India Clinched Australia & Reclaimed ICC Test Mace

Team India ended their home season with a eight wicket series win over Australia at Dharamsala. Virat Kohli-led side beat New Zealand, England and Bangladesh before hosting Australia.

Team India with Border-Gavaskar Trophy 

 The Aussies are formidable opponents. They are proud and professional and they play hard. For the Aussies, only winning matters. Everything else is a waste of time. But this series saw a dramatic role reversal, with India trumping the Aussies. It’s been a fiery month, both on and off the field, it was produced riveting cricket, with players pushing the boundaries to get ahead of each other. In this tussle, harsh words were exchanged, allegations and accusations were hurled and charges were made, starting with the infamous Aussie Sikkper Smith's "Brain Fade" moment when he was seeking clue for DRS.

    Kohli’s Indian team is more settled, sorted and successful than teams before it. The core group has excellent work ethic and on the bench sits genuine quality, ready to step in if an opportunity was to present itself. 

India retained the ICC Test Championship mace and also won a cash award of USD one million for holding on to the top position in the Test Team rankings on the annual April 1 cut-off date.

S Gavaskar presenting ICC test mace to V Kohli

      At the end of what has been a gruelling season, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that Umesh Yadav has mastered the difficult skill of picking up wickets on sub-continent pitches.

Series Result: 

                              1. Ind v Aus, Pune 

                                   - Aus won by 333 runs.

                              2. Ind v Aus, Bengaluru

                                   - Ind won by 75 runs.

                              3. Ind v Aus, Ranchi

                                   - Match Drawn.

                              4. Ind v Aus,  Dharamshala

                                   - Ind won by 8 wickets. 

Photos: 

Ashwin won the ICC Cricketer of the Year & Test Cricketer of the year award

Indian Players with trophies

Indian Captains v/s all other opponents

Jadeja with Man of the Match & Series awards

  Stats:

            - Jadeja has hit 21 sixes, most by anyone in 2016-17. Bhajji hit 17 sixes 2010-11. 

            - Jadeja became the third player to take 50+ wickets & 500+ runs in a season.                                    Kapil Dev and Mitchell Johnson are the other two to achieve the feat.

            - Jadeja is now the 24th player to score 3000 runs and pick 300 wickets in international                  cricket. He is the fourth Indian to do so. 

            - India became the third nation to win Test series against all their opponents at the same                point of time. Others are Aus(2004-05 & 2006-07), S Africa(2012-13). 

            - Since 2008, India now have been won 4 consecutive test series vs Aus, a rare                              disntiction. 

            - For the first time, India have won seven consecutive Test series – from 2015 till date. 

            - It was Pujara's first duck at home, 3rd over all.

            - It's the fourth time India have come back to win the series after losing the first Test.

            - Pujara, 32nd player who faced 525 or more balls in an innings. 

On a funny note, Virender Sehwag, who is also known for witty side, gave out the #ViruGhareluAwards. In his ‘awards’, he awarded following 'titles’ to players from both the Indian and Australian teams :

        Viart Kohli -Holder, 

        Steven Smith -Tubelight, 

        Pujara -Inverter, 

       Jadeja -TulluPump, 

       KL Rahul -Stabilizer,

       Ashwin, Rahane- Desert Coolers.

India scavenged NZ in PayTm ODI series

When team India was playing its final ODI match of the Ind-NZ series on the eve of the biggest festival of Hindu nation, Deepawali, then everyone wanted that let India win this match and save its fortress against New Zealand at home. And happened the very same as India won the final ODI by 190 runs.

Summary of Vizag ODI:
After being reached on 2-2, the series now focused on FINAL ODI which had to play at the Eastern part of India, Vizag. Indian skipper MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first with a change in his side as spinner Jayant Yadav made his  debut after receiving his ODI cap from Virender Sehwag.

Indian team made an steady start but Rahane again failed to capitalize his innings. Well, Rohit who was looking just ordinary with the bat till now, was in different league today and scored 70 runs before getting caught out. Dhoni (41) joined Kohli to keep the momentum going on, later Kedar Jadhav,  a golden-hand player of the series joined  Kohli to drive India's score further. Playing a big shot , kohli caught out at covers on his personal score of 65. Axar patel and Jadhav ensured to reach at 269/6 after 50 overs. In reply to 270, NZ's counter attack packed by India's spinners. With the ball turning and gripping, India's spinners had a better day at vizag. Mishra ripped through the batting with a 5-fer as the Kiwis had no idea to counter his spin variations. In the end, it was a no-contest. And India won the match by a huge margin of 190 runs  TO SEAL THE SERIES 3-2.
Leg spinner Amit Mishra awarded as Man of the match and Man of the Series for giving his fittest match winning performance throughout the series. He says that he is happy to contribute to the team's victory. 
Indian cricketers wore jerseys bearing their mother's names instead of their own in the final ODI against New Zealand at the ACA-VDCA Stadium, Vizag here on Saturday.

