Rabindra Jadeja, Sai Sudhrashan and Kuldeep Yadav of India during a net session at Edgbaston in Birmingham, England on 30 June 2025. , Photo Credit: Getty Images
Seeing India loses an exam in England Many people thought that they had stitched quickly (before loosening the threads), told us something about generational changes. The flag was before waving. Teams require a settlement period.
Teams also require the right man in the right slot, not someone who can be a batsman on a good day and a bowler on the second day (not necessarily within a single test). Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja made India longer for experts. One of Kuldeep Yadav and Dhruv Jurael, Nitish Kumar Reddy or Abhimanu Ishwar can replace them.
Sometimes career overlaps in game, one top player has reached the scene as if the other is going. The baton exchange between Sachin Tendulkar and Virat Kohli is a good example. Both crossed each other as Tendulkar was returning after his final innings. Kohli hit the next ball for four; Continuation was supernatural. This is not always, of course. Sunil Gavaskar himself took only 32 months and 11 Tests after playing his last playing, but all three became the face of Indian batting, wicket was the most wanted by the opposition, and in later cases, social media stars.
Sandwich generation
And then the sandwich generation is – those players whose career overlaps somewhat with a generation, but find themselves very quickly from their successors. The sandwich is caught in the middle of the generation, not enough to continuously threaten one first and is unable to score one for age and opportunity: one much and the other very low.
The expression ‘sandwich generation’ was first used in a social context in the 1980s. It is also relevant in sports. For example, in tennis, when Roger Federer’s big three, Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal began to disappear, the next generation may have nursed the ambitions to change them. All three of these three have won 79 Grand Slam titles since the first Wimbledon title of Swiss Legend in 2003, but it was not the next generation of Medvedevs and Zerevs, who took over one of the Carlos Alkaraz and Jannik Sinner. The last two are not just future, they are too much current, and people born in the 90s have missed the boat.
When Tendulkar-Dravid-Sehwag-Laxman-Ganguli generation was at its peak, Ambati Rayudu, Hemang Badani, Mithun Manas, Vijay Bhardwaj’s choice had to play without any real expectations to find a permanent place in the national team. As the career of old men was ending, Asha must have been awakened again. But then Kohli, Rohit, Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara came, and they could only see that the new generation dashed those hopes carelessly.
It is thus in the game; The birthplace can matter, but not so much from the date of birth, as many players have made long -term career in first -class cricket, which are overlapping with established stars. If he was born a few years ago or a few years later, Amol Mujumdar, who started 260 in his first grade, may have played more than 50 Tests. But he was born within the months of Big Five, and he sealed his fate, although he became a Ranji Trophy veteran company.
The wheel turns
And now the wheel is changing again. Kohli, Rohit and Ashwin have said goodbye, and many of them who would have enhanced the ambitions to overcome the ambitions of breaking up, would have seen the new generation’s exploits with growing nervousness. New stars – not all of them are guaranteed to play for India – mostly fearless teenagers who are waiting for their calls, while people born in the last century can see their possibility that their possibility starts to move away. The captain and candidate, Shubman Gill, are only 25 and will break the hearts of many contenders to expand the Gavaskar-Tendulkar-Kohli line.
India made five centuries in the Leeds Test, Jasprit Bumrah had five in an innings, but won the test and lost in the third innings when India looked very comfortable with the initial runs. Skipper Gill will learn to make hard and more demand; Infection is never easy. Nevertheless, if there was only one in the top half that could bowl and bat in half below.
Published – 02 July, 2025 12:35 am IST