How the current lot of Indian cricketers is a representation of today’s bold and brazen Indian youth

The attitude of the current crop of Indian cricketers is markedly different from that of Indian cricketers who played before the turn of the century. With all due respect to Indian cricketers who donned the jersey prior to 2000s, it wouldn’t be unfair to describe them as being a bit meek and docile, especially when compared to today’s Indian unit.

Prior to the dawn of the 21st century, Indian cricketers facing up to some of the 'bad boys' and bullies from the SENA countries by fighting fire with fire was an all but rare sight. Just take a look at the treatment meted out by Ricky Ponting to Javagal Srinath when Srinath walks up to Ponting to check if he is fine after being hit on the helmet by a Srinath short delivery.

Fast forward to today, and one can’t help but marvel at how the tables have turned, so much so that even someone of the stature of Ricky Ponting wouldn’t dare do such a thing to a member of today’s Indian team; but, even if, hypothetically speaking, an opposition player did muster up the guts to do so, the Indians would be all over that player like a pride of lions.

No longer are Indian cricketers sheepish and submissive and viewed as pushovers, even when playing in some of the most hostile environments that present themselves when touring the likes of Australia and England.

Unlike previous Indian units, today’s Indian cricketers aren’t naive, self-sacrificial, and exploitable; but, they have it in themselves to call forth the genuinely righteous and appropriately self-protective anger necessary to defend themselves. Aware of the fact that Indians have it in them to bite, opposition players, more often than not, avoid unnecessarily ruffling the Indians’ feathers. As Jordan Peterson once said:

If you can bite, you generally don't have to.

Kohli giving Mitchell Johnson a piece of his mind

The genesis of this shift in attitude dates back to Ganguly taking over the captaincy reins. While it can be easy for us to attribute this shift to Ganguly’s personality and his take-no-prisoners approach rubbing off on the team, there’s more to it than just the captain’s influence on the team’s attitude and mental makeup.

I say that because, while one could claim that Ganguly and Kohli are similar in terms of their on-field personality and aggression, MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma have personalities that are very different from those of Ganguly and Kohli, but the overall attitude of the Indian units led by each of these captains has been largely similar. Thus, there’s more to it than the team simply imbibing the captain’s attitude.

That begs the question: what other factor(s) has been responsible for this change in attitude?

The answer lies in affluence. Allow me to elucidate by borrowing a quote from Harsha Bhogle from his appearance on The Grade Cricketer Podcast:

"The English didn’t just take away our wealth; they also took away our self-confidence."

In converting India from one of the richest countries to one of the poorest, the English had the effect of stripping Indians of their self-confidence. And because of how precipitous this decline in affluence was, it, understandably, has taken a non-trivial amount of time for Indians to achieve affluence again.

But as Indians have gotten more and more affluent - a process catalyzed by the liberalization of the Indian economy in 1991 - their confidence has also risen proportionately, which has made this new generation of Indians a lot more confident, bold, brazen, and aggressive compared to Indians belonging to previous generations.

This same effect has taken shape in modern-day Indian cricketers, not least because of the riches that the IPL has showered them with. Someone like a Virat Kohli pockets substantially more than the biggest of names in Australian and English cricket. I’m not at all claiming that that is where he gets most of his confidence from; but, one can’t deny that affluence is a contributor to it.

Today, you look at India under the age of 30 and you’re amazed by the swagger it possesses. What helps is that India under 30 comprises a significant chunk of India’s total population, which makes the relative affluence appear a lot more pronounced.

As Indians, we can only hope that the swagger doesn’t get the best of us by getting us carried away because the game of life, just like the game of Cricket, can be cruel and can expose you when you get overly hubristic or complacent.