"Nayi Soch",  the first-of-its-kind initiative is part of a new campaign started by Star India in collaboration with BCCI to highlight the importance of mothers in our lives.

Paytm ODI series result:
Dharmshala ODI- Ind won by 6 wickets
Delhi ODI-     NZ won by 6 runs
Mohali ODI- Ind won by 7 wickets
Ranchi ODI- NZ won by 19 runs
Vizag ODI-    Ind won by 190 runs.

Stats:
 • Amit Mishra completed 50 wickets.
 • 15 Wickets taken by Amit Mishra in this series - the most by any bowler in a five-match ODI series.
 • India have been played 904 ODI so far, registered 457 wins.
 • VK completed 7500+ runs
 • MS Dhoni became the third wicketkeeper to score 9000 ODI runs.
 • Most 100s while chasing in ODI-
 - 17 Sachin (232 innings)
 - 16 Kohli (94 inn)

 • Most ODI 100s-
 - 49  Sachin
 - 30 Ponting
 - 28 Jayasuriya
 - 26 Kohli

 • Highest scores by Indians in odi chases
 - 183* MSD vs SL, 2005
 - 183 Kohli vs Pak, 2012
 - 175 Sachin vs Aus, 2009
 - 154 Kohli vs NZ , 2016

 • 23.1 Overs in which New Zealand were bowled out. It was their shortest ODI innings .

 • 4 Number of bilateral ODI series in which Kohli has scored 300 or more runs, which includes this series. It is the joint-most by any batsman. Rahul Dravid and Quinton de Kock have also amassed 300-plus runs in four bilateral series each.
 • Kohli's 358 runs in this series are the third-most by any batsman in a bilateral series against New Zealand and the best for India against New Zealand.

  The Kiwis have entertained for sure but India proved too good in the end.

Gambhir & Team India eye to make it large

Gautam Gambhir, the left-hand opener is all set to return in white jersey for the Indian side after a gap of two years who is now replacing KL Rahul for the remaining two tests.

Kohli and Gambhir during Net practice at Eden Gardens

KL Rahul has been ruled out from the current ongoing series after getting injured his hamstring during Kanpur test. Later, Gambhir, who has been in good form at the domestic level as he made four consecutive fifties in the Duleep Trophy with an average more than 70,  but he was ignored and is now prompted to represent the national side again.

Currently, India , which have been won its Kanpur test by 197 runs , which was also the 500th test for India, is now looking to have unassailable lead by winning the forthcoming test at Eden gardens, Kolkata. Apart from Gautam Gambhir, the 26-year-old Haryana off spinner-batsman Jayant Yadav is included in 15-members squad , who is in for unfit Ishant Sharma.

If talk about the pitch of Eden gardens,   Pacers may enjoy a good outing at there especially on the first two days as there is cover of green grass on it. Spinners may come into play on the third day.

500th Test Match: A Landmark for India

The Forthcoming Test match between India and New Zealand at Kanpur is the test match number 500th for Indian Cricket team. It took more than eight decades to India to achieve the milestone. Also, The first test host ground, Green park at Kanpur is set to host its 499th test.

UPCA set to welcome team India for 500th test.

Credit: UPCA twitter handle

Team India have been played 499 test matches so far, in which 129 matches were won by them with 47% success rate and 157 lost and 212 were drawn.

     From 1932 to Sep 2016, a few major achievements of team India have been enumerated here. Where in 1932, India started to play test cricket. In 1999, veteran leg-spinner Anil Kumble who is now the chief coach of Indian team took 10 wickets in an innings with broken Jaw. In 2000, 'The wall' Rahul Dravid and wrist master VVS Laxman , together made a record shuttering partnership against Australia and Turbunator Harbhajan singh took a Hat-trick. In 2004, Sehwag best known for his attacking-batting-attitude, became the first Indian to make a triple century in a test and tagged as "Multan ka Sultan" after his compelling batting performance against Pakistan. In 2013, Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar called it a day from Test cricket after playing 200 test matches. The 200th test was against West Indies and in 2016, India set to play 500th test.

