india cricket vijay rahane have given supporters a reason to cheer in a year which has otherwise been downright disappointing for indian cricketa rohit rhapsody being away from cricket for over two months after fracturing his finger in england rohit sharma made a grand comeback setting the eden gardens alight with his scintillating strokeplay when he hammered a world record 264 in an odi against a hapless sri lankan attack at kolkata on november 13 he became the first batsman to get two double hundreds in 50over cricket his blistering knock came off just 225 balls with 33 fours and nine sixesking at lords indias long overseas drought which saw them lose 10 tests finally ended at lords when bhuvneshwar kumar 682 wickets and ishant sharma 777 bowled india to a sensational 95run victory it was only the sixth test win for india out of the 58 they have played in england the first of which came under ajit wadekar at the oval in 1971partners in plunder india havent really covered themselves in glory while playing abroad since 2011 but in ajinkya rahane and murali vijay they have unearthed gems rahane has scored close to 970 test runs in 12 test matches all played abroad since december last year while vijay has 989 runs under his belt in the same number of matches theyve clearly filled in a couple of big boots left vacant by the greats over the last two yearsindian players celebrate winning the second test against england at lords cricket ground in london on july 21 2014 getty images recovery in englandms dhoni co didnt have a clue how to go about playing a five test series in england which was as good as playing an entire ranji season but in the odi series that followed they really came into their own to pocket the fivematch series 31t20 treat in dhaka india were clearly the team to beat during the t20 worlds they defeated pakistan west indies bangladesh australia and then floored south africa in the semifinal but they stumbled against a hungrier and meaner sri lanka in the finalball in whose court indian cricket suffered in and out of the field if the players were letting down their fans with some poor performances abroad bccis sidelined chief n srinivasan was fighting tooth and nail in supreme court to cling on to his chair that said we still have to hear the last word on itcaptain no more cool ms dhoni has had a forgettable year apart from the odi win in england and the victory at lords hes struggled as a leader to inspire his young team india lost in south africa new zealand and england worse still is the wall of silence hes built around himself on contentious issues involving himfriendly fire a young combustible team aggressive to a fault burnt it fingers badly when news seeped out of the brisbane dressing room that dhawan and kohli had