India won against Australia to win the Border - Gavaskar trophy 2-0. It was one of the most convincing victories of Indian team in the recent times. I was confident of Indian team winning the tournament but I thought it would be something like 1-0 or 2-1. India has now proved that India can be the best team in the world cricket. It gave India many positives, but the greatest thing that has happened, is the appointment of MS Dhoni as the new Indian captain.Dhoni has already proved his worth in the 20-20 World cup when India won the first 20-20 world cup with a completely new team. He not only introduced te new players but made most of their abilities to win the world cup. Also He has showed great faith in youngsters who are the future of Indian cricket. He has again showed his talent as a captain in One day also when he captained India into winning Commonwealth Bank series
by beating Australia in Australia. By making use of the available talent, Dhoni has placed Indian cricket in a different league. We are now considered as the best team in 20-20, One day and the day is not far when India will be crowned as Numero Uno in test cricket also.Dhoni has the ability to lead from the front. He leads by example. He plays when the team needs him. Other players can look to Dhoni as an example. I can only compare him to the great Indian Captains such as Kapil Dev and Mohd. Azaruddin though he is more ruthless than both of them.
Dhoni is a great blend of Ruthlessness with respect. On pitch he may appear ruthless but is very mellow at heart. He can answer the aussie aggression with same vigor as he respects the seniors. He gives answers to the opposite team in the language they understand. It is the greatest quality that leaders have. The way he asked Ganguly to lead the team in the finalovers of the game and the way he called on Kumble to receive the trophy shows the humblenes that he has towards seniors in the team. He even lifted Kumble - the greatest bowler ever to played for India and also one of the best spinners in the world cricket - the day he retired from the cricket.
Other good thing that happened that one youngster will join the Indian squad now. He may be Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina or any other but he surely will be a value addition to the team in Batting as well as in fielding. Some may feel it bad that Ganguly Retired but there are plenty of players those can take his place and can even play better than him. He is "statistically" the best captain of India till date, but can anyone forget the World cup 2003 finals, where he decided to bowl first even when the pitch was conducive to batting. People may blame it on Indian bowling but it was because of these bowlers that India had reached the finals of the World cup. Apart from Srinath all the bowlers were relatively new and it was a suicide to take bowling first in the match Also we cannot forget the rift that tried to create in the Indian team just to save his captainship. I have a decent respect for him for his batting but not as a person. It is useless to compare him to legends like Sachin Tendulkar or Rahul Dravid. I dont understand how people do such wierd things of comparing him with them.
One negative from the series is the Retirement of Anil Kumble. He was not only the best bowler in Indian bowling history but also one of the greatest spinners of all time in World cricket. The person taking 619 wickets, playing for 18 long years and still has left a big dent in the Indian team. People say that youngsters are ready to replace him. But can anyone name a youngster who has the ability to take 619 wickets???? Certainly not. Does any younster have the ability to take 10 wickets in an innings?? Ceratinly not. Does any youngster have the courage to bowl even after having a fracture and that too twice(the last match that he played, he got 18 stitches)?? Certainly not. He will certainly be missed. Who will wrap up the opposition tail end who keeps disturbing the Indian cricket??
There are certainly lot of Positives and Negatives but the greatest plus point is the Rise of Dhoni as a sole leader of the Indian team.
