Former India captain and chief selector Dilip Vengsarkar heaped praise on the “new” Indian cricket team after the tourists thrashed England at the Home of Cricket, Lord’s Cricket Ground, in the second Test to take a 1-0 lead in the ongoing five-match Test series.
Earlier, Team India was known as a spin dominant side, banking heavily on the spin, but in the current era, Indian cricket has one of the best pace bowling attacks in the world and they are dominating all over the world and winning the games for the side.
Now, India captain Virat Kohli often chooses to go with the four-pronged pace attack and Vengsarkar didn’t hesitate in calling it a new era for Indian cricket where the fast-bowlers are more dominant than spin.
Vengsarkar told Times of India on Wednesday (August 18): “I think this is the first time that we played four fast bowlers. I would say that this is ‘New India,’ since we never did something like this before. When I played my first World Cup, in England back in 1979, we played with three spinners! It’s a huge change in our approach to the game, and it worked because the seamers took 19 of the 20 English wickets in this Test. At the end of the day, this is what matters.”
He also shared his views on the relentless aggression shown by the Indian team led by Kohli on the field, saying this is also a sign of ‘New India’, but feels the cricketers should be very careful about their moves on the field, as little kids watch every gesture of the players and catch the aggression first.
However, the former selector agreed that if someone is provoking all the time, then nobody takes it lying down, but still, there is a subtle way to give a reply.
Vengsarkar noted, “This is the ‘New India’ for you. However, the children watch every gesture that our cricketers make very closely and this (aggression) is what they catch first. So you’ve to be careful about what you do. But if someone is going at you all the time, you can’t take it lying down. Of course, you’ve to give back, but there’s also a subtle way to do it.”
Meanwhile, the former Indian captain is known for smashing three consecutive Test centuries at Lord’s in 1979, 1982, and 1986 – the most by any visiting batsman at Home of Cricket, while his 126* and 33 helped India register their first-ever win at the iconic venue in 1986.
Vengsarkar signed off by recalling, “That time, we had to chase 134 in the final innings on the last day. We lost five wickets but managed to reach our target in 42 overs. That was a really special win because it was the first time India won a Test at Lord’s.”
(With TOI Inputs)
