Old Habits Die Hard

                Summers in England has always been memorable for India be it NatWest Final victory in 2002 or a heartbreaking defeat in 2019 World Cup Semi Final or the latest scar that we all got on 14th July at Lords. Cricket is my first love and it is the only sport I follow lock, stock and barrel. I will leave ODI and T20 from this article and will come to the most serious facet of Cricket i.e. the Test Match Cricket. 

            I grew watching Indian Cricket in 90s and our performance in that era was pathetically pathetic. I don't remember any match we had won overseas including Sri Lanka. Things only changed when Ganguly took over the captaincy from Sachin after disastrous 0-3 loss to Australia (1999-00 series) and 0-2 home series loss to South Africa (2000). That period was the darkest period of Indian Cricket altogether. Before going to Ganguly period I will come back to the most heartbreaking defeat in 1997. 

            The young Indian Team (Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Abey Kuruvilla, Doda Ganesh, Venkatesh Prasad - out of 11 players these have not played even 10 Test matches till 1997) under the leadership of Sachin faced the world class bowling attack of Ambrose, Walsh and Bishop when it toured West Indies in 1997. In third Test Match of 5 match series, India had to chase 120 runs in the final inning of the match and we lost the match by 38 runs and got all out at 81. This was not a heartbreak, it was an absolute surrender. I could not sleep that night. Many times Sachin has said it on record that it was the most depressing day of his career. This young Indian team could have become immortal but .... 

Another day came just two years later when India had to chase 271 runs in final inning in First Test match against Pakistan in Chennai in 1999. This Indian team was way more experienced and by this time Laxman, Ganguly, Dravid, Prasad etc have all well established themselves.Pakistan had the best bowling attack in the world - Akram, Waqar and Saqlain. Despite of Sachin's valiant inning of 136 runs (I consider this inning as his best Inning ever) we lost the match. It was a true heartbreak. Even to this day we rue our chances in this match. May be Moin Khan cheated in this match. May be it was all fault of our top order.

The Lord's test match is another such heart breaking test match and I can never forget it. We should have won this match. May be Jadeja should have shown some more intent, may be Bumrah should have avoided that shot, may be Nair should have been more watchful! There are so many may be. This match was ours to win. We always celebrate our fight and we are right in doing so. But when our fight will get convert into memorable Test victories.

When we will forget our old habits! When will our swordsman give us memorable victories! I salute his inning in World Cup 2019 Semi Final. I consider this inning as the best inning played by any Indian player in a losing case.