Former West Indies fast bowler Michael Holding has given his thoughts on the evolution of the Indian team and said that the fitness levels, along with a change in attitude have completely transformed the current Indian team.

Holding said that while the skill level has probably remained the same from the time he played against India, today’s Indian team is a lot fitter and dynamic, which has improved their performances as well.

"Well, it’s a totally different era when it comes to Indian cricket. When I played against India, probably two of the players were fit. Now everybody on the field is fit. You see how athletic they are, how dynamic they are.

The skill level hasn’t really changed that much but when you have fitness, and a change of attitude along with skill level, obviously the cricket will also change,” Holding told Indian Express.

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Furthermore, Holding said that the pitches in India for domestic and youth cricket have improved a lot with more bounce and carry to it. Hence the batsmen are ready for surfaces outside India, unlike the previous era when the Indian batsmen used to flop overseas after playing on dust bowls at home.

"What has also helped Indian cricket is that a lot of pitches in India, for domestic cricket and cricket in general, have improved. The ball bounces a lot more and since it carries, batsmen are able to cope on overseas pitches.

In my time, once India left India, that was it. The pitches that they played in India were slow and low and it became dusty," Holding added.

He recalled asking Sunil Gavaskar during a commentary stint in India how come such pitches were not given to them during their playing days.

“When I did a series in India in 2014-15 when West Indies came and the tour was abandoned, each time I would do a pitch report with Sunny Gavaskar, I would joke and say, ‘Sunny, how come the pitches weren’t like this when we used to play here?’ Good pitches create good cricketers," he signed off.

(Indian Express inputs)