Batting

Let me start to you off with India's best 3 batsmen. Firstly, Sunil Gavaskar who, in my opinion is the best opener of the modern era. Secondly, the little master Sachin Tendulkar and finally Rahul 'the wall' Dravid. These great batsmen all average over 50+ and have more than 20 centuries to their name.

Sunil Gavaskar, also known as 'Sunny' is arguably the best opener the game has seen and is definitely the best batsmen from the Sub-Continent. He holds a joint record with Sachin Tendulkar for the most amount of Test centuries at international level and was the first batsmen at test level to score 10,000 runs. He scored 10,122 test match runs at an incredible average of 51.12. This average is even more impressive considering he was an opener facing the likes of Dennis Lillie, the quartet of West Indian quicks, New Zealand ace Richard Hadlee and Pakistan's best all-rounder Imran Khan. It is also impressive because he was normally batting in a relatively weak Indian team and for some of the time he was also batting on uncovered pitches without a helmet. Statistics can’t really explain how important he was for the Indian team at that time. He earned respect for Indian cricket and he taught his team-mates the virtue of professionalism. His game was built around a near perfect technique and enormous powers of concentration. It is hard to visualise a more beautiful defence: virtually unbreakable, it made his wicket among the hardest to earn. He played with equal felicity off both front and back foot, had an excellent judgement of length and line and was beautifully balanced. He had virtually every stroke in the book but traded flair for the solidity, which his side needed more.

Sachin Tendulkar, the ‘little master’. Well what can I say about this Indian legend? He made his debut at the age of 16 against a strong Pakistani attack including Imran Khan, Wasim Akram and fellow debutant Waqar Younis. From then on he has been in the Indian team for over 15 years, but at the moment he is injured with a case of tennis elbow. He for the most part of the 90’s before Saurav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, was the key to winning or losing. He had a incredible world cup in 1996 when world cup victory was seemingly in their grasp, but sadly India were knocked out in the semi-final because of crowd problems. Sachin could not be blamed for the exit, in fact he was praised for his brilliant efforts. He was also named in the late Donald Bradman’s favourite XI of all time. At the moment from 123 test matches he has 10,134 runs at an impressive average of 57.25, and is joint holder with fellow Indian great Sunil Gavaskar with the most test centuries with 34 tons. He is equally impressive in the ODI format and is arguably the best batsman the world has seen in the shorter format. From 348 matches he has 13,642 runs at an average of 44.43. He also holds the record for most centuries with 38 tons to his name. Sachin Tendulkar is also a very reliable part-time bowler in ODIs with 139 victims from his wrist spin.

Rahul Dravid ‘the wall’. He averages more in the no.3 spot then anybody that has played the game barring Donald Bradman. Rahul Dravid has a near perfect technique with an extraordinary defence but he has also got flair to his bating. He made his debut in England in 1996 and hit an impressive 95. But his career really sky rocketed when he hit 180 against the Australians in 2001 supporting VVS Laxman who hit at that time the Indian record 280, to set up one of the best matches the cricketing world has seen. He then hit more runs with some glorious double centuries. This includes one innings that remains in the mind of every Indian cricket fan. This is the 275 he hit in the 3rd test in Pakistan to give India their first victory against them in over 15 years. Rahul Dravid has scored 7,696 runs at an amazing average of 57.86 from 89 matches. He is also a very handy ODI batmen who plays the anchoring role in the batting line up and he has also shown his loyalty to the Indian team when he took the wicket-keeping gloves. In 262 ODI matches Dravid has played he has scored 8,383 runs at an average of 39.54.

Bowling

Kapil Dev is the best seamer Indian has ever produced and is India’s best all-rounder. He played in the era with other 3 all-rounders, England’s Ian Botham, New Zealand’s Richard Hadlee and Pakistan’s inspirational captain, Imran Khan. Many people remember one innings when he hit 4 consecutive fours to save the follow-on and that incredible 175* against Zimbabwe in the World Cup. He also inspired India to world cup victory in the 1983 world cup. He was once the world leading wicket taker when he went past Richard Hadlee and ended up with 434 wickets from 131 test matches.

