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Kohli's team on the way to greatness?

Growing up (from a cricket watching perspective) in the 1990s, I am terribly unused to Test cricket being the format in which the Indian team is most successful and looking like potential world-beaters. Still early days, but this is exactly the way things seem headed currently for Kohli and his men. Since Jan 2015 (when Kohli took over as full time captain), India's record reads: P 21, W 14, L 1, D 6. The absurd W/L ratio will of course not last and many critics will point to the fact that most of the victories have come at home. Teams can however only overcome the opposition they are faced with and so far India have ticked off the overseas boxes they have been faced with (in Sri Lanka and the West Indies). And at home they have been utterly dominant, destroying everyone they've met.

But most hearteningly, it's the way they have battled back from adversity that builds the most promise for the future. Too often in even the recent past (let alone the 1990s), Indian teams haven't been able to sustain the pressure on the opposition and the intensity from positions of strength (England at home in 2012/13, South Africa and New Zealand in 2013/14, England in 2014, the examples can go on). Not this group of players though. Under Kohli (and with the amount of experience they now have), the team has shown new levels of self-belief and resolve whether it's battling back from poor performances (Galle 2015), sub-par first innings scores (Mohali 2015), gritting out a draw (Rajkot 2016), or facing down big first innings scores (Chennai 2016). The captain's dedication to fitness, unflinching attitude, and demands for excellence have a lot to do with it but more on Kohli in a later post. Overcoming the desire for personal milestones has also clearly been a contributor as has a growing level of maturity amongst the core group of players - Ashwin, Pujara, Vijay, Rahane, Jadeja, Ishant, Shami, Bhuvneshwar, and Saha.

That much maligned lot, the selectors also deserve a lot of credit as does the influence of Anil Kumble. Persisting with Pujara (despite noises about his strike rate), bringing in Bhuvneshwar at the right moments, picking newer guys like KL Rahul, Karun Nair, and Jayant Yadav, have all not been the most obvious or popular choices but have been vindicated by what's followed. There's been a fair bit of movement with the playing XIs (some injury forced and some tactical) and yet there are no murmurs of discord. Clearly Anil Kumble, who has plenty of experience being in and out of sides despite being an all-time great, has put his broad shoulders around younger players for a quiet word when needed. A relatively clustered age distribution (for above mentioned core group) has also meant that players are peaking at roughly similar times which might be challenging a few years down the road but is an incredible asset currently.

Bigger tests will come of course, with the tour to South Africa later this year and England in 2018 proving whether this group can deliver the same results overseas (in an era where overseas wins are becoming increasingly rare). If they can, then they will be well on their way to proving Dhoni's outgoing (as captain) words to be true. For now, the Indian cricket fan in me is content to sit back and enjoy watching them go about their business comforted in the knowledge that a first day collapse for 250 or a leather hunt ie the opposition making 300-4 is not the end of the match.

Bangladesh and Australia, get ready.

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