Virat has scored 21 hundreds at a strike rate of 98, captaincy has never effected his batting. I don’t have problem with Rohit or anyone being captain ahead of him. But these numbers are insane man! He is once a generation player. How could he be sacked!!
We get to know 90% news of captaincy, sacking from these journalists, who think themselves above the game. What’s this? Sacking virat without any proper statement is not the way he should be treated. How does these people get to know all these news, like who the hell are these people who think themselves over smart , more than the players who play for the country. This kind of journalism is shit journalism! This should stop.
BCCI hasn’t handled this well . All this you hear are rifts heared from media houses , why should this happen. BCCI should’ve handled it well. In a team these rifts happen.

I being 90s kid respect dada a lot , the way he lead during early 2000s but this is not the way this should have been handled! Is this not the same thing that happened between dada and chappel repeating it self. Is this not getting to the same place where we were before 15 years?

I saw many people mocking Rohit, There’s no point mocking Rohit, he will win us everything And bring a lot to the table , never doubted his passion! But Virat’s sacking is Snarky.

12^th August 2021, on a cloudy morning at the home of cricket , Virat Kohli the Indian captain lost the toss and Indians were put into bat by England. With Jimmy Anderson, the master in these conditions in full flow every pundit of the game thought the game would be the repeat of 2018 fixture between the two teams at the venue wherein Indian batting unit lost the plot and England won the game inside 3 days. But this time around, it wasn’t the case, this team had learned from the past, this team had rubbed off the attitude that its captain had instilled in them.

Rohit, who was playing as an opener in England for the first time and Rahul, who was making a comeback in to the test side after 3 years started slowly playing out each spell and then Rohit burst out at the English bowlers and they together added 126 runs and it was a big deal considering the recent stats that the openers often fail in English conditions and Rahul , who was at just 35 when Rohit got out, played the responsible role and made an scintillating 100 at the home of cricket and made his name written on the honor’s board. After Rahul fell at the start of day-2 India had a minor collapse and Indians were all out at 364. Still, it was very good score because India batted in toughest batting conditions of the match.

England, with the help of their captain Joe Root’s 180 not out scored 391 taking a 27 lead. India starts their second innings, and we collapse, as we most often do in an overseas test match. Then comes the dependable pair of Pujara and Rahane whose form was not that good and were criticized extremely and it was do or die for both. Pujara and Rahane added a century partnership and made sure India doesn’t stumble further, but at the end of the day 4 both lose their wickets. At the end of day 4, everyone thought either England wins, or it will be a draw, and no one expected an Indian comeback.

At the start of day-5, India’s lead was 154 runs and Rishabh Pant was at the crease, all eyes were on him to score 50 odd runs taking the lead to 200 so that India had a fighting chance, but he fell to Ollie Robinson early in the day and the lead was just 167 runs which was obviously not enough and there was India’s tail to follow who were not that greatly equipped with the bat. Burmah joined Shami after Pant’s wicket and slowly they started taking singles and doubles and made sure India’s lead get past 200 and once they were set, they were impossible to get out and India’s lead got to over 250 runs before lunch. Bumrah and Shami not only increased India’s lead they also made sure India can’t lose this game. The ovation they received at the end of lunch from the crowd and the Indian dressing was so incredible to see. The pair made sure from having no chance of winning the game to having a go at the opposition to win the test match at the home of cricket since 2014.

Everyone thought Kohli might declare the innings at lunch and have a go at England, but it wasn’t the case he made England bowl just 10 balls, this move turned out to be master stroke this meant English openers didn’t had the time to get in as they would have had if Kohli would have declared at lunch. And Indians came roaring out and Kohli was seen saying “They should feel like hell for the next 60 years”, and boy they did. England lost both their openers cheaply from the same duo of Bumrah and Shami who were high on confidence from their batting performance. When Joe Root was at the crease, it felt difficult for Indians to get to the win, but Bumrah picked up his wicket and Mohammed Siraj, who is the find of Indian cricket this year bowled his heart out to take 4 wickets and just 20 min before the end of day’s play Siraj took the wicket of James Anderson. And with this India won the match by 151 runs.

This win is magical, from not having a chance to win on day-4 to win by 151 runs is an incredible achievement, this was total team performance from mostly the same side who lost the test match last time inside 3 days. This win at Lord’s and the win at Gabba at the start of this year showed us this team never gives up, they put everything at stake when anything isn’t going according to the plan.

