(Photo by Manjunath KIRAN / AFP)
Indian cricket is in the best space that it could ever be at the moment. The bench strength that the current Indian team has is second to none. There are lots of players from domestic cricket and IPL coming through the ranks. It needs continuous improvement and learning and consistent performance for a player to sustain at the highest level.
Here we take a look at the 5 most improved Indian Cricketers:
When you make a list of the Successful limited-overs openers in the world, Rohit would be at the top of that list. If anyone would have said this to Rohit 7 years ago, he would have laughed at them, but MS Dhoni had other ideas. Rohit Sharma made his debut for India 13 years ago, in 2007 when he first played as a middle-order bat against Ireland, then India was in search for a lower middle-order bat who could do the role that Kaif was doing before he faded out at No:6. But Rohit was never able to find his feet as a permanent member of the team, though he was given ample opportunities, he just seemed like he doesn’t want to play cricket but his breakout year was in 2013 where he was promoted to open the innings by MS and Duncan Fletcher, he never looked back thereafter. The important habit that Rohit has developed over the years is his consistency. Now, he is one of the best players India has ever produced to date.
The tall fast bowler from Delhi is the sphere head of Indian test bowling attack at present. He made his debut in 2007 against Bangladesh. He became the talking point of Indian cricket when he troubled the Australian batters in the 2007 series in Australia.
He was considered as the precious diamond in Indian cricket considering the fact that bowlers who could hit high 140 KMPH were a rarity then in Indian cricket. Though he couldn’t do justice to his potential over the years, he was always persisted by the Indian team management and now under Virat Kohli, he has turned himself into a brilliant bowler who not only gives wickets but also bowls accurate line and length and tie the opposition batsmen for nothing. He is just 4 test matches away from a milestone of playing 100 test matches.
Right from his U19 days, Jadeja was always considered as a bowling all-rounder but if you ask Jadeja he would say otherwise. Jadeja always had the ability to become a proper batsman but he was largely seen as a bowler who could be handy with the bat at No:7. In recent years, Jadeja has proved himself with the bat with immaculate consistency, especially in Test Match cricket. He averages well over 40 with the bat at No:7 in tests in the last 2 years to go with his match-winning abilities with the ball. He is surely one of the batsmen who has worked a lot on his shot selections and he values his wicket now more than ever. He has turned into a perfect batsman who can be a sixth bowling option rather than a 5th bowling option who can be handy with the bat.
The dashing Karnataka batsman was termed as Sehwag-styled as he impressed everyone with his stroke-making skills and instinctive play. But he soon faded out playing his natural game and went back to the drawing board and grind hours and hours in the nets and came back only to score runs in huge numbers and with mind-boggling consistency. He turned into a solid test batsman from a dashing T20 batsman, which itself says a lot about this gritty cricketer. He has solidified his technique, made his mind up to play long innings and more than anything he cultivated hunger to score runs, and hence he is 1st choice opener for India in tests at present.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, when made his debut against Pakistan in 2012, he was just seen as another swing bowler who would largely rely on his in-swingers and out-swingers and will find it difficult to contain batsmen at the death. But he proved everyone wrong and became a very good death bowler, with his clever variations and his ability to read batsmen’s mind was his biggest advantage. The important thing that he inculcated in his game was his increase in pace. He strengthened his body and developed into a bowler who could hit 140KMPH, which automatically made his slower ones more effective. He also won the purple cap for the highest wicket-taker in IPL 2016 and 2017. He is one of the mainstays for India in the limited-overs format along with Jasprit Bumrah.