India's test cricket journey.

courtesy: Times of India(pic)

If we talk about the Captaincy, Some stats about the Indian test captains,

Without spinner one can't imagine the shape of test cricket. Spinners always make test cricket more interesting. Here are some greatest spinners from India,

     Moreover, to make the 500th test memorable, BCCI instructed the hotel in which both the teams stays  that it will serve 500 types of dishes to the players and management for all the five days according to the schedule.

Apart from this, Among those who will be present at Kanpur's Green Park Stadium are Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, Ravi Shastri, Kris Srikkanth, Azharuddin, Anil Kumble, Kapil Dev, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni.
Good Luck TEAM INDIA for 500th test !

Ind vs NZ Test Series: A Tale of Numbers

Cricket world's two strong teams, India and New Zealand's Test matches series is beginning from September 22, 2016.

The First Test of the three test match series is also going to set a Landmark Indian cricket history as it will be the 500th test match for Indian cricket team.

India vs NZ test series about to begin

According to the schedule, first test is going to start from 22 September at Green Park stadium, Kanpur. Second test, from 30 September at Eden gardens   Kolkata and third one from 8 October at Holkar cricket stadium, Indore. All these three test timings are 9:30 hours, Indian Standard Time.
    
     Besides three-match Test series against New Zealand, India will also play five-match ODI series, starting on October 16 at HPCA Stadium.

 IndvsNZ Test History:
        The first ever test played between India and new Zealand , was on 19th Nov 1955 at Hyderabad. And till yet, A total of 20 series have been played, in which India and new Zealand have been met 54 times where India brought most victories as 18 wins, 10 matches won by Kiwis and rest, 26  are resulted as Drawn.

Series - 20
Matches - 54
Most win- India (18)
Most runs - Dravid (1659)
Most wickets- Sir Hadlee (65)


Breaking News : In a major setback, Indian pace spearhead Ishant Sharma who claimed eight wickets at an average of 32.12 in the recently-concluded four Test matches against West Indies, with his best figures of 3 for 70 coming in the third Test in St Lucia, ruled out of Kanpur Test with Chikenguniya, a mosquito-borne viral infection. While confirming the news, India did not take any replacement of Ishant.

Has Gambhir 'Forcefully' ignored ?

Four consecutive half-centuries as captain with the scores of 77, 59, 90 and 94 in the 2016 edition of Duleep Trophy can describe the hunger of making runs in the left-hand southpaw Gautam Gambhir. The unsung hero of the 2011 world cup final, who is turning 35 years-old next month still have the same strike on the ball, is currently out of the national squad ever since he made 3 runs versus England in his last test which was played two summers ago.

Gambhir did not consider for test series against NZ

The selection committee led by Sandeep Patil, who has now been left selection committee, chose following squad for test series against New Zealand which kicks start from 22 September :

Squad: Virat Kohli (Capt), KL Rahul, Shikhar Dhawan, Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane, Murali Vijay, Rohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Wriddhiman Saha, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Amit Mishra, Umesh Yadav

There were quite a few eyebrows raised after the selectors announced their 15-member squad, Apart from Stuart Binny and Mumbai uncapped pacer Shardul Thakur who were in the squad for west indies tour, rest team is same. After being not considered for test squad, disappointed Gambhir post a quote on microblogging website twitter to express his view.

Some might raise fingers on the selectors' decision to award another chance to Rohit sharma and Shikhar Dhawan! They can ask questions to selectors because they (Rohit & Shikhar) both are considerably failed to show what they have been done in shorter format of the cricket after performing well in thier initial stage of test cricket. But, even after repeated failure, selection committee again showed their Blind-belief  upon these two openers.
Given the fact, both these openers are enjoying backing of Virat kohli in test cricket. One can assume that, in this whole scenario there is a name behind the existence of Gauti from test side may be or may not be of Virat Kohli ! Who was involved in a rift that was taken place in between him and Gautam Gambhir during an IPL match that too was not last forever between them. His relations with MS Dhoni is also not so good either. Which might cost him to secure a place in the national side even after a successful domestic journey as he garnered 488 runs in Ranji Trophy and more than 500 runs in IPL, which made him fourth-highest-run-getter in this season of Indian Premier League.
The road ahead looks not much smoother for Gambhir, who will now have to come up with something extraordinary in the Ranji Trophy that starts on 6 October to gain the attention of new selection chief.

Untill that happens, fans have to support him in this rough phase of his career and let him have a little hope.