Rise of Kohli:
Rise of Kohli:
The year witnessed a lot of changes in Indian cricket, the biggest one being batsman Virat Kohli’s rise to Test captaincy. Kohli started his captaincy on a positive note scoring a century in his debut as captain in the India tour of Australia 2014-15. At time, however, he was only filling in for injured captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni. The middle of the year saw Kohli facing a slump in form with a dismal performance against Bangladesh in June. However, the new captain ended the slump with his 11th hundred in the first Test of the Sri Lankan tour, eventually taking the team to a series clinch with 2-1 — the first under Kohli’s captaincy.
ICC Cricket World Cup: Carrying forward the trend of host countries facing off in the finals, Australia, who co-hosted the cricket extravaganza with New Zealand, clinched the World Cup in a nail-biting showdown. While defending champs India reached the semi-finals as one of the favourites for the title, they fell to the new champions in a crushing rout by 95 runs.
However, the World Cup performance of the fairly new Indian line-up, which retained only four players from the winning team of 2011, was considered to signify the start of a new era in Indian cricket. The first World Cup after the retirement of big names such as Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Rahul Dravid, the mantle of leading the Indian team along with captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni was largely on the shoulders of the new generation players Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Ravichandran Ashwin.
IPL 2015: 2015 saw Mumbai Indians clinching their second IPL title once again with a win against long-time rivals Chennai Super Kings in the finals. The win was also the first one under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. While defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders failed to make the finals, CSK lost to MI by 41 runs, ceding the title to the Rohit Sharma led side.
Controversy: Shortly after the 2015 IPL season’s conclusion, two franchises —Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals — were suspended for a duration of two years by the Supreme Court appointed R.M. Lodha Committee. The decision came in July 2015, thereby barring the teams from taking part in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. The players from both the teams were later auctioned at the recent draws and were largely divided among the two new teams — Rajkot and Pune.
Cricket All-Stars: This exhibition T20 series that kicked off this year featured two lineups of renowned retired cricket players led by master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and King of Spin Shane Warne. The first match of the series was held in the US between Sachin’s Blasters and Warne’s Warriors.
The All-Star line-up included several greats such as Brian Lara, Muttiah Muralitharan, Sourav Ganguly, Ricky Ponting among many others. The two captains selected their respective squads by randomly drawing out the player names at the Times Square. The inaugural season included three matches, all of which were won by Warne’s Warriors. The next season is expected to take place in the UAE and Canada in 2016.
Tennis: Sania’s 10 titles: 2015 has been a great year for Indian tennis icon Sania Mirza who capped off a successful year with her tenth doubles title for the year at the recent WTA event in Singapore. With a major chunk of her wins coming with partner Swiss Martina Hingis, the duo has expanded their unbeaten stretch to 22. The biggest of the ten titles came in June/July this year at Wimbledon, where compatriot Leander Paes too clinched his 4th mixed doubles slam partnering with Hingis.
IPTL: After a much publicised inaugural edition in 2014, which brought tennis legend Roger Federer to Indian shores, the 2015 season of the IPTL failed to evoke a following comparable to the IPL or ISL. This year’s edition once again saw participation from big names in the international circuit such as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray, Stan Wawrinka and Roger Federer.
Pro Kabaddi League: The Pro Kabaddi League proved to be one of the most unexpected successes in India’s sporting calendar this year. The eight-team league formed in a similar format to the IPL, saw a lot of support from a number of celebrities from both Bollywood and the sporting world including the likes of Abhishek Bachchan, who also owns the team Jaipur Pink Panthers. Mumbai-based franchise U Mumba finished victorious in the 2015 season with a win against Bengaluru Bulls in August this year. The next session will be conducted in January 2016.
Football: (Indian Super League) The second edition of the homegrown Indian Super League provided quite a bit of sporting action for the last quarter of the year. The league, which has increased in popularity since its inaugural season last year saw Goa FC and Chennaiyin FC facing off in a nail biting final, which Chennaiyin FC clinched by 3-2. However, the match has since become more infamous for a post match row between FC Goa owner Dattaraj Salgaonkar and Chennaiyin FC captain Elano, who landed up in police custody following a complaint from Dattaraj.
The decision by FC Goa management to take on field matters to the police has drawn criticism, with Elano returning to Brazil immediately after being released, casting a doubt on his future participation in the league.
Boxing: Vijender Singh goes Pro: Indian Olympic Boxing medallist Vijender Singh’s decision to go professional created quite a stir in boxing circuits this year. The ace-boxer, who has stayed in the news for reasons both good and bad, made his Pro Boxing debut on October 10 this year against UK boxer Sonny Whiting in a much-publicised bout. Vijender won the bout convincingly with a technical knock out (TKO).
Vijender, who relinquished his chance to represent India to go Pro has been successful in the international boxing circuit so far, winning all three of his bouts, with the remaining two wins coming against UK’s Dean Gillen (KO) and Samet Hyuseinov (TKO).
