Indian Cricket Team Symbolizes Unity in Diversity: A Few Facts.

India is a country where so much diversity, whether in language, culture, or others, can be found, which in no other country can be found. I was in China by size. China is bigger than India and has a huge population, but the issue is different. China is composed of 56 ethnic groups. Among them, Han Chinese account for 92 percent of the overall Chinese population, and the other 55 comprise the remaining 8 percent. Further, the rulers of China have been accused of committing crimes against humanity and possibly genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang. Anyway, many people in China appreciated India when I visited there because of our diversity. Furthermore, in India, all the religions can be found, which is also a feather in the cap. Now, I am presenting some facts about the Indian cricket team. India has already reached the One Day International (ODI) World Cup final by defeating New Zealand. It is heartening to mention that the Surya Kiran aerobatic team of the Indian Air Force will perform an air show before the final match on November 19, 2023. Anyway, I am proud of the Indian team members as it depicts mini-India. Of course, from time to time Indian team means mini-India. About the present team, the facts are Rohit Sharma from Mumbai and Shardul Thakur (born in Maharashtra), KL Rahul (born in Bengaluru), Ishan Kishan (born in Patna), Virat Kohli (born in Delhi/New Delhi), Shreyas Iyer (Shreyas Iyer born in Mumbai father Santosh Iyer is Tamilian and his mother Rohini Iyer is a Tuluva. His ancestors were from Kerala). Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja are Gujrati, Ravichandran Ashwin is a Tamilian, Kuldeep Yadav and Surya Kumar are from Uttar Pradesh, Jasprit Bumrah (born in a Sikh Punjabi family in Gujarat), Mohammed Siraj from Hyderabad, Mohammed Shami from Uttar Pradesh but plays for West Bengal.
Cricket is now popular across the world, and that is why in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, it will be included as a sports event. After introducing one-day cricket (50 overs) and T20 (20 overs), cricket is popular worldwide. On November 15, 2023, India played against New Zealand’s first semi-final match of the ODI in Mumbai. Virat Kohli scored a record-breaking 50th one-day international (ODI) hundred. Mohammed Shami took seven wickets as India beat New Zealand by 70 runs to reach the Cricket World Cup final. Shreyas Iyer of the Indian team clubbed a rapid 105, and Daryl Mitchell of New Zealand scored 134 runs in 119 balls. Both teams performed well. But the most highlighting point is Mohammed Shami’s bowling. I feel because of his splendid bowling, New Zealand where all out at 327 (48.5 overs) against the Indian score of 397-4 (50 overs). Shami provided India the breakthrough when he claimed two wickets in three deliveries in the 33rd over (his fifth over of the day), giving away only one run.
In the match, the achievement of Shami was 7/57, i.e., he got seven wickets by giving only 57 runs, which was a great achievement. In this regard, I present a few cases where Indian bowlers performed excellently in earlier international matches. Anil Kumble’s performance was 6/12 against West Indies in 1993; Ashish Nehra, in 2003 against England, took six wickets by giving 23 runs. Stuart Binny also achieved laurels when his performance was 6/4 (four runs, six wickets) against Bangladesh in 2014, a low-scoring match as India scored 105 runs in 25.3 overs of ODI. Against this backdrop, Bangladesh’s score was 58. The performance of other Indian bowlers is Kuldeep Yadav’s achievement was 6/25 against England in 2018, Jasprit Bumrah 6/19 against England in 2022, and Mohammed Siraj 6/21 against Sri Lanka in 2023. I have highlighted a few statistics on Indian bowlers, albeit some names may be omitted. The objective is that readers can get an idea. All Indian players have contributed significantly. The Indian Team should reach the zenith this time. I wish all the best to the Indian players.
Prof Shankar Chatterjee, Hyderabad