On A Strong Wicket

Team India has had a mixed month but a good year. This was the year Rohit Sharma and his boys brought the T20 World Cup back home

- Sammya Mukhopadhyay

At the time this article started writing itself, there was a sense of despondency surrounding Indian cricket. The men in blue had been decimated 0–3 by New Zealand at home. By the time the article finished, a young Indian squad had defeated the South Africans 3–1 at a T20 International (T20I) series on their home turf. Such is sport.

And therein lies the challenge of evaluating the annual performance of a team in a monthly magazine. By the time these pages go to print, India will have played their first Test of a five-match series in Australia. And the events down under may well change the perspective here.

Team India started 2024 on a high. Early in the year, it won a Test series 4–1 against England. In June, India won the T20 World Cup, ending a decade-long wait for an International Cricket Council (ICC) trophy. Then, India won the T20I series against Zimbabwe 4–1, against Sri Lanka 2–0 and then against Bangladesh 3–0.

Purple Patch

Team India has played 11 Tests this year and won seven of them, a win rate of 63%. In T20Is, India has won 21 out of the 25 matches it has played at a staggering win rate of 84%. This is a significant improvement from last year when Team India played 23 T20Is and won 15 of them, a win rate of 65%.