Indian cricket in 2023 : A tale of missed chances for men , Test wins for women

 

Another year passes as we usher in a new year 2024 . Looking back at 2023 for Indian cricket , it was certainly another disappointing year . Indian men's team had their chances to script great history and make 2023 as probably the greatest ever year  in Indian cricket history but it was not to be .

The year did start well with the home test series win over Australia in the Border Gavaskar trophy  by 2-1 margin but it was on expected lines as it was a home series and India wins at home regardless.  However that series win confirmed India's place in the high profile WTC final .

In the ODI series that followed soon after  , India went on to lose to Australia by 2-1 . 

The much awaited WTC final of the 2021-23 cycle was played at the Oval London between India and Australia  . India had a chance to create history after their loss in the previous cycle but magnificent batting by the Aussies on day one put India on the backfoot  from which they never recovered and went on to lose by 209 runs .

The Indian fans hoped that the ODI world cup to be held in India in October- November will end in India's favour and thus the WTC final loss was soon forgiven . 

Meanwhile the Indian team started the WTC 2023-25 cycle with a strong 2-0 series win over the West Indies in overseas that saw the impressive debut by Yashasvi Jaiswal 

India also started their preparations for the ODI World cup  well with an emphatic win in the Asia Cup beating Sri Lanka in the final and getting them allout for just 50 . 

India also won their 2nd 3 match ODI series of the year  against Australia  2-1 and looked in fine nick to start the  World cup  campaign .

India performed superbly in the World cup , storming into the semis without much effort and beating all the top teams but lost in the big final to Australia by 6 wickets with mediocre batting  sending their fans into utter disappointment. 

A meaningless T20I 5 match series was held against a makeshift Australia team soon after the World cup that India won by 4-1 margin with impressive performances from skipper  Surya Kumar Yadav and Rinku Singh 

As if big World cup loss  was not enough, India lost their 1st of the 2 tests vs South Africa  before the year end . The Proteas thrashed India mercilessly by an innings and exposed Indian batting in challenging conditions . Thus India's start for the next WTC cycle has been ordinary . 

In ths midst of the disappointment of losing the 2 ICC trophies in the same year  there were a few top individual performances specially in the World cup with Rohit Sharma(597 runs) , Jasprit Bumrah (20 wickets ) , Mohammed Shami (24 wickets ) and Virat Kohli (765 runs) excelling .

Virat Kohli  completed his 50th ODI century in the World cup semi final getting past Sachin Tendulkar . He also broke Tendulkar 's  673 runs all time record in a single World cup by surpassing it to amass a mind boggling 765 runs in the 2023 World cup . 

There were many debuts this year which did provide some bright sparks which may augur well in the future.  Yashasvi Jaiswal had a great test debut and played really well with lots of positive attitude though the South Africa test proved that he has few things to work on.  Rinku Singh had a great start to his white ball career so did Sai Sudharsan  in South Africa ODIs 

The IPL2023 proved to be a grand success again and this time in a pulsating final , the Chennai Super Kings edged out Gujarat Titans on the final ball with Ravindra Jadeja hitting the winning boundary . CSK thus winning their 5th title . 

On the women 's front , the much awaited WPL was finally launched in March 2023 with 5 teams and finally Mumbai Indians beat Delhi Capitals to win the 1st ever WPL final with Hayley Mathews of West Indies and Mumbai  becoming the player of the tournament and Yastika Bhatia of MI becoming the emerging player of the 1st edition . 

Like their male counterparts , the women team had early disappointment  losing in the semis of the  T20I World cup held in South Africa  in early 2023 . They narrowly lost to Australia by just 5 runs in a heartbreaking exit .

However later in the year, the women team won two back to back test matches vs England and Australia, both by big margins against those two powerhouse teams to create history in more ways than one . They beat England by a whopping 347 runs and then beat Australia by 8 wickets .

However Indian women  lost the T20I series to England by 2-1 and rounded up the year by already conceding an unassailable 2-0 lead in the ODI series vs India with two disappointing losses from formidable situations. 

Thus while the Indian women had their bright spots with test victories after a decade , they continued to struggle in white ball formats . As for the Indian men cricket team , 2023 was an utterly disastrous year .