Sunday, June 12, 2011

"India can dominate for years to come"

Impressed with the young side, India's new coach Duncan Fletcher declared that given the talent, his wards can dominate world cricket for the next 5-10 years.

"It is due to the amount of talent India have. Indian cricket is in a very, very healthy state presently," stated Fletcher.

India beat the hosts by three wickets on Sunday to claim an unassailable 3-0 lead in the five-match ODI series.

"I know five years in international cricket is a long time but unless some international teams suddenly come up, I don't see (India losing its grip)," added the Zimbabwean.

Much of Fletcher's profuse praise, and that of skipper Suresh Raina, was reserved for India's man of the moment Rohit Sharma, who played an unbeaten knock of 86 to haul India out of the woods.

"It was a great innings. It speaks of the tremendous quality India has that a batsman like him is out of the Test side. He has shown that he can finish off an innings. Not many batsmen can do it," remarked Fletcher.

"He can probably play for most international Test sides. He is not getting his opportunity because the present side is so very good. I look forward to working with him. I can't tell the areas on which I would work with him since it's a confidentiality between a player and me," Fletcher said.

"I like to have one-to-one interaction with young cricketers. At the moment I am observing and trying to gain their respect," Fletcher added.

Rohit seems to reserve his very best under Raina's captaincy as he had also hit two hundreds in the latter's first stint at the helm in Zimbabwe last year.

"He is more disciplined now. He knows when to defend or attack. It has helped him that he has spent some quality time with Sachin for Mumbai Indians. He is now a very composed batsman," said Raina in appreciation.

Fletcher felt the most pleasing aspect of India's performance has been how they have been able to extricate themselves out of tight situations.

"It's pleasing how they have worked themselves out of tight situations. In the first one-day game, it was a difficult situation with four wickets down. This time was not easy too," said Fletcher.

"I think it was the spinners who brought us back. At one stage we were looking at a 270-plus target. It was great captaincy (on part of Raina) to keep them on," he said.

The two Indian spinners - Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh - bowled their 20 overs for 52 runs only and picked up four wickets between them.


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