The kangaroos have been finally tamed

By: Subhadeep Bhattacharjee

It was the most text book test series Indian cricket has witnessed in the last two decades. The young guns and the seniors both came to the party and gave death blows to the Aussies when needed. Other than a small scare in Bangalore the visitors looked very 'un-Australian' throughout the series. Ironically even in their game of mental disintegration and sledging they were outsmarted by this Indian team which was ready to give it back to them.

The just concluded India Australia series will go down in the cricket folklore as one of the biggest turning points in modern cricket's history. The kangaroos have never looked this vulnerable in the last decade as they looked in this series. Never have they been out batted, out bowled and out thought in the entire series and it seems Australia's 'new school of cricket' needs some more polishing. Ricky Ponting's final comments that they were chasing their tails in most part of the series said it all.

The Australians are on a virtual decline. In the last 12 months wherever they have played India they have looked vulnerable. Dhoni's man had stunned them in the ODI series down under right after the controversial Test series. They had won the test series not owing to better cricket they played but some horrible umpiring that the world has ever seen. Their bowling looks toothless without Glen McGrath and batting somewhat shaky after Adam Gilchrist called it quits.

Indian cricket is on its rise and looks to have the most promising bunch of talent. In MS Dhoni we have a aggressive yet calm leader. The batting looks formidable with Virendar Sehwag, Gautam Ghambir, Sachin Tendulkar and VVS Laxman and Dhoni himself. Zaheer Khan is bowling his heart out and Harbhajan Singh will lead the spin department with Amit Mishra. Ishant Sharma seems to be the find of the decade for the team. Sourav Ganguly who started the ball rolling for Indian cricket will go out a happy man. In his last test match he must have foreseen this team holding the numero uno position in future.

It has been a red letter series for India where they have announced to the world who is going to dominate the world cricket from now on. They only need to be more consistent with their performance and not get complacent after this victory. Its not only the Indians who will remember this series but other cricketing nations will remember this too. One of the most dominating cricketing empires seems to be in its fall and another on the rise.