After not so good 60s, things began to brighten up for Indian cricket in seventh decade of the twentieth century. This decade saw the inclusion of players such as Bishan Singh Bedi, Gundappa Vishwanathan and Sunil Gavaskar. Bowlers such as Bhagwat Subramanya, Erapalli Prasanna and Srinivas Venkatraghavan gave new edge to the Indian bowling.
This showed its effect when India marked its second coming by defeating England and West Indies. Though Indian cricket was improving but team India could not do much in the first Cricket World Cup played in 1975. India was again knocked out of the game in initial stages in the subsequent World Cup of 1979. It was the World Cup of 1983, which changed the way people looked towards India cricket. The team comprising of likes of Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, Mohammad Azharuddin and Dileep Vengaskar took the world by storm.
The team, which could not even get through the preliminary stages of the earlier games, went on to win the highest reputed tournament of cricket. In finals against West Indies, India team did not made very good cricket score, it was just 183 runs but Indian bowlers wrapped up the West Indian side at 140 and India won the match by 43 runs. Continuing its streak of wins, team India went on to win two other coveted tournaments in cricket; Asia Cup in 1984 and World Championship of Cricket in 1985. In 1989 Indian team got a gem in the form of a 16-year-old boy named, Sachin Tendulkar. It was followed by the inclusion of players such as Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, Javagal Srinath and Anil Kumble in 1990s who enriched Indian cricket team with their talents.
In this decade cricket score of Indian team remained average. Team again rose to prominence when in 2003 it reached the finals of the world cup. But it could not repeat the history of 1983 and lost to Australia in finals. After that performance of team India remained a mixed bag. The world was looking at this team with great expectations and team India was a strong contender for Cricket World Cup 2007, but team could not even qualify for the Super Eight Stage. Post World Cup Indian team is all geared up to face new challenges.
Last Updated on : 03/07/2013
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A Journey From Past To Present |
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