THE RACE for being number one as a “one day international” team has started between India, Australia, and South Africa. For past six years Australia had regained the number one spot but now South Africa is on top of the table with 125 points, Australia is on the second spot with 125 points. And India is on third spot with 120 points.

In the recent one day series between South Africa and Australia South Africa beat Australia by 4-1 on their home ground. And this was a series win by South Africa after a long time. India also beat Australia last year in one dayers. From where Australia’s down fall started. India was not far behind from the number one spot with just five points away.

Last year was India’s unforgettable year and unforgettable moment was the finals of the T20 world cup final in which we beat Pakistan. All this was not possible without MAHI Mahendra Singh Dhoni the captain of the team. After a shameful performance in 2007 world cup every cricket fan had lost their hope, they were not even interested to watch a match again. But now India is in great form our new captain has led from the front. He gave us hope that “we can do it”. Dhoni is a kind of person who knows how to win. He remains cool in tough situations and this is important from a captain’s point of view.

Key players like Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh,Gautam Gambhir, Suresh Raina, Zaher Khan and Bhaji played really well under Dhoin’s captaincy. This young Indian team only knows that we have to win no matter who are our opponent is. The team master blaster Sachin Tendulkar also played consistently.

In 2008 we won a tri-series in Australia beat Sri Lanka on their home turf, beat England 5-0, and beat Pakistan in the home series. And now we have won a one day international series against New Zealand after a long 36 years. After losing in both the T20 international we think that this was Dhoni’s real challenge. Players like Yuvraj Singh, Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir, Zaher Khan and Ishan Sharma played an important roll to defeat all these teams.

Now India’s biggest strength is batting and caption Dhoni always believes in the young players. Players like Sehwag and Yuvraj are match. Fielding of our team which was the main issues in the era of Ganguly’s captaincy has also improved now. Young talents like Ravendre Jadega, Yousuf Pathan, Piyush Chwala, Dhawan Kilkarni, Rohit Sharma and Pragyan Ojha have also shown how strong our bench strength is. Tournaments like the Indian premier league are a great platform to enter the international arena and players like Yousaf Pathan are a big example of that.