New look India set to dominate cricket:

When India won the world cup a few years back many people put this down to the team playing on home soil. They answered the critics in fine fashion not losing a game in the champions trophy victory.

The win is special for two reasons, one being that the last time the team played in England they had been embarrassed by being whitewashed.  The other reason being that many of the big names in Indian cricket had previously retired. The team was void of Tendulkar, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Harbhjan and Zaheer Khan. This is a lot of experience lost from the squad.

The replacements for these players were the stars of the show, Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar all stepped up. By bringing in these new players India have also gained in the field and now can be classified as one of the best fielding sides ever to have graced the game of cricket.

The skipper MS Dhoni has to go down as one the greatest captains to have played cricket. He has guided India to world number one in test cricket, world cup wins in ODI cricket as well as T20 and now the champions trophy. He is a key part to India’s success over the last six years, not only is he a great captain he is very underrated as a batsman and wicketkeeper. He could make the Indian team on his batting alone.

India has always had a star studded batting line up but they have never put together a consistent run in non-subcontinental conditions like they did. The form of Shikar Dhawan has played a part in this, the way he played against a swinging ball is unlike most Indian batsmen. Many a player before him has struggled to play in English conditions.

In the bowling department India now have three genuine bowlers who can trouble any batsman. In particular Bhuvneshwar Kumar showed a lot of promise. He showed the reasons why many people such as myself think he will one day become a bowler who could one day compare to Dale Stein or James Anderson.

One day cricket has suffered in the last few years as there has not been one dominant team, but this Indian team are in a good position to dominate for a long time. The experienced players in the team are Dhoni, Kohli and Raina. The later two being under the age of 28, meaning that they could actually play for another possible eight /nine year. The future for Indian cricket is very bright. 

India v West Indies my thoughts

Today I made my way to the Oval to watch a match between tournament favourites India and many peoples dark horses to win the competition the West Indies. These are two teams who I have tipped for the tournament. 

Going to the ground there were serious questions asked over the weather. The majority of the crowd seemed to be Indian, resulting in a very good atmosphere. The tone of the match was set early on by the very impressive Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He bowled a fantastic spell taking the wicket of Chris Gayle as well as giving away very few runs. What was better for India was that Kumar was being backed up from the other end by all the other bowlers. Yadav and Sharma bowled quick, Ashwin and Jadeja frustrated the batsmen. 

Apart from a few flashes from Gayle, Pollard and Sammy at the end the West Indies did not show much with the bat. India also demonstrated why many people have dubbed them the best fielding side in the competition, stifling many chances for the West Indians. Credit has to Raina who as usual seems to give it his all for the side, often sprinting from one of the pitch to the other at the end of each over.

India's batting started off very different to the West Indies, Rohit Sharma and Shikar Dhawan once again showing they are the partnership for the long term. Sharma can count himself to be given out on review and Dhawan was given a lifeline by Roach, who we all cheered on for the rest of the match. The moustached opener went on to score a century after a rain delay. 

The only issue I had with DK and Dhawan batting was that they could have gone a little quicker in the chase. They could have finished the match off before the rain delay, but they did the job so I shouldn't complain to much. 

Below I have included a few pictures which I have taken today: