The world of social media, more often than not, carries a storyline of its own pertaining to whatever action transpires on and off the cricket field. With several cricketers being active members of various social media websites, banters, discussions, and to an extent, arguments happen to be a daily dose for a social buff. The increasing familiarity with one’s favourite cricketers through the direct engagement that the platforms of Facebook, Twitter etc. provide, makes one believe that their favourite cricketer is only a text away.
Tapping into the endless parallel world that runs in front of us, on our laptop screens and mobiles, we bring to you the weekly dose of cricketing action that took place on the social media.
Virat’s customary new look for the season
As charismatic as Virat Kohli has been on the field, his off-field camaraderie has been no less a show. After popularising the ‘stubble’ in the IPL 2016, Kohli has arrived on the scenes with a new look. It makes one wonder as to how this look would transpire itself onto the field, given that the IPL one got him four T20 hundreds in a single season.
The trio: Part-1
Australia have been forced to endure torrid times in the recent past. And now, with the ouster of Mitchell Starc, James Faulkner and Shaun Marsh from the ODI series against South Africa, even their future looks troublesome. However, this wasn’t always the case, as the kids from the 90s would fondly recall from this picture. That’s more than 10000 Test runs, 500 Test wickets and 400 catches in one frame.
Hush! The walls are listening
From the glorious past and the inglorious present, let’s come down to a mixture of both. England – sans Eoin Morgan and Alex Hales – would step on the shores of Bangladesh with a 38-year-old spinner in their midst, who would be making his Test comeback after a gap of 11 years. While Gareth Batty would surely be elated on his England recall, Piers Morgan, the eminent journalist, and an India lover at heart, had a bigger message for his followers.
P.S. Kevin Pietersen might get the eligibility to play for South Africa, the place of his birth, in two years’ time.
The trio: Part-2
If the Aussies were up to it, how could the Indians lag behind? Virender Sehwag, for one, surely isn’t someone who has the habit of lagging behind in any manner. So here’s another bunch of 10000 Test runs and 500 Test wickets, but only 124 Test catches.
Rally for Simmons
The sinusoidal wave of West Indies cricket has enough ingredients in it to become a metaphor in itself. From the highs of the World T20 title to the immediate lows of Darren Sammy’s emotionally charged speech and Marlon Samuels’ equally charged gestures, the Windies, one would have believed, had had enough drama for the year.
As it turned out over the past couple of months, those happenings constituted only one-half of the picture. After sacking Sammy only a few days before the India-West Indies USA extravaganza, the WICB chose the dying moments before the next T20 endeavour that the team was about to undertake – the series against Pakistan in the UAE – to sack the coach, Phil Simmons.
Eid Mubarak!
Amidst the team selections and speculations on either side of this sub-heading, let’s pause for a second and remember the other better things that happened in the week, such as Moeen Ali playing backyard cricket with his nephews on the occasion of Eid.
The legend-heavy quartet
Rolling back the years, this picture reminds one of the times when everything (or maybe most of the things) used to be right for the Caribbean conglomeration of nations. The current Windies Test side would do anything to bring back these legends from different eras onto the field once again.
Let the season begin
It is in the anticipation of a big event that the suspense lies, perhaps even more than its occurrence. Once it’s done, once it comes to the fore and unravels itself, the thrill gets done away with. The squad announcement of the Indian Cricket Team has been as much for the bated breaths, as it has been for picking the best men to represent the country. This picture, in essence, does speak about it.
The conclusion of the event marks the beginning of the analyses. One man who always finds himself hot enough to be a part of these analyses struck twice in consecutive overs.
For some, it was an irony in itself, while for others it was something to grab a packet of popcorn for. The bottom line that remained was that Rohit Sharma, along with Ajinkya Rahane, was an Arjuna Award winner.
To draw a line beneath the scores of theories and counter theories, the outgoing national selector, Sandeep Patil, did his last job of selection magnificently, and had subtle words of explanation for it. Rohit Sharma's selection to the Test team thus stood testified.
Ashwin turns a new leaf
From the speculative selection, we move on to the obvious one. This time, Ravichandran Ashwin, the 30-year-old India all-rounder, may bat at No. 6 and might as well become the ‘diamond in the rough’ for which India have already dug up enough shores. For the time being, though, let him enjoy and sink in the feeling that very soon he’ll be on the wrong side of 30.
Wild dogs
“Our attack … we are more like wild dogs: we wear you down, wear you down. But we are also very capable of breaking your back, and taking you down quickly,” was Dale Steyn’s stern warning ahead of the looming Australian summer. While that might have been purely intentional, but you can get an idea as to where the ‘dog’ part came from by looking at this picture.
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