Many across the cricketing landscape pondered hard as to who would be the ideal replacements for 'Master Blaster' Sachin Tendulkar, the Wall 'Rahul Dravid', the tenacious Sourav Ganguly and the belligerent opener Virender Sehwag. Indeed, Big shoes to fill in too little a time to stay afloat and compete among the best in the world..
While the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra, all prodigies of Ganguly graduating as the senior lot, a new crop led by Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Ravichandran Ashwin to name a few.. led the charge as the young brigade.
The calm and composed MS Dhoni took over the captaincy reigns from the aggressive and instinctive Sourav Ganguly and further fine tuned an already competitive side into world beaters. More finals were won than lost at major ICC events under the aegis of an astute tactician.
When Kohli took over as ODI skipper from Dhoni, he turned around the team into one of the most consistent ODI outfits and spearheaded them to the very top in white ball cricket.
A World Cup win in 2011 followed by ICC Champions Trophy triumph in 2013, Indian cricket had given a befitting answer to silence all critics.. Unlike many other top ODI teams, Indian cricket has never been flabbergasted by the retirements of their stalwarts. Over the last decade, there was a natural transition which looked seamless and gave a sense of calm to the die-hard cricket fans.
Much of this effortless transition has come about due to a strong and competitive domestic structure which has been rewarding meritorious cricketers and been a stepping stone to their next big leap in ODI cricket. The ultimate result!!!, the Indian team remained a force to reckon with and never quite plummeted the way Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Windies have done.
The Australians took some time to rebuild their nucleus after their golden generation of cricketers threw down the towel, that too one after another. Pakistan is still to come to terms with retirements of Misbah-Ul-Haq and Younis Khan. Sri Lanka have not been able to fill up the gaping hole left by the retirements of Kumar Sangakarra and Mahela Jayawardene and last but not the least a potential danger looms large over South African cricket with AB De Villiers, Dale Steyn and Hashim Amla all drawing curtains to their limited overs career.
On the contrary, a void has never quite been left in Indian cricket thanks to a well thought out succession plan which factors in the change of guard with the superstars of each generation calling it a day at some point in time.
A complete revamp in the domestic structure, overhauling of world class infrastructure, and more importantly a tight rope on match fixing has augured well for Indian cricket and taken it to loftier heights. Amid all the ruckus and standoffs over who will helm the BCCI, the aftermaths of the same never dampened the spirits of the Indian team as it continued to grow from strength to strength by stitching some remarkable performances.
Another aspect of Indian cricket which stood out among other nations has been the ominous presence of strong leadership at the very top. Right from Ganguly to Dhoni to Virat at present, the 'Men in Blue' have been fortunate to have captains who reposed the faith of the selectors, led by example and took bold decisions for the betterment of the team.
The lethal Rohit-Dhawan opening duo has been without doubt apt replacements to the much famed Sehwag-Gambhir pair and the highly acclaimed Sachin-Sourab duo. At No.3, the ever dependable Rahul Dravid was replaced by arguably the most prolific run scorer of his generation in Virat Kohli. The finishing act provided by the power hitters in Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina were further bettered, polished and perfected by Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Hardik Pandya.
MS Dhoni raised the standards of wicket-keeping to another level and one never quite missed Nayan Mongia, a tidy wicket-keeper in their own merit.
The seam bowling has surely got more lethal with a formidable pace attack in Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami. A much brighter picture than the times were Javagal Srinath-Venkatesh Prasad duo, Zaheer Khan-Ajit Agarkar-Irfan Pathan were the standout seamers who lacked support from the other end.
If Kumble and Harbhajan were world class tweakers in their own time , then the Ashwin-Jadeja pair and now Kuldeep- Chahal spin twins have been equally menacing and taken the golden legacy of our age old spin prowess forward.
Add to all this, a strong bench which competes to the hilt in getting a place into the playing eleven. Ask a Manish Pandey, Krunal Pandya, Dinesh Karthik, KL Rahul as to how tough is it to book a permanent slot in an already star studded Indian ODI setup.
Above all, the team is not basking in its present glory and is keeping a close watch on the progress of the immensely gifted Rishabh Pant, Shubman Gill, Prithvi Shaw, Navdeep Saini , who are deemed to be the Gen Next of Indian cricket.
In a nutshell, Indian cricket in every decade has seen a group of world class players mushrooming at the same time and then reaching the very pinnacle as a cohesive unit with their superlative individual skills.
Perhaps one won’t be wrong in concluding that Indian cricket serves as a perfect case study for other teams as to how a cricketing nation needs to invest, nurture and groom talent so as to maintain their hegemony at the very top of international cricket.