Rohit Sharma: Against the World Champions, in their backyard, he scores 2 centuries, one 99, average of 110, in 5 matches! Ever since he has been made an opener, he has been awesome in ODIs. It is then an utter pity that he looks a total different player in Test Matches, even on Indian pitches.

NextGen Indian Cricket Team: Fielding is generally through the roof … Aggression, especially when provoked, is awesome … (Gone are the days of head-down, take-it-all-lying-down and meekness. Even AUS players, not the most cordial on the field, are wary now … :-)) Team spirit and backing each other have improved a lot … (E.g. You can see pure delight on Kohli’s face when Manish Pandey or Rohit Sharma or someone else does something good. Genuine Happiness). I love the NextGen Indian Cricket Team.

3 (IND) versus 11 (AUS): You take out Rohit Sharma, Shikar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, then the Indian performance is nothing to write home about … Bowling has a lot of scope to improve.

What Dada (Saurav Ganguly) started, is paying dividends: I have been a huge fan of Dada, especially once he became the Captain. He instilled some backbone into the Indian Team. The Team started approaching foreign tours and sledging with some level of confidence. Who can forget the 2002 Natwest Trophy T-shirt swinging scene 🙂 He changed IND team from a team of meek Lambs to a team of Tigers, at least in demeanour.

The Top Dog (Virat Kohli): All said and done, the new Top Dog is clearly, Virat Kohli. What a historic pace in ODIs. 7000+ runs, 25 centuries. He is well ahead of the pace set by Sachin Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Vivian Richards, AB De Villiers Etc. Amazing record while chasing. Amazing record of team victory when he scores a century. And as we all have seen, he is no dummy in Test Matches either …

All said and done, though AUS won the series 4-1, it was no humiliation. It could easily have been 3-2 for AUS. How IND managed to lose the 4th ODI is still a deep mystery.

Adios!