Never Underestimate The Power Of The Indian Cricket Team
Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
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By Slogger
First publised on 2021-01-20 07:02:17
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Holding an extreme view and carting the ball out of the park is what interests him most. He is a hard hitter at all times. Fasten your seatbelts and read.
View all posts by this Author
At least two Indian celebrities have chosen to take those ex-players from Australia and England who chose to write off India after the second innings debacle in the first Test to task. Anand Mahindra and Shashi Tharoor have used the same graphic to take to twitter to remind them about their premature and wrong assessment of the abilities of this Indian team.
While Mahindra asks these ex-greats "how would you like to eat your words? Grilled, fried, baked....wrapped in a chapatti or dosa?", logophile Tharoor throws the word epicaricacy (deriving pleasure from the misfortune of others) at them and says "#WordIfTheDay: epicaricacy! I am not the gloating kind but there's a special pleasure in reading these comments today...When everything else has been said, what remains but "wow"?! #IndvsAus".
There is reason for both wanting them to eat their words and for deriving pleasure from their current misfortune in having uttered those words.
Former Australian captain Michael Clarke had said "Can you imagine this Indian batting line-up without Virat Kohli for the next two Test matches? They are in deep trouble". Another former Aussie captain Ricky Ponting said that "there could be a good chance (of a whitewash....with Kohli not being there...there's almost no one to pick them up after a loss like that". Yet another former Aussie skipper, Mark Waugh, was even more derisive. He said that "I just can't see how they (India) can bounce back after Australia white-washed them on the third day (in Adelaide)...four-nil to Australia". Former England captain joined these Aussies to again predict a clean sweep by the Kangaroos. He said "Told Ya...India are going to get hammered in the Test series...#AUSvIND #4-0".
To be fair to these men, they were making this assessment after India got out for 36 in the second innings of the Adelaide Test. But having played top level cricket, these commentators should have realized that a bad day in office can happen to any team. They have been to India many times and they also know how the BCCI meticulously plans its domestic tournaments and the juniors are well trained and looked after. They should have known that India has the skill, the will and the temperament to bounce back from any given position. It also has the bench strength to replace injured players. This Indian team has proved them wrong in style and they should now eat their words.
Australian coach Justin Langer admitted as much. When he said (in the post-match briefing) that no one should make the mistake of ever, ever underestimating India, he was paying a huge tribute to the fighting spirit displayed by the team in the recently concluded series. South Africa's A B De Villiers was spot on when he said that India's bench strength is "scary". Though cricket has become so competitive nowadays that any given team can win on any given day, this Indian team has shown that it has loads of skill, grit and determination to bounce back from the lowest of depths. No one will make the mistake of underestimating it from now on.
