5 things the 90s Indian cricket enthusiast will love about the present team

#2 Batting contribution from bowlers

Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Mohammed Shami were involved in an 111-run partnership in the first Test of the 2014 tour of England

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There was a time during the 90s when India had six batsmen to score all the runs. Very little was expected from the bowlers or even the wicket-keeper. Kapil Dev did well as an all-rounder and Manoj Prabhakar managed to contribute with the bat in a few games but India, by and large, had a genuine tail-ender problem. That changed in the 2000s as a higher premium was placed on bowlers who could bat a bit. The contributions from the lower order have been telling off-late.

Ashwin has even managed to move up to No.6 in the batting order. Ravindra Jadeja, someone with a triple century in domestic cricket, bats at No.8. Jayant Yadav scored 35 and 27* batting at No.9 on debut in the second Test at Vizag, crucial runs in the context of the match. The last three wickets added 92 runs for India in the first innings of the second Test.

In the second innings, the tenth-wicket partnership between Jayant Yadav and Mohammed Shami was 42 runs, pushing an otherwise surmountable target just out of England’s reach, as it breached the 400 mark. That managed to deflate the England batsmen as they began their fourth innings purely with an intention to survive.