The year-end is a strange time. No matter what might have happened in the eleven-plus months before that, it never fails to infuse us with a sense of positivity and hope. The same holds true for this year-end in Indian men’s cricket. History was made, new heroes emerged, and legendary figures called it a day. There were new highs and all-time new lows. But the sense of optimism lingers.
Conquering Cape Town
I have always found it strange that South Africa as a Test venue is not given as much conversation time as, say, Australia and England. It’s a really tough land to conquer. India have never won a Test series there and in nine tours since their first in 1992/93, have lost seven series and drawn two.
The year began with a sense of dread when the team found itself 0-1 down in a two-Test series in the Rainbow Nation after losing the first by an innings and 32 runs. What followed, though, was jaw-dropping and another reminder of the age-old adage that ‘bowlers win you Test matches’. We saw an exhibition of pure bowling class by Team India in the second Test in Cape Town.
The Proteas were shot out for 55 in their first innings (SA’s seventh-lowest Test innings total of all time), thanks largely to Mohammed Siraj (6/15), and then they were dismissed for 176 in their second innings. Siraj has already proven that he is a quality Test bowler, but what was really encouraging to see was the supporting act. Thirty-one-year-old Mukesh Kumar took two wickets in SA’s first innings, giving away zero runs in 2.2 overs. He finished the game with match figures of 4/56. Mukesh, who became just the second Indian cricketer after T. Natarajan to make an all-format debut in the same series (vs WI in the Caribbean in 2023), showed that he is ready for Test cricket. It’s not very often that one sees India chasing a target under 100 in an overseas Test, but that’s the impact the bowlers had, as India were left to chase just 79 and they romped home to a seven-wicket triumph, marking their first Test win in Cape Town and drawing the series. All this left us with a sense of great optimism.
Yashasvi Jaiswal – Destined for Greatness
Forty-five years after Sunil Gavaskar scored 700-plus runs in a Test series (for a second time), a 23-year-old emulated that incredible feat. In 2024, Yashasvi Jaiswal added glorious new chapters in the fairytale that is his international career. In the home Test series vs England, which India won 4-1, Jaiswal notched up 712 runs and became the third youngest player to score two Test double tons after Don Bradman and Vinod Kambli. He was the highest run-getter in the series. In second place was another young Indian talent who should have a big role to play in writing the future of Indian cricket: Shubman Gill (452 runs). Virat Kohli was missing from the series, but it was refreshing to see young guns ruling the batting charts. The next generation is ready.
World Cup Win After 16 Years
India and ICC tournaments: since 2013 and before 2024, this was one of the most painful relationships to dissect. And it hit a new low in 2023 when India lost an ODI World Cup final to Australia at home. Which is why when India became world champions in 2024 for the first time since 2011, it was, in many ways, redemption for the big names in the set-up. This time, there was a sense of great belief in the Indian camp, and with each win, the fans began to believe in it as well. The team didn’t lose that belief even when the Proteas needed 30 off 30 in the final, with six wickets in hand. The fact that India became the first team ever to win the title unbeaten went a long way in showing just what a force the Indian men’s team has become in T20Is. They registered their highest-ever T20I total (297/6) vs Bangladesh in 2024, which is also the highest total by a Test-playing nation. Incredibly, out of 26 T20Is played in 2024, India won 24. That’s a win percentage of 92.31%, the highest ever by any team in a calendar year. Another big reason to celebrate.
What we saw next was a whole slew of changes.
Rohit & Virat End T20I Careers
The T20 World Cup win gave Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli the perfect opportunity to bring the curtain down on their T20I careers. It was a good call too. T20 is the format that thrives the most on young blood, and the two seniors, who are both on the wrong side of 30, knew that allowing the next generation to take over was a call they couldn’t ignore. And what better way to exit than with world champions’ medals around their necks? The championship win was also a fitting farewell for coach Rahul Dravid.
Suryakumar Yadav: The ‘Surprise’ Pick?
India needed a new steady T20I captain. The buzz was that Hardik Pandya, who was being tagged as the next India long-term captain, might not get the job because of his injury concerns. And that was a fair assessment. The management had to go with someone they knew would be available at all times. Based on this and also what the Chief Selector called “general feedback from the dressing room”, Suryakumar Yadav was named the new India T20I captain. The general refrain was that this was a good call. Surya is the best Indian batting talent that has emerged in T20s in recent times. He has a mature head on his shoulders. Also, just like Hardik, Surya believes in a no-hierarchy system. It was good to hear Sanju Samson, who recently became the first Indian batter to score two consecutive T20I tons, say that what gave him the most confidence was Surya’s backing and complete role clarity.
Guru Gambhir’s Rocky Start
Were eyebrows raised when Gautam Gambhir was approached to become the new India men’s team Head Coach? Absolutely. Gambhir had been a mentor but never a coach. He took over right after the euphoria of the T20 World Cup win and had quite a rocky start, which gave his critics more ammunition to question his appointment as India coach.
Losing to SL After 27 Years
Sri Lanka is an opponent India are expected to beat, in any format, in any conditions. They did win the T20I series, but when the men in blue lost to the other men in blue from the Emerald Isles in an away ODI series 2-0, marking their first bilateral ODI series loss to the Lankans since 1997, criticism for the players and coach was at an all-year high. That went through the roof after the 110-run loss in the third ODI, where India were shot out for 138, chasing 249. This wasn’t the start that Gambhir wanted to his coaching career, it wasn’t the result the team or the fans were targeting. What hurt the most was that the Indian batting unit was found wanting when it came to tackling spin and the criticism was fair. The Lankan spinners took 27 of the 30 Indian wickets that fell in the series. India’s vulnerability in particular to left-arm spin was exposed completely by the player of the series, Dunith Wellalage.
The 0-3 Drubbing That Really Hurt
The spin ogre has been haunting Indian batters for a while now, but what hurt the most in 2024 was the way Team India crumbled in a home Test series to an opposition spin. New Zealand’s Test series win was a gut punch. For the first time, India were whitewashed 0-3 at home. For the first time in 12 years, they lost a home Test series. The Kiwis had done their homework and had studied India’s loss in Sri Lanka quite carefully; their call to play two left-arm spinners (Ajaz Patel and Mitchell Santner) was a masterstroke. India’s tactic of including as many left-hand batters as they could in the playing XI to counter this didn’t work.
It’s embarrassing, to be fair, to see a nation once tagged the best players of spin to be humbled by spinners in their own backyard. Preparing rank turners for a home Test series cannot be a strategy the team can adopt going forward. There’s no doubt that preparing for T20 cricket has had an effect on how batters approach classical batting, but what about rotating the star batters such that they are given periodic breaks from international cricket to play domestic cricket? They will be tested by all kinds of spin there on tracks, many of which are natural turners. But in Indian cricket, the practice of star batters playing domestic cricket just does not exist, unless they are dropped from the team due to bad form. Maybe it’s time star culture made way for a more pragmatic approach.
(The author is a former sports editor and primetime sports news anchor. He is currently a columnist, features writer and stage actor)
Disclaimer: These are the personal opinions of the author
