No team bounced back quicker than India after losing legendary players: Kapil Dev

India’s first ever World Cup hero, Kapil Dev, has seen the highs and lows of different cricketing nations right through his stellar career and from a distance post-retirement. Having witnessed all that, Kapil feels that Team India has done better than any others in terms of bouncing back after losing legendary players.

Last few years witnessed a lot of Indian cricketers retiring from the longest format of the game with the last being MS Dhoni – India’s limited-overs skipper.

“There is no team in the world after losing their legendary players bounced back quicker than this Indian team. Normally, once the great players go in a bunch, a team needs at least five to seven years to come back. But, this Indian team has come back so quickly, I have never seen something like this. I am amazed,” claimed the legendary all-rounder.

“Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni – he has been the most important, all of them have retired one by one,” he pointed.

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Virat has taken the responsibility of a superstar:

India is currently ranked No. 2 in Test cricket, just behind Pakistan. They have a great chance to overtake Pakistan by clinching the 3-match Test series with a winning margin of 2-0 or better. The 57-year old praised Test skipper Virat Kohli for the way he led the Test team after the retirement of Dhoni.

“Virat Kohli has taken that responsibility of a superstar, he is a role model we all watch growing up. He is different from Dhoni, he is very aggressive. The on-our-face expression is there, every captain comes out with his own thinking. He is one player who wants to win all the matches whose thinking is very positive and that’s a great sign for Indian cricket.”

“We have seen in Australia when he was ready to chase over 400 runs in the last day (during the Adelaide Test) and that shows the mindset of a cricketer. He is ready to take the challenge head on,“ he added.

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Ashwin is the India’s all-rounder:

Kapil noted that according to him, Ravichandran Ashwin is the most important cricketer in the Indian team. “To me, Ashwin is the team’s all-rounder, a bowling allrounder. The team depends on him, he is the most important cricketer. He is the one who can change the game single-handedly.”

He is also excited as the team is heading towards a long Test season at home as he believes that Test cricket is the ‘real cricket’. “I think after a long time we are going to see a home series so big, as a player I always look up to Test cricket which is real cricket. It will be a test of nerves and all the planning and everything you will see in Tests. This reminds me of the 1980s,” Kapil concluded.