 

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So, after lots of discussion and confusion I finally got admitted to one of the corporate hospitals in Pune. As soon as i got admitted , there were some routine tests like haemoglobin, ECG etc and all of which were normal and as I looked around most of them had salines, oxygen, having not got admitted to a hospital, it felt wierd. Also, I thought at the end of 10 days I would have salines and injections all over me, that actually scared me mentally. On the very next morning, one of the doctors told me that if I dont show symptoms in next 7 days and if I get tested negative, they can give me early discharge, this made very happy.

The food which they gave me at the hospital was tastless and they gave alternative day breakfast of poha and upma , atmosphere at the hospital made me sick , really really sick. Inspite of this struggle the thing that made me happy was 7 days early discharge. But this happiness didn’t last long, the next day i asked the doctor the discharge thing again, he said that “who told you the early discharge thing , there is no thing like this , you are only discharged at the end of 10 days and that too without a test and if you need a test you have to wait 1or 2 more days”. This thing made me sad again . 12 days at the hospital and cosuming heavy medication was the only thing in my mind.

The greatest strength in these tough times were my friends and my family , who were in my touch every 3-4 hours. There was family video call which used to happen then for 2 times a day just to make me feel happy. What can I speak about my friends , video calls with them just made feel normal, made me feel that i am outside this hell. Two of my friends and my brother-in-law even brought me food, fruits risking their own health so that I feel good. This was the time, when I felt that I’m very lucky to have soo many people who care for me.

As the days neared , my anxiety grew , finally it was the 10th day. After begging the hospital staff to collect my swab for the test , they finally collected the sample and warned me that if it is positive, I might have to stay 5 more days, this thing made me very very anxious. 10,11th day were one of the most toughest days , as they made me anxious about the result. Even on the 11th day the hospital staff were very slow in communicating my result , I was thinking that I might get discharged on the 11 th day but it wasn’t the case, the hospital gave the result after rigorous requesting and shouting at 7.30PM IST , the result finally came out to be negative. This really made me feel very happy and tear-eyed.But this also made at that I can’t get discharged on 11th day

Then came the 12th day(6th July 2020) , even on this day hospital staff were very slow , and that’s why i called my roommate to come to the hospital so that the process can be initiated quickly and finally at around 7 PM on the 12th day i.e. after testing negative for 24 hours I got discharged from hospital. I felt like I was getting out of a jail, I felt very very good. I got home and felt very good.

Finally, I don’t know much on how much it affected me physically but mentally it had a great affect on me. But it was a journey , which thought me many things and made me feel greatful for the people i have in my life.

25th June 2020 , it was one of the most shocking days of my life ,it was the day I got detected positive for Covid-19 which i wasn’t expecting one bit. The reason I had gone for the test was because I was having weakness for past one week and had some mild symptoms like cough. But I thought it might have been normal fever and all. The night before ,I was positive that result for the test would be negative but suddenly there was someone at my door at around 12AM , it scared the shit out of me . I thought there are people from PMC and were there for sealing the building as I got tested positive, but it wasn’t the case it was just some random people from the society asking us to stay positive no matter what result is , i might have got scared because it was late night and still thought that result would be negative.

Before going to the hospital to get the result , I thought I would get negative and come back to my room and I told my friend that to stay in the parking and I will get the result and as it will 100% negative , we will straight away go home. But when I was in the line for reports the person behind me was positive and he was so disappointed , still then I thought i will be Negative. I told the receptionist my name , he gave me report with out saying a word , as he was normal I thought it is surely negative.But when I saw the report it was fucking postive, i cross checked it 100 times ,but it was still postive. I told Shivam(my friend) who was waiting in the parking that it was postive, it scared the shit out if him too and we went to the hospital to check the process to get admitted. The receptionist at the hospital staright away gave me a paper which had all the expenses , it was around 1.3 lakhs.

I was numb, i wasn’t able to feel anything, I haven’t even told my parents , fearing they will be worried and as most of them people knew i had got tested , they were continuously calling me to check for the result. I didn’t know what to tell them. I was in shock. And there was one more shock that I had to stay for 12 days in isolation in the hospital environment without anybody’s help. As the clock ticked , I got to know I really had covid because there were a lot more symptoms which i was ignoring like no smell, no taste,extrem weakness etc. I told my father after an hour , he was like are you kidding me and all that after sometime my mom was in tears , I told her and myself that i will be ok no matter what and also I knew these 12 days are gonna be one of toughest /challenging days of my life.

