A Glorious Decade (Part 3)

After the draw against Australia and win against Pakistan, both in their home grounds, India were heading don a path where it can beat any kind of an opponent on any day. The moods of the people here turned bright and promising after being despondent initially in the decade.

India didn’t have a memorable year however as it failed to impress with its performances in the rest of the season. Pakistan toured India for 3 test matches and 6 match ODI series. It was John Wright’s last series as a coach with Team India. India failed to capitalize on the 4 day domination that it displayed. Kamran Akmal and Razzaq ensured a draw on this occasion. Dravid’s each inning century meant India won the second match. Pakistan leveled the series by winning the third.

Ganguly’s batting had then come under severe criticism as the ruthless media and crowd tore him apart with Maggi jokes. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was the find of the ODI series as he made a mammoth 148 at Vishakapattinam. India lost the series 2-4 as it had to miss out all the key players due to injury concerns.

Greg Chappell was the preferred coach, as India claimed to have betterunderstanding with foreign coaches. It didn’t take much time to prove all those claims wrong as Chappell had asked Ganguly to step down from being the captain. The spat continued for another 3 months which eventually saw Ganguly forced out of the Indian team for his poor run with the bat. The media had obviously got a news that can hogg the headlines for a week – may be even a month!

India’s Mr. Dependable Rahul Dravid has had a dream run scoring copious amount – 23% of the total runs scored under Ganguly. He won two awards as the ‘ICC test player of the year’ and ‘ICC Player of the year’ for the year 2004. A part of Ganguly’s strategy was to play a team combination that read 7-4. This meant a selfless Dravid had to keep wickets until a new genuine wicket keeper batsman is found, and he did. He was the best batsman of the lustrum. The commitment and consistency-driven batsman was undisputedly declared the best No.3 batsman.

Dravid was considered as the captaincy material and was asked to lead the team. India ground Sri Lanka 6-1 at home which ensured a fantastic start to Dravid’s captaincy. This also meant Ganguly’s career was approaching towards sunset. The man whom Ganguly thoroughly believed had betrayed him then. Kiran Moore who was no fan of Dada welcomed Greg’s first important move on the chess board with a smile. Of course it was just his first move; there were still a lot more coins on the board for him to negotiate.