'India have not compromised on their red-ball cricket, take for example Suryakumar' - Kamran Akmal lauds India's cricket mindset

The Indian cricket team has been on a roll in the recent past. Having registered a historic win in the Border-Gavaskar trophy earlier this year in the absence of a host of the first-choice players due to injury or other reasons, a young bunch of Indians did the unthinkable by defeating Australia in their backyard.

Following that victory was India triumph against England in the home series in all three formats. With Test wins against the two quality sides, India held its No. 1 spot in ICC Test rankings for the fifth year straight and also ensured to secure a place in the inaugural World Test Championship’s final.

Notably, India will now be fielding two international teams simultaneously, as one unit plays in the UK, while another set of players will be facing Sri Lanka in a limited-overs series in July. India’s remarkable bench strength has left many impressed, including cricketers from the neighbouring nation Pakistan. One of them being Kamran Akmal, who recently appraised India for the same and even lauded Rahul Dravid for contributing to India’s success in the last few years. 

The mindset of Indian cricket is commendable: Kamran Akmal

“India have not compromised on their red-ball cricket. At school level, India have two-day, three-day cricket. Today, they have a pool of 50 players because Indian cricket has given a lot of importance to Test cricket. Among all the legends of Indian cricket, except MS Dhoni, no one has retired after playing white-ball cricket. All the others played a Test match as their last one. That gives us a great idea of their vision: how to build a team, how to bring in players into the Indian set-up,” Akmal said in his YouTube channel.

“Their white-ball or List A players, when they enter the international scene, they have already played 40 to 50 games. Take the example of Suryakumar Yadav, who recently made his India debut after a long wait. Most of these players have a minimum domestic experience of four to five years. When they come into the Indian team, they are already mature enough.”

“The mindset of Indian cricket is commendable. Look at all the Indian legends from the 90s – from Rahul Dravid to Anil Kumble to VVS Laxman – all of them are involved in Indian cricket in some way or the other. That is helping the new generation. And this not just for IPL; they keep an eye on domestic cricket as well, be it Virender Sehwag or Yuvraj Singh. They (India) haven’t changed their (brand of) cricket, but they have elevated their existing level,” Akmal concluded.