Do India really have what it takes to win the ICC World Cup?
Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir, Harbhajan, Dhoni, Khan. The list of potential match-winners is frightening. The bowling attacks of England, Australia, and South Africa must be quaking in their boots. Surely the world cup is a forgone conclusion. India, hosting the tournament for the third time (along with Bangladesh and Sir Lanka) must be confident of a victory.
This year must be India’s best chance of winning the trophy, playing on their own patch, a home crowd behind them. However, this World Cup definitely isn’t over before it’s started. India has only won the World Cup once in the previous nine tournaments, failing on both occasions to win when hosting the cup. Coach, Gary Kirsten will be hoping it’ll be third time lucky for his side.
India’s only World Cup victory came in 1983, but why hasn’t this ‘Golden Generation’ of Indian players won a world cup? Or even a World T20 for that matter? The problem isn’t a lack of ability: that much is for certain. With a batting order housing arguably the greatest batsman of this era, Sachin Tendulkar, the leading runs scorer of all time in Test matches; it is conceivable that India will be able to make enough runs to win any match.
It’s obvious that batting firepower isn’t the issue. It could be putdown to the lack of wicket-taking potential but in fact it seems to be India’s inability to perform under pressure which lets them down.
After only the first match of the tournament, in which India demonstrated their monstrous ability with the bat, it’s easy to see they mean business. But will Virender Sehwag be able to repeat his mighty 175 off just 140 balls? Despite his dominant knock, there were early signs of Indian fragility. With the Indian’s cruising at 69-0, on their way to a mammoth 370-4, a mix up between India’s two favourite sons’ Sehwag and Tendulkar, saw the latter run out for 28. This is just the sort of disaster that has saw previous Indian World Cup Campaigns disappear in a matter of minutes. Although the run-out did little damage, as Number Four, Kholi notched up an impressive unbeaten 100, India will be have wanted to see more from Tendulkar, who has only just returned from injury. Despite this setback, more destruction from Sehwag followed and all but ended the game at the halfway stage.
Tamim Iqbal didn’t seem to notice this and raced to an impressive 70 off 86 balls. The left-hander again showed his class of which glimpses had been seen by England a summer ago. Aided by a valiant 55 from Al Hasan, and a decent cameo from Kayes (37) the pair exploited some weakness in the Indian bowling attack. Sreesanth was the main victim; his third over going for 25 runs as The Tiger’s raced to 55 for no loss after just six overs. Sreesanth ending the day with 5 overs for 55: a less than encouraging start for the Indian opener. The talented Tamim and healthy contributions from others got Bangladesh within a hundred but their efforts ended on 283 all out.
Previous World Cup winning sides have shown that it’s wicket-taking ability that counts. Getting wickets at key times against key batsmen win matches. Taking wickets is the best method of slowing the run rate.
This shows in previous world cup winning teams. It’s no secret, and doesn’t take a great deal of thought to realise there’s a reason why Australia are bidding for their 4th consecutive World Cup. They may have had Ponting and Gilchrist scoring runs for fun, but its the likes of Warne and McGrath, two of the greatest bowlers of the era, that helped them win 3 World Cups and become the best side in the world in both forms.
But what are Australia’s chances of retaining the trophy?
Raw pace leads their attack. The experienced Brett Lee gives them control and if you add this to the raw pace of Tait and Johnson, both capable of bowling well over 90mph, this is a scary prospect for opposition batting line-ups. Let’s not forget the variation of spinners’ Krejza and Smith and under-rated genuine all-rounder Shane Watson. Australia will be confident, coming off the back of a thrashing of England in their latest ODI series. They’ve already shown potential in this World Cup. Their dismissal of albeit a poor Zimbabwe for just 171, Johnson picking up 4-19, shows a great deal of encouragement for the defending champions. Nobody can write off Australia, especially as Captain Ponting definitely has something to prove. They’ll be doing all they can to bring the trophy back down under.
Who else is India up against? The unpredictable and unreliable Pakistan. We all know about the match fixing, hopefully it is a thing of the past, however this doesn’t mean their not in with a chance of adding a 50 over crown to their World T20 win 3 years ago. Umar Gul and Shoaib Akhtar lead the formidable attack and anyone who can spin the ball both ways is a threat, Pakistan has this in Ajmal and Afridi. They certainly do have a point to prove, some of them not wanting to be implicated and show that they’ll have no part in match-fixing and deserve recognition. Pakistan will be one to watch!
Sunday’s game Versus England will be a big test for both sides. It won’t just be about runs. A lot will come down to who can get the key wickets of players such as Tendulkar, Sehwag and Pietersen. India’s attack is going to have to step up big time. They won’t be able to afford to bowl loosely as anything off the pace will be punished by a strong English batting order.
Sunday’s game could set the tone for the rest of the tournament. If India bowl well and beat England, then there’s no reason why they shouldn’t go on to win the competition.
