Nothing gets through, nothing leaves the main arena and there’s absolutely nothing that these men can’t get their hands on. Diving and jumping, sprinting and gliding … the men who form ‘THE GREAT INDIAN LINE OF DEFENSE are no ordinary men. In fact, they are nothing less than a league of extraordinary gentlemen.
Well those days are gone and nowhere in sight when the Indian Cricket Team was a sure shot target when it came to fielding skills. There were days when the Indian squad would gift some good 20-30 runs to the opposition due to poor fielding. There’s no questioning the fact that this cost us a lot of matches and gave the critics our head on a silver plate (served with salad). But as time passed on, the new entries into the squad added a whole new element to the building of a player. They emphasized on the importance of fitness and agility of unmatched quality. The force was so strong that today, not just good, but outstanding fielding skills are a prerequisite if you want to play for your country.
We’ll start with the all so precious combination of Yuvraj Singh and Kaif who defied the laws of gravity and would easily fly around the ground frustrating the batsmen every now and then. The push was there and then you had the likes of Raina, Kohli and now Rahane, Tiwary and Jadeja joining the party. These men gave India an impregnable line of defense The power-plays against India became less productive and the idea of intimidating the men in blue by assaulting them in the first few overs took the backseat.
Today, when India plays with Raina, Kohli, Yuvraj, Jadeja and Rahane in the team, the hard white ball finds it difficult to get past these talented athletes as they make sure that the batsmen have to struggle for every single run. These men have also put an end to those irritating quick singles which frustrate the bowlers. They have given the bowlers a support system which every good bowler prays for. There’s little that you can do when the good bowls are hit for boundaries and absolutely nothing that you can do when the bad ones get smashed around. But with such a strong in-field, the bowlers can afford to take that extra risk and get a bit adventurous because they know that some extraordinary gentlemen will make sure that the bowlers don’t suffer.
A barricade to run scoring machines across the globe, these men create the pressure and force the batsmen to play those risky shots and hence create the base for picking up wickets. Brave and confident, fit and flexible… these men guard the in-field with their eyes open, mind focused and the body all ready to be launched at the small and lightning quick ball.
The team has shown such significant improvement in the fielding section that one can easily say that today the Indian Cricket Team enters the ground as one of the best fielding sides in the world. A good batsman loses his wicket when you make him think and that’s exactly what the bowlers and the fielders do when they work together as a team. So for every batsman out there thinking about launching himself on the Indian bowling attack, there’s this unassailable committed line of defense bringing a surprise, a shocker actually.
Those who wrote down the laws of gravity obviously had little idea about cricket and absolutely no idea about these extraordinary gentlemen who can be called, ‘The Bulletproof Monks’ of the game.
