old. Like Zaheer, in a short time he has became the spearhead of the India attack. Dhoni’s ‘go to’ man, for all seasons, especially since Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, the other erstwhile mainstay, is still coming to terms with his recent injury.
It’s difficult to believe that the Indian attack does not miss Zaheer, but the presence of Shami makes that easier to deal with.
Suresh Raina: India’s next Yuvraj
No two players have so much in common as Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina. Both men hit the ball hard and long, especially when India has needed it most. Theirs is not the art of languid batsmanship but a wielding of the sledgehammer: they specialize in prizing open the bowling with a rapier when the going gets tough, and bringing out the axe when which runs are required.
Plus, the two contribute to the team in no small measure with their more than useful and canny left-arm spin; both are men with the golden arm. The other common attributes are the razor sharp reflexes on the field and the energy that they both bring to the Indian team.
While Yuvraj, surprisingly, has not found a place in the World Cup squad, the Indian team will be thanking their stars that they have his clone Raina in their midst.
