GAUTICRICKETER

 Happy Birthday Master, a perfect batsman who has linked two contrasting generation of Cricket.Such is his echelon, which is a brew of text book and unorthodox modern day cricketing shots. In this space, I have quoted the nostalgic journey of the Master Blaster, in reference with his five best moments that remains fresh in my memories and would always relish my cricketing souvenir. The Sharjah Storm(134) The year was 1998. It was the night of the final, of Coca-Cola cup hosted at Sharjah. Winning the toss and electing to field, Indian bowlers gave a brisk start, but with the aid of some quality knocks from Steve Waugh and Darren Lehmann, Aussies managed a challenging 271. A run chase in the finals,a daunting target of 272,under lights. Sounds challenging, right!!? Ofcourse, it was a mammoth task to Team India. After all it was era which never knew what T20 cricket was. Ganguly and Nayan Mongia adhered to their defensive instincts,playing a second fiddle to Sachin,who was loo...

 Basically, a street-smart cricketer hailing from Chennai, Ashwin threw himself into limelight during IPL 2010, when he finished his season with an excellent economy of 6.10 with even a good strike rate of 22.15. His journey especially at the start of his career was not as flamboyant as it looks. Even in IPL 2010, he had faced hardships of multiple kind, but that's how champions are built. He drove himself through all the obstacles and announced his arrival at the international level. Since his international debut, he has been a phenomenal performer for Team India, as well as for his respective IPL franchises. Especially when it comes to test matches, his numbers speak about his ability. Yes, he had a slightly off season with his first overseas tours, but then he turned the tides. It happens to everyone.  One important trait that Ashwin has is his cricketing brain. He is one of the few cricketing masterminds in the country. He is smart, when it comes to variations and even sma...

For any team sport, team spirit is an important factor that determines the morale of the team. If a team lacks a good chemistry between its players, however talented the players may be, it will fail. It is the responsibility of the Captain to infuse this unity and morale amongst the players. Team India needed this very badly in 2000. India’s star batsman and skipper Sachin Tendulkar had a poor form due to the captaincy pressure. When he decided to step down from captaincy, future looked gloomy for Indian team. To be frank, it was a period of struggle to Team India. When Sachin stepped down, Ganguly who was his deputy was chosen as an obvious choice. Sourav Ganguly captained the side in the ODI team. Being successful in both captaincy and his batting, Ganguly led India to a series victory. Following that India went into the Asia cup, but failed to make it to the finals. But real tragedy was the match fixing scandal that took fans by a shock. Especially considering the early days of his ...

Right from the time when I started watching cricket in 1997-98, one thing which thrilled me was fast bowling. I was a big fan of Pakistani bowling unit, which comprised of Wasim Akram, Waqar Younis and Shoaib Akhtar. The glorious site of stumps being rattled and batsmen getting themselves saved from the fiery bouncers amused me a lot. To me, aggression was bowling fast. As a teenager, I started understanding the different aspects of game, yet fast bowling had that X factor which attracted me towards this game. When I started following the game closely, I learnt that fast bowling, not only meant bowling at good pace, but also hitting the consistent lengths. In the early 2000s, Brett Lee and Zaheer khan inspired me a lot. Thanks to their unique action. Former was quick, while the latter was more accurate. 2003 World cup was an absolute treat for me. Though batsmen had a lot of knocks to cherish, I can still relive the moments which Indian fast bowlers produced in the tournament. In ad...

In the T20 era ,where the muscles, tattoos and the other style elements establish a player's caliber , a conventional , yet a powerful player from Mumbai made his test debut in 2013. Being made to wait for nearly 16 months , a blessing in disguise in the form of Dhawan's injury paved way for his debut. His technique and temperament which was compared to Sachin Tendulkar by Australian genius Steve Waugh speaks volume about his talent. He is a player who has proved that T20 cricket can also be approached with proper text book stroke play when he smashed six boundaries in a single over in IPL, which is an all time record. Not only in domestic league, he also meant business in International T20 arena when he scored 61 of just 39 deliveries in his T20 debut against England. Though he is multi faceted ,his forte remains to be the longer version of the game .Being the Vice captain of Team India , he is one batsman who can score well at the overseas conditions. He has the ability to ba...

Kannaur Lokesh Rahul , an elegant modern day opener who can keep wickets as well ,looks rock solid with his defence ,and looks even more attractive when he takes on the bowlers.He was looked as one of the future prospects of Indian team after his decent show at U-19 WC in 2010.He had a great outing in 2013-14 Ranji season ,scoring a tally of 1033 runs at an impressive average .This earned him a test call to the Indian team.Due to Dhawan's form slump ,he got promoted as an opener in his debut series.He proved his worth in his second test which turned out to be a indelible one for him against a stellar pace attack of Starc,Hazlewood and Harris at a seaming Sydney wicket.He was batting at the back of two failures ,which could have easily got to his head. But he composed his innings to perfection for a well compiled century. He has a easy to go stance,with a steady head popping towards the bowler,which allows him to watch the ball till the last moment. Watch :  KLRahul a...

It was the Australian summers of 2011-12. Team India had a tough time in the tour, being humiliated by the Aussies. Adding fuel to the misery, MSD had a suspension due to a slow over rate in the third Test match. Virender Sehwag took over the captaincy, and when asked to bat second, with a mighty score to negate, Indian batsmen fell cheaply yet again. When Virat came into bat, India had already lost the likes of Sehwag, Tendulkar, and Dravid with a huge deficit. But the way Kohli orchestrated his innings was a sheer masterclass. It all began with a fine flick towards the square leg, which truly marked his arrival to the International level. He was authoritative with his shots and progressed well while others were crumbling against the Australian bowling attack. The pulls were executed well, while the drives were elegant on the eye. To me, it will always be remembered as one of Kohli's best early innings, as he made a strong statement that verbals wouldn't work with him. Though ...