The Indian team of the Mid 90’s was a formidable one-day side which had the requisite arsenal to beat any of the top ODI sides on their day. The team was well led by their skipper Mohammad Azharuddin who marshaled his players well and led by example with his classy batting and spectacular fielding.
The team comprised of masterclass stroke makers, a well-settled pace bowling pair and the spin twins who made the side an impregnable fortress at home. Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar was their standout batsman of that era courtesy his heroics with the bat. Sachin was well supported by batting stalwarts like Saurav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Azharuddin, Vinod Kambli and Navjot Singh Sidhu.
Meanwhile, Ajay Jadeja and Robin Singh lent depth to the middle order. The keeping gloves were donned by Nayan Mongia. The pace attack was shouldered by the Karnataka pace duo of Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad.
Anil Kumble led the spin attack forming a successful troika with Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan.
The Indians had a decent bench strength who could fill in well for the regulars. So here is my Best Indian ODI XI of the Mid 90’s (1994-1999)
The Dream XI – Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Mohammad Azharuddin, Ajay Jadeja, Robin Singh, Nayan Mongia, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatapathy Raju and Venkatesh Prasad
12th Man – Ajit Agarkar
- SACHIN TENDULKAR
Sachin Tendulkar has been God greatest gift to Indian cricket. The master blaster was India’s run scoring a machine in the 90s. Sachin was a complete batsman of his generation. What made Sachin a class apart from the rest was his perfect balance, brilliant hand-eye coordination, and exquisite timing.
Sachin was adept at playing both pace and spin. Although Sachin had a wide range of shots in his armoury but it was his straight drive which became his signature stroke. Sachin had the ability to score big hundreds consistently against quality oppositions on difficult wickets. For most of the Indian fans, Sachin became somewhat a demigod who stood between India’s victory and defeat.
Sachin also filled in as a handy part-time bowler. Sachin mixed his conventional leg breaks with googlies and off-cutters to deceive the batsmen. Sachin was a good slip fielder with a safe pair of hands. He had a strong throwing arm and was also often seen patrolling the boundary.