oppn parties India's Young Guns Come To The Fore

News Snippets

  • The Indian envoy in Bangladesh was summoned by the country's government over the breach in the Bangladesh mission in Agartala
  • Bank account to soon have 4 nominees each
  • TMC and SP stayed away from the INDIA bloc protest over the Adani issue in the Lok Sabha
  • Delhi HC stops the police from arresting Nadeem Khan over a viral video which the police claimed promoted 'enmity'. Court says 'India's harmony not so fragile'
  • Trafiksol asked to refund IPO money by Sebi on account of alleged fraud
  • Re goes down to 84.76 against the USD but ends flat after RBI intervenes
  • Sin goods like tobacco, cigarettes and soft drinks likely to face 35% GST in the post-compensation cess era
  • Bank credit growth slows to 11% (20.6% last year) with retail oans also showing a slowdown
  • Stock markets continue their winning streak on Tuesday: Sensex jumps 597 points to 80845 and Nifty gains 181 points to 24457
  • Asian junior hockey: Defending champions India enter the finals by beating Malaysia 3-1, to play Pakistan for the title
  • Chess World title match: Ding Liren salvages a sraw in the 7th game which he almost lost
  • Experts speculate whether Ding Liren wants the world title match against D Gukesh to go into tie-break after he let off Gukesh easily in the 5th game
  • Tata Memorial Hospital and AIIMS have severely criticized former cricketer and Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu for claiming that his wife fought back cancer with home remedies like haldi, garlic and neem. The hospitals warned the public for not going for such unproven remedies and not delaying treatment as it could prove fatal
  • 3 persons died and scores of policemen wer injured when a survey of a mosque in Sambhal near Bareilly in UP turned violent
  • Bangladesh to review power pacts with Indian companies, including those of the Adani group
Devendra Fadnavis to be the next chief minister of Maharashtra after Eknath Shinde agrees to join the government as deputy CM
oppn parties
India's Young Guns Come To The Fore

By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2024-02-28 08:10:37

About the Author

Sunil Garodia The India Commentary view

When the Test series against England started, there was a lot of buzz about Bazball and how England had pulverized opponents using the unique playing style in Test matches introduced by their head coach Brendon McCullum. Then, when Ollie Pope displayed perfect Bazball to score a scintillating century in Hyderabad and India lost the Test, there was widespread speculation that despite pitches tailored to help their spinners, India would not be able to counter Bazball and lose the series, like they had lost to the Englishmen led by Alistair Cook in 2012-13, their last home series loss.

This speculation was strengthened when the Indian team was hit by absentations of senior players - Virat Kolhi opted out of the entire series due to personal reasons and K L Rahul, Shreyas Iyer & Ravindra Jadeja were hit by injuries while Ishan Kishan's motives remained unclear. But the team management and the selectors were unfazed. They reposed faith in India's famous bench strength and inducted Yashashvi Jaiswal, Rajat Patidar, Sarfaraj Khan, Kona Bharat, Dhruv Jurel, and Akash Deep .

Of these young guns Rajat Patidar and Kona Bharat could not take advantage of the opportunity. But the rest excelled and gave shape to the team of the future. Jaiswal has hit two double hundreds and is the leading scorer in the series with 665 runs till now at an average of 93.57. Shubman Gill came back roaring after initial failures and has scored 342 runs at 48.85. Sarfaraz Khan scored two fifties on debut. Dhruv Jurel was the Player of the Match in Ranchi with 90 and 39 not out, both scored under difficult conditions. Akash Deep's first innings burst in Ranchi was absolutely Bumrah-like. And Devdutt Padikkal is waiting on the bench and will most likely be given a chance in the last Test in place of Rajat Patidar.

With seniors like Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli nearing the end of their glorious careers, the absentations through injuries and personal reasons were fortunate for Team India. With the success of the young guns in this tough series, it has been able to discover the shape of the team of the immediate future.