19 Dec 2020, India were cruising towards a victory on day -3 of the first test match of The Border-Gavaskar trophy at The Adelaide Oval, having taken first innings lead of 50 odd runs. Ohh wait , as the year 2020 went we had another suprise in the store and we bundle out for a mere 36 and Australia needed 76 runs to win the test and take a 1-0 lead in the series and they did it in style and their confidence was roaring going in to the series. And we, most importantly lost our main bowler in Shami to injury and our captain Kohli was gonna head back to India to be there for his wife for the birth of his first child and due to which most cricket pundits predicted that we will loose the series 4-0 but there was something extraordinary that was gonna happen.

26th December 2020, Boxing day test match at The Melbourne Cricket Ground , Australia won the toss and elected to bat first and most people thought looking at how Aussies play they would crush us and take 2-0 lead. But , Ajinkya Rahane and his team had different plans , India bundled Aussies to a mere 195 on the day 1 and then inspired by an amazing Captain’s knock from Rahane and Some sword steering from Jadeja we lead by 126 runs going in to second innings and we crushed Aussies to 200 for the second time in the test match to set ourselves a target of 70 runs to square off the series. Still brushed by that 36 , we had a slight trouble where in we lost two early wickets but eventually we chased 70 runs and nightmare of 36 turned in to one of the epic come backs.

Going in to Sydney, series was squared at 1-1 and we lost another bowler in Umesh Yadav, which gave opportunity to Siraj, Saini to prove their worth. Aussies again won the toss and elected to bat first, inspired by Steve Smith’s hundred Aussies managed to score 338 and inturn India gave Aussies a lead of 114 runs. Coming in to the second innings Aussies set us the target of 406 runs to which everyone thought was impossible to survive let go going for the chase. Then came Risabh Pant, who bliztered all over the Aussies , at one moment we thought we can chase that everest of 406. But he fell soon after and then staright after we lost Pujara. We had Vihari ,who was hamstrung and Ashwin, who was having back spasms. The task was to survive for nearly 3 hours against world’s best fast bowling attack and one of the world’s best spinner knowing the fact that Jadeja was injuried and there was no one left to bat after them . Ashwin and Vihari Grinded themselves in the middle and, this turned out to be one of the greatest draws in the history of test cricket defying all the physical pain by the pair.

Brisbane, Gabba the so called fortress where Aussies haven’t lost a test since 1988 and most teams didn’t even compete, that was level of domination Aussies had there. Going into to fourth test, we lost Bumrah, Jadeja and Ashwin, our senior pros to injury and we had three newcomers in Shardul, Natarajan and Washington Sundar as their replacements and here as well Rahane lost the toss for the thrid consecutive time and our new bowling attack was exposed to a strong Aussies batting still we restricted Aussies to an average 369 and when we were batting at one stage we were 186-6 and test match was going out of our hands then came fighting partnership from our newcomers Shardul and Sundar which took our score to 336 where in Aussies took lead of mere 33 runs and at the start of second innings Aussies looked to dominate and take the match out of our hands but they were restricted to 294 thanks Siraj who took a fifer, which set us 328 to win the series and retain the Border Gavaskar trophy. Even a draw can retain it for India as we await the Rain marred final day’s play at the Gabba.

Irrespective of the result on final day’s play , this series was more than winning and losing. It was about taking the opportunities when given, it had different stories of mental toughness like Bubble life due to covid, absence of Kohli , Siraj being in Australia after he losing his father , Nataranjan being with the team as net bowler despite his wife giving birth to their baby and inturn getting opportunity to play in the last test, racial abuses to Bumrah and Siraj and injuries to the senior pros. This series showed to stop complaining and enjoying the thing you do irrespective of everything. This series will go down as one of the greatest overseas tours for India.

It was 2005, I was in my 5th standard, one day when I returned from my school my father told me that there’s this long haired wicket keeper who has scored 148 against Pakistan. And , during those days Indian wicketkeeper hitting 100 was something new, little did I realise that entry of this guy would change Indian cricket forever.

As a captain,he won 2007 t20 worldcup, 2011 worldcup, 2013 champions trophy and many more but for me more than all these wins the thing that defined him was his attitude with which he played for India. He showed us that a guy from a small town can achieve everything that can ever be achieved. Like in the video where in he announced his retirement, he truly lived in the moment. He knew when to sieze the opportunity and when not to.
Like in the 2011 worldcup final, he knew that match was his but the worldcup was Sachin’s. Whenever we see the last moments of 2011 worldcup we don’t see Dhoni around it , we see the whole team. Through all his finishes, he made us believe match isn’t finished until it’s really finished. One more thing , that defined him was , he played with the minds of opposition like When India were on the verge of beating Australia at MCG in 2008, Dhoni told his players not to go overboard while celebrating because that would have made Australia feel that India’s win was a fluke.

