3 experiments which turned out to be masterstrokes for Team India in last decade

From MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli, the Indian captains have backed young talents and given them chance to flourish if they were convinced about them having the mettle to succeed in international cricket.

In the previous decade, Indian cricket has largely been dominant and it was primarily due to the belief and consistency in selections. From MS Dhoni to Virat Kohli, the Indian captains have backed young talents and given them chance to flourish if they were convinced about them having the mettle to succeed in international cricket.

Virat Kohli(L), Rohit Sharma (R)(HT Collage)

Yes, these can be called ‘experiments’, but then these were calculated moves and well, they have proved to be game-changing for Indian cricket.

One final push for Virat Kohli

During the 2011-12 tour of Australia, Team India were bruised and battered. They simply could not force results to come their way and there was plenty of confusion in the ranks. A young Virat Kohli was still finding his feet in Test cricket, but runs were not coming thick and fast. There was a clarion call to replace him with Rohit Sharma for the Adelaide Test, but this is where captain MS Dhoni decided to give the young man one final chance. A century followed and Kohli was on his way and as they say, the rest is history. No batsman scored as many runs as Virat Kohli in the decade gone by.

The Rohit punt

Virender Sehwag had withered off, Rohit Sharma was still struggling to get going in the middle order and he continued to blow hot and cold. He was skating on extremely thin ice and this is when, MS Dhoni took a punt. He bumped up Rohit to open the innings against England at Mohali in 2013. He responded with an innings of 83 and then went onto solidify his position as an opener in the Champions Trophy, which followed. Ever since the right-hander has gone on to establish himself as one of the premier batsmen in ODIs.

The Bumrah masterstroke

Jasprit Bumrah was an IPL star, he had made a stellar start to his ODI campaign as well and was named in India’s squad for the South Africa Test series. There were furrowed eyebrows when he got the nod to take on South Africa in the first Test at Cape Town. He returned with 4 wickets in the match and soon, became India’s premier bowler across all the formats.

In Tests, he has picked up 62 wickets in 12 matches at an average of 19.24 and with a strike rate of 43.7.