Transition from Nayan Mongia to MS Dhoni

India is a country with over a billion people. It is rare not to find a person who doesn’t play cricket. But once an Indian cricketer retires, the search is on for his heir. But in most cases the search ends up in vain or the selectors lose faith in their chosen players. The best example for the latter case – Kapil Dev, voted the Wisden Indian cricketer of the century (1900s) retired in 1994. The selectors were on the lookout for the best all rounder to fill in Kapil’s huge shoes. And in 2003 they fielded a pace bowler in the name of Irfan Pathan. Initially thought as a bowler he transformed into a bowler who can bat changed to almost a pure batsman. But the selectors lost interest in him by saying he was intended to bowl and pick up wickets and dropped him from the Indian team.

Though wicket keeping in India has not been so much prolific such as finding the next Kapil Dev, it surely has had some interesting moments in the history of Indian circket. India has had great wicket keepers in the past before the Mongia era including NS Tamhane, Farokh Engineer, Budhi Kunderan, Syed Kirmani and Kiran More.

Nayan Mongia followed this illustrious list as Kiran More, famous for the Javed Miandad jumping jack imitation, followed the suit as he was dropped by the selectors after some dismal performances. Nayan Mongia had been an understudy to Kiran More for a long time similar to KS More who spent his time as an understudy to Kirmani. Everyone including the English great Allan Knott felt that Mongia was natural behind the stumps. Mongia is known for his lightning reflexes behind the stumps and proved his mettle. Mongia showed his potent with the bat too as he scored important runs for the team during his early stage in the team. He was ready to bat at any position and kept wickets equally well. The board rewarded his consistent effort as they made him their No.1 choice for wicket keeper. He had many ups and downs in his career. His match winning 152 during 1996-97 test match against the Aussies add to it 6 valuable half-centuries, numerous 40s made him an asset to the Indian team. He was not poor in ODIs too as he scored whenever the team demanded.

Mongia has been there for so long – he was a part of the Indian cricket team during 1996 and 1999 World cup campaigns and not to forget the epic test in which VVS Laxman scored his 281, India scripted one of their famous victories against the Aussies. Though he did not feature in the 3^rd test and was replaced by Sameer Dighe, people knew he was important for the team. And everyone knew his time with the Indian team would never be back. Even Nayan Mongia realized it only when he was dropped for Baroda, his home team. Mongia was always caught on the wrong end of the road by the media as he was involved in showing dissent to the umpires’ decision and banned after suspicions of being involved in the match-fixing crisis that shattered India during the late 90s.

After Mongia, MSK Prasad had a short stint with the national team. But Prasad proved to be a letdown with the bat as well as the glove work. The irony was that after the Australia series, Prasad who was considered as the right heir was replaced by Mongia himself during the RSA tour of India! Then came in Sameer Dighe, who played a lone series in Zimbabwe after which he was replaced by a sulky Deep Dasgupta. Though Dasgupta was a stylish batsman who scored a ton and two 50s in is 8-match career he was initially poor behind the stumps and before he could improve he was chucked out of the team. Dasgupta was replaced by Ajay Ratra, a short wicketkeeper batsman who scored a lone century in the Windies. He had poor time with keeping wickets and eventually lost his place in the side to the young Parthiv Patel. An interesting thing happened in Indian cricket when Rahul Dravid chose to don the gloves in the ODIs which proved efficient as India could have an extra bowler.

Parthiv came in at a very young age of 17 and baffled the critics as he staved off an Indian defeat at Trent Bridge. He was shoddy with his glovework and was in the team because of his batting ablitiy, but once it faded he was replaced by Dinesh Karthik. Thus in one year the BCCI selectors juggled their domestic wicketkeepers to find a perfect replacement. Not only this Saba Karim and Vijay Dahiya fairly had a dream run with the Indian ODI squad too. The former was hit by a ball which forced his unlucky exit, while the latter was incompetent with his batting skills. Dinesh Karthik was initially an unlucky batsman but continued his good glovework. But improved over time and is an able batsman who has made into the squad as the 2^nd choice wicketkeeper behind the prolific Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Dinesh Karthik was replaced by MS Dhoni for 2004 ODI series against the Bangladesh. Dhoni didn’t fare well in the tournament. But Dhoni got his chance during the Indo-Pak series in 2005 in which he scored a quick-fire 148 off just 123 balls. Dhoni was a hard hitter of the ball and gradually improved over his ordinary performance behind the stumps. As time went on, Dhoni became stronger and stronger. He followed his good showing with a 183 notout over Sri Lanka and also earned a test squad call-up in 2005-06 series against Sri Lanka. He was never to be replaced after that except when he wanted rest or when he was injured. After a forgettable 2007 ODI World Cup, Dhoni took over the reins from Rahul Dravid. Dhoni, the man of the moment helped India to win the first ever T20 World cup, took India to No.1 ranking in Test cricket. Now people from all over the world feel India has a strong leader who commands the whole team from behind the stumps. MS Dhoni is a nightmare for even the top bowlers in the world cricket. From just a hard-hitting batsman wicketkeeper to strong leader, Dhoni has gone far, very far ahead than the rest of his predecessors and current competitors could even imagine!

Advertisement

Explore posts in the same categories: Cricket, IPL, Sports, T20, Twenty20, World Cup

Tags: Ajay, Dahiya, Dasgupta, Dhoni, Dighe, Dinesh, Dravid, India, India Wicketkeeper, Indian cricket, Karthik, Mahendra, Mongia, MS, MS Dhoni, Nayan Mongia, Parthiv, Ratra, Tamhane, wicketkeeper

You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.