In places all over the world and most especially in India, cricket news is being awaited. As the sport developed to be the second most popular sport next to football, the number of fans started to grow as well.
It was with the consistent performance of the Indian cricket team that made them have more fans along the way. It is no doubt that Indians love them. Almost every Indian loves them. The popularity of cricket in India goes beyond unimaginable boundaries as it had deemed itself to be the most loved sport in the country for decades.
If there were surveys conducted on the most-watched programs on television in India, cricket news would be on the list. Both the rich and the poor in India love cricket, and it serves as a common denominator amongst all Indians.
With the unstoppable rise to fame of the Indian National Cricket team, they seemed to have gained some global appraisal as well. The group puts so much of individual efforts to improve their craft every single time. With that, the world stops for a while to watch them play.
According to some online sources, the Indian cricket team had the most number of searches on Google for 2019. England, another established cricket team, just made it to the second spot. Aside from being the top searched team, the top three most searched cricketers also belong to the Indian group.
Captain Virat Kohli came in at first by being searched for over 2 million times. Meanwhile, the second and third spots were gotten by former Indian skipper M.S. Dhoni while India opener Rohit Sharma bagged the third one. The two cricketers had averaged a total of million searches each.
With that, we now have a clue about how popular Indian cricket is. The players` popularity also gives us a hint about why watching Indian cricket news is so in demand. Knowing more about them can also be helpful if you want to understand why so many articles are written about them.
Now, let us take a closer look at the factors that make Indian cricket so accessible.
Indian Premier League
The Indian Premier League (IPL), established in 2008, is a professional Twenty20 (T20), cricket league. This sports league has teams all over the major Indian cities. Started by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), the IPL has proven to be the most popular outlet for cricket games.
The IPL started with eight franchise teams across India. Namely, the Mumbai Indians, Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Deccan Chargers, Delhi Daredevils, Punjab XI Kings, Kolkata Knight Riders, and the Rajasthan Royals. The two teams, Rajasthan and Punjab, were expelled at some point in 2010 but were reinstated in 2011 for the tournament.
What started as a couple of Indian teams competing with one another, it later developed into something called the T20.
Now, the T20 is deemed to be the most popular cricket format all over the world. The world may have seen the success that it brought to the Indian cricket scene that it had led to the development of other cricket leagues.
Right now, there are many established cricket leagues all over the world. Some of them are the Bangladesh Premier League, Pakistan Super League, Caribbean Premier League, Big Bash League, and a lot more.
Also, the T20 had been adapted so well by other countries that the T20 format eventually had a new version called the Twenty20 International or T20I. With the development of the T20, the players come from different nations instead of belonging in the same league.
India National Cricket Team
With the sport being introduced to India in the early parts of the 18th century, the first Indian Cricket Club came into existence in the city of Kolkata, India. By 1932, India became the sixth country to get a Test match status. Their first match was against the English Cricket team. By 1952, India had its first-ever international win against the England cricket team at the Madras cricket club.
It was in 1926 when the India National Cricket Team had been founded. Considered to be a weak team after some consecutive losses, the team had redeemed itself under the captaincy of Kapil Dev when they won against the West Indies in the World Cup of 1983. Since then, the Indian team became successful and was never left behind again.
With the rise of the India National Cricket Team came some remarkable players that are well-loved by fans. Here are some of them:
Sachin Tendulkar
No one in India doesn’t know about Sachin Tendulkar. Being dubbed as the ‘God of Cricket,’ it is undeniable how much impact he has made. His cricketing career lasted for over 20 years in which he had proved himself worthy of the title that had been bestowed upon him. Sachin holds an impressive record of 100 centuries, and it has remained to be unbeatable throughout the years.
Mahendra Singh Doni
Also known as M.S. Dhoni. Dhoni is hailed to be the most successful Indian team captain. It was in 2007 when the Indian team won the inaugural T20 Cricket World Cup. Indian fans rejoiced in this victory, but it turned out that it wasn’t enough for Dhoni. Under Dhoni’s captaincy, the Indian team bagged home the three major trophies. Specifically, the World Cup, the World T20, and the Champion’s Trophy. India was also able to secure the top spot in the ICC Test rankings in 2011.
Virat Kohli
In the modern world of cricket, India’s current captain Virat Kohli also proves himself to be worthy of recognition. Kohli currently holds lots of cricketing records that make the Indian fans so proud. He is currently considered to be the fastest Indian to have made a century in an ODI match. Also, he is the quickest batsman to score 5000 runs in O.D. Is.
Along with that, he also holds the record of being the fastest guy to score 10 ODI centuries. Currently, he is holding the top spot in both ODI and Test matches. Those are just some of his impressive achievements.
Kohli has a long way to go in his career. Fans are eyeing for him to beat Sachin Tendulkar’s record for most runs and centuries and other files as well.
In fact, according to India cricket news site Betwala, Kohli was already able to beat the record of M.S. Dhoni being the fastest captain to score 5000 runs in an ODI format in their recent game against Australia.
India’s current standing
Now that you have gotten to learn more about the people that made Indian cricket so popular, let us now see the team’s current status on the different cricket formats.
Test Matches = 1st One Day Internationals (ODIs) = 2nd Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) = 5th
Seeing India’s current standing on different cricket formats, you can now decipher why they are so worthy of being featured so much in online articles such as online cricket news, cricket articles, and the like. Indian players always give their best and leave their hearts out on the field, but there is so much more to learn about the Indian cricket industry.
