Editorial: Hitting a landmark in style

The Rohit Sharma-led team celebrated India’s 1,000th one-day international match on Sunday with an emphatic six-wicket win over West Indies in Ahmedabad. India has come a long way ever since they played their first one-day international match against England in Leeds in 1974. The first few years of India’s show in the ODIs were disastrous […]

The Rohit Sharma-led team celebrated India’s 1,000th one-day international match on Sunday with an emphatic six-wicket win over West Indies in Ahmedabad. India has come a long way ever since they played their first one-day international match against England in Leeds in 1974. The first few years of India’s show in the ODIs were disastrous and the two World Cups in 1975 and 1979 were disappointing and uninspiring. Sunil Gavaskar had the dubious distinction of scoring the slowest ODI knocks (36 off 176 balls against hosts England) in the World Cup in 1975. Those days it was 60 overs innings, not 50. India had yet to take one-day cricket more seriously. Perhaps, the belief that India can do well in the shorter format came in the one-day match against world champions West Indies in Berbice in 1983. Kapil Dev led a bunch of boys that stunned the home team and a few months later they were to make history at the Lord’s. They entered the World Cup as rank outsiders. Cricket critics like David Frith even wrote India should withdraw from the 1983 edition as it could not adapt to the one-day format. Led by the inspirational Captain Kapil Dev (remember his famous 175 against Zimbabwe), the team turned the tables as they toppled the mighty Clive Lloyd-led West Indies team in the final. The introduction of coloured clothing, white ball and day/night format into ODI matches led to the evolution of the game. India embraced the ODI game more seriously, with the Indian cricket Board making use of the popularity of the game as the viewership grew tremendously. So was the revenue and India began to call the shots. The title triumphs in Benson & Hedges tournament in Australia and the Rothmans Cup in Sharjah made the world believe the team was a force to reckon with in ODIs. India soon climbed the ladder in ODI rankings and made a significant impact as the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag and others became synonymous with this shorter format of the game although it took another 28 years to win the second World Cup.

The 2011 triumph was a fairy-tale script and this time it was Dhoni who led the team to the historic win over Sri Lanka in the final in Mumbai. The team has seen a World Cup drought since 2011 but hopes to repeat the 2011 feat when the quadrennial event will be held in India next year. Team India is in the top five of the ODI ranking. The Indian colts have a far more impressive record as the Yash Dhull-led team won a record fifth Under-19 World Cup title in the West Indies three days ago. There have been good results and at the same time, a few flop shows under Virat Kohli as India fared badly in the last few World Cup editions. For Rohit Sharma, it will be a big challenge to win the World Cup for the third time.

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