Anil Kumble is now India’s leading wicket-taker when he surpassed Kapil Dev in 2004/2005. He is one of the few Indian cricketers who tries his hardest and gives full effort at all times. This is best shown when he bowled in a test match with a broken jaw! He is more of an orthodox leg spinner who bowls the leg spinner like a spear because of the way the ball goes in the air, and the ball then comes off the pitch with a kick rather than a kink. Kumble would have made a complete leg-spinner if he had a big turning delivery and would have challenged Shane Warne for the best leg spinner title. Even with this unorthodox approach he has had stunning success. From 95 test matches Anil Kumble has 461 victims at an average of 28.23-a true Indian great!

Indian cricket team at the moment

At the moment the Indian cricket team is not performing very well and fans are left wondering what is wrong with the current Indian team and their winning record. This team has legends in the batting order with Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid, they also have very good batsmen in Saurav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and VVS Laxman. India is blessed with world class spinners in Anil Kumble and Harbhajan Singh. Also, whilst most fans agree that India’s seam bowlers are not great, each can be devastating on their day. Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan and Ashish Nehra can all be match winners, so why are India still not performing well?

Below I have made a list of things which I think are stopping India’s success on the field. At the bottom I have listed 3 reasons why I think this team isn’t performing:

Fielding

Indians fielding is poor. Mohammad Kaif and Yuvraj Singh are the only decent fielders in the team but they rarely fulfil their potential with the bat. In ODI cricket, fielding is crucial to stop the singles and restrict the batsmen, but India are constantly giving singles away, 1 runs become 2 runs, 2 runs become 3 runs and 3 runs become 4 runs because the lazy Indian fielders don’t work hard enough. Fielding doesn’t just prevent runs, it also helps the morale of the fielding team. Greg Chappell must talk to the Indians about this problem; India must improve in the fielding if they are to be world beaters.

Egos

Due to the popularity of cricket in India, it is easy for Indian players to develop big egos. All the Indian players are guilty to some extent of having big egos which is killing the team’s morale. The team must be united like a family if they are to be a successful team. Contrast this with England. They all look like friends and they all call each other with nicknames like Freddie, Lord Brocket and so on. The Indian players probably call Ganguly his Royal Highness! Look at Zaheer Khan’s performance with Asia XI, he was terrific but why doesn’t he perform like that with the Indian team? I think that it is due to the morale and the unity of the team. I know that when a team-mate is intimidating it is hard for you to perform. Have you ever so the Indian team in the field or when they are batting? They never appear to be happy and they only light up when they take a wicket - and that is only for the cameras!

Effort

I have supported India with a passion I cannot describe. The reason I used to support India with so much passion was the way they used to play, they would never give up and they always showed full effort, look at Kapil Dev who hit 4 consecutive sixes to save the follow-on, my dad still talks of that particular innings till this day. But that has all changed, I am no longer seeing the effort by the Indian players. This can be seen from the loss against Pakistan. Pakistan didn't even have their best bowlers and they still beat us because they played their hearts out, they played with full effort. In contrast, I didn't see enough effort by the Indian players. If we look at the 3rd test of the series only Sehwag was playing for the win, the rest of the team played poorly, and appeared to lack effort. When I looked at the World Cup 2003 final where Australia and India played for the cup, India were thrashed by the Australian batsmen, the score was 359-2 with only Harbhajan Singh taking the wickets, but even with this score I thought India could still win, but I was cruelly mistaken. I saw no effort by the Indians whilst batting. The Australians did bowl well and credit should be given to them, but I would have liked to see more effort from the Indians. This was especially true following the dismissal of Tendulkar by Glenn McGrath and the Indians subsequently appeared to lose heart. I was deeply saddened when India lost that final, but I was more saddened that they didn't show that effort that the Indian fans were looking for and deserved. The Indians cricket team need to put in 100% effort if they want to win.