By Sunshade 16th October 2016
The whitewash of the Kiwis in the 3 match tests and the pulsating 3:2 win in the one day series, was a perfect Diwali gift and India going to No 1 ranking in tests. We Indians are used to big individual names down the years. The present Indian team may not have giants as in the past but each player complements the others, to evolve into a nice compact unit where each does his job and contributes to the total effort. Aristotle said “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. It holds absolutely true for this Indian team which jells so beautifully that, with everyone contributing, they could whitewash the Kiwis in the test series and win 3:2 in the one day series.
We are used to seeing individual brilliance from players down from the
60’s – Pataudi, Prasanna, Bedi, Chandrasekhar, Venkatartaghavan, Mohinder Amarnath, GR Vishwanath
70’s- Gavaskar, Vengsarkar, Kapil Dev, Kirmani
80’s – Ravi Shastri, Shrikant, Shivaramakrishnan, Azharuddin, Sachin Tendulkar
90’s – Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath,Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid , VVs Lakshman, Harbhajan Singh
2000’s- Zaheer Khan,Virender Sehwag,Yuvraj Singh, Murali Vijay, Ishant Sharma,Amit Mishra, MS Dhoni
2010 onwards- Cheteshwara Pujara, Virat Kohli, Ravichander Ashwin,Jadeja,Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Ajinkya Rahane, Mohamed Shami, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Shikar Dhawan
We started as a viable test team under Pataudi who taught us to win, facing fancied teams. The introduction of the spin quartet in the late 60’s, introduced an element of weaponry not seen for some time and won India some valuable games. Pataudi was the first captain who impressed the need for fielding excellence with his own example. At that time we all knew that when the ball traveled towards some big names, it was destined for a four.
I personally feel that the whole scenario changed with Gavaskar and his exploits during the 1971 tour of West Indies. I still remember Gavaskar facing 5 of the fiercest fast bowlers in the world, with no helmet, no special guards but only impeccable timing and artistry. No opening batsman has ever faced such a fierce opening attack with minimum protection equipment. 
Nowadays people get carried away with statistics but, that does not tell the real tale of what Gavaskar must have gone through. He went from strength to strength,
- The first batsman to cross 10,00 runs
- The first batsman to beat Bradman’s incredible record of 34 centuries
- To take part in 2 overseas series victories in the 70’s , when they were unthinkable
- And to think of the fearsome opposition which is unrivaled even today
The inclusion of Kapil Dev in the late 70’s added a dash of flavor, 
as we never had such an awesome all-rounder.
He is on par or higher than Ian Botham, Imran khan or Jacques Kallis. Of course statistically, Kallis scores over all other all-rounders. But still the addition of Kapil Dev added another string to India’s bow.
The 90’s saw the emergence of the Fab 4 as they used to be called, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Dravid and VVS Laksman besides Kumble. The addition of Sehwag at the top added some more muscle to the batting and made it the Fab 5. Now, we started winning more matches and India being a cricket-frenzy nation, players were driven to success. For long, India depended upon the individual genii of these few players. The introduction of foreign coaches like John Wright, Greg Chappel and Andy Flower definitely brought a professional tilt to the training and fitness levels of all the players.
Now, the focus was on developing skills in all departments like batting, bowling fielding, ground conditions, weather conditions and the opposition. This process kick-started the development of players in each category like –first five slots batsmen, next two slots all-rounders and then the next four bowlers including one or two spinners depending on the conditions.
Between 2000 and 2010, India’s record is fairly good with a decent win percentage. That is because of the Fab five along with Kumble,
Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh. Who can ever forget the memorable 2001 series against Australia, when India came from behind, won the test and clinched the series? Besides the heroics of Dravid, Laksman and Harbajan, it is to be remembered that the team under Steve Waugh had been the strongest and a world No.one, for many years. The wins during this period were based on the enormous natural talent of the fab 5 along with Kumble,Harbajan Singh and Zaheer Khan.
It was important to develop a cohesive plan on the natural talent of future individual players –so that they perform as a team. During this period, scientific methods of training and fitness were introduced with all the attendant staff like physio, batting, bowling and fielding coaches’ separately. Team selections were made as per the requirement in terms of batting positions, all-rounder and bowlers
The genesis of the current team started probably with the induction of Virat Kohli into the senior team and he has been a captain–in waiting to Dhoni for the last five years. We have players of the current Indian team being introduced gradually over the last 5 years and though, nobody is so prodigiously talented like the previous generation, they perform well as a team, with each player shouldering his responsibilities.
In each position we have a good crop of players – 
For the opening slot- Murli Vijay, Shikar Dhawan, Kl Rahul
For the next three batting positions-Cheteshwara Pujara, Viraat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane, stand-in-Karun Nair, Rohit Sharma
Wicket keeper- Wridhiman Saha, stand-in KL Rahul, Naman Ohja
For the two all-rounder positions- Ravichander Ashwin, Jadeja, Stuart Binny, Gurkreet Sing Mann
For the 4 bowling options – Buvaneshwari Kumar, Mohamed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Varun Aaron, Axar Patel, and Amit Mishra.
I probably would like one extra batsman in the opening slot and one in the middle slot, to have an adequate bench strength, which is very important in today’s world of injuries, as we have a packed schedule of matches.
We have done well in the test matches in the last one year, as a majority of tests have been played in India. The real test would be when we play abroad and win. But with the right temperament, it should not be difficult to groom youngsters accordingly. The IPl has generated so much money and interest that; Indian cricket has been given a big boost. If the BCCI invest enough money in planning systematically, we can be one of the strongest cricket (Test, one-day and T20) teams in the world.