Just like that, just with a press release he announced his retirement from test cricket in 2014 ,no fuzz, no farewell , mid way through the series in Australia he announced his retirement . He made sure Virat Kohli got one more match to lead it in down under . I haven’t seen selfless cricker like him ever, he could have batted at 4 and could have scored tons and tons of runs but he chose to take responsibility by batting down the under and finishing games for India. Though, he batted at 6 all his career he scored more than 10k. When the seniors of the team retired , he made sure the transformation was smooth and he made sure he made a team which were full of potential match winners. I could go on and on about him and his achievements.

15 August 2020, again just like that , just through an Instagram post he announced his retirement from international cricket. we knew this retirement was coming , but there are some things that hit you the most you when they happen. As Virat Kohli once rightly said ,”Whenever , I hear the word captain I remember Dhoni”. Captain , you made my childhood and adulthood awesome. Thank you for everything.

Whenever we Indians hear the name Stuart Broad, we straight away remember 19 September 2007, where a certain Yuvraj Singh smashed him all round the Kingsmead and hit him for six sixes in all consecutive balls of the 19th over. What do you think about a bowler who gets smashed for six sixes? Mediocre? , Ordinary? Or the one who will never get picked in their national side ever ? But, this wasn’t the case with Broad , yesterday he became only the fourth fast bowler ever in test cricket’s history to take 500 wickets.

We might argue formats are different and all that but I think to keep that mindset even after that day at Durban and play 140 test matches for England is amazing and taking 500 test wickets is no joke , we might not even see any other fast bowler acheiving this going forward, as fast bowling is one of the toughest jobs on the cricket field, it requires immense fitness and dedication. And also one more thing that intrigues me the most is the fact that he has taken all these wickets by being under the shadow of James Anderson, who is an absolute legend and has taken more wickets than any other fast bowler has ever taken in test cricket.

My fondest memory of Broad was an incredible 8/15 against The Aussies at his home ground Trent Bridge , it was when England’s main strike bowler James Anderson was injured and was out for the whole series. Because of this performance Aussies where dismissed for a mere 60 runs and this was also the fastest innings in a first day of a test match. This performances set the tone for the whole series and in turn helped England regain the Ashes.

Another memory of him is just recent , it was in the first test in the recently concluded series against the Windies, where he was dropped from the side despite taking 485 test wickets at that time just because English management wanted to accommodate young fast bowlers. As soon as he got his opportunity in the second and third test , he took 16 wickets in just two matches and proved that he still had that in him.

Lastly, in these tough times Broady’s journey shows us hope, that even after one bad day or one bad incident nothing changes , the process doesn’t change. If you have the capability to take 500 wickets you take those no matter you get hit for six sixes or not.

It was 2nd April 2011 , India’s chance to win the worldcup after 28 years infront of its home crowd and win it for its greatest ever player Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. Srilanka had set the target of 274 ,which needed a special effort to chase it down under pressure. That day two Indians played two great innings one was the rescuing innings of Gambhir and other was the calculated innings under pressure from the captain MS Dhoni. But which was better?

Gambhir came into bat when Indians were in all sorts of trouble losing Sehwag in the first over and Sachin right after him. He stabilized the innings with then youngster ,now India’s captain Virat Kohli. I think that was one of the most fearless innings under pressure that I have ever seen , inspite of it being the final Gambhir played his natural game under intense pressure .As soon as Virat got out, there could have been sense of panic which we can happen to teams under the pressure of a final but then Dhoni promoted himself ahead of Yuvraj Singh ,who was undoubtedly the man of the tournament for India. He played so well and made sure India doesn’t panic in the final. Even after Gambhir’s wicket fell , Dhoni made sure he finished the game. But because Dhoni got man of the match and he hit that iconic six over Kulasekara’s head , can we not give Gambhir’s innings same value as we give to Dhoni’s innings?

I myself being Dhoni fan thought Dhoni’s innings was the best , but after India’s trouble began in ICC knockouts I realised that Gambhir’s innings was equally important. At 2019 WC semifinal against New Zealand when India lost quick wickets india lacked that Gambhir’s fearless attitude under pressure though it had finishing touch we lacked the start which Gambhir gave us at the Wankhede and when India women in 2017 Women’s World Cup lost the close final against England we lacked Dhoni’s calm and sensible finishing touch, where we could have avoided losing cluster of wickets under pressure.

In conclusion, 2011 worldcup final wouldn’t have been won if it wasnt for one of those two great efforts , it wasn’t Dhoni’s or Gambhir’s , it was India’s win.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton