Indian Cricket in Safe Hands

Before the start of the tournament, no one including the players themselves gave a chance for them to make it to the knock-out stage of the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup. The reasons were many, considering that a new young team with a new captain, a team without the holy trinity of Indian cricket, lack of experience in this shortest format with just one game under their belt and the team’s unproven record of winning tournaments.

At the end of the fairy-tale journey, during the presentation ceremony, the winning captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni said, “We were not tipped favourites, nobody expected us to reach the Super Eights or knock-out stage. And whenever the expectation is less, the determination is high.” Interestingly, that did turned out to be India’s strength.

The team played with no pressure, displayed some powerful but sensible batting, the bowlers stick to their basics, where they were highly successful in defending moderate totals every time Mahendra Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat and at last youthful exuberance on the field which was beyond belief. It was a team effort as the captain correctly pointed out that this team has no stars.

The team also had established players in Sehwag, Irfan Pathan and Harbajan Singh who were on their comeback trail. The trio was under tremendous pressure as everyone thought, if this short span of time on the field is the right stage for them to prove their worth. But what was unveiled out of them was a brave display. Pathan made a comeback with a maiden first over, carrying on from there he went on to bowl a match winning spell in the final at Johannesburg. Harbajhan proved decisive in the end overs bowling some deadly yorkers and getting crucial breakthrough. Sehwag was at his destructive best in the match against New Zealand and England showing signs of his best.

In Zaheer’s absence, this young bowler from Rai Barelly took the responsibility of leading the pace attack. Rudra Pratap Singh didn’t get any man-of the match award for himself but he was definitely India’s bowler of the tournament. He provided vital breakthroughs at the start of the innings in every match. Supporting him from the other end was Kerala express Sreesanth. He wasn’t at his best in the tournament but he did manage to bowl a match winning spell in that all important semi-final against Australia taking two wickets for just 12 runs in his four overs.

The batting line-up was missing the names of Tendulkar, Ganguly and Dravid for the first time since 1989 but that really didn’t have any effect with the willow. After their loss to Kiwis Indians were in a situation to win every match to take the crown. As a first step they did exceedingly well to knock the home team out and book a place in the Durban final. The mainstay of Indian batting was Yuvraj Singh. Seriously, I have never seen such a clean hitting in the last decade or so. He played no nonsense shorts but still managed to score over a strike rate of 200.

Gambhir at the top of the order was solid with his array of stroke play. He held the Indian innings together in most of the matches providing the team with good starts. One thought he has done more than expectations but he proved everyone wrong by storing his best for the finals. The rest of the batsmen chipped in at needy hours with crucial runs.

The English summer wasn’t a great one on the field for the Indians as there were a dozen of catches being spilled during the one-day series. Contrastingly, what we saw here in South Africa over the two weeks was a young Indian team with vim and vigor. Dinesh Kaarthik pounced on to the one at slips to get rid of Graeme Smith was stupendous. Yuvraj Singh, Rohit sharma and Robin Uthappa were accurate with their throws, hitting the stumps every time. Opponents nightmare, India’s joy; it just appeared as if Indian team was filled with Jonty!

When the whole of India wondering what to expect out of newly appointed ‘skipper’ Mahendra Singh Dhoni, he preferred to stay cool and enjoy the outing. Throughout the tournament he was outstanding with his decision making, even outsmarting the so called cricket pundits. Dhoni never allowed his boys to feel the pressure; he was constantly talking to his bowlers in crucial situations and backing them up irrespective of the outcome. His marshalling of resources captured everyone’s imagination, even his opposite number was no exception. Adam Gilchrist praised Dhoni for his brilliant moves in the semi-final saying, “I thought Dhoni captained beautifully tonight. He just chose the right times to bowl those bowlers in the last three or four overs.”

Overall it was a great team performance, probably the best in the last twenty years. Clearly, India displaying no fear as its captain, outplayed all other teams in the tournament, emerged deserved winners.

As in South Africa, Dhoni and his boys did not fail to make a mark on their arrival in India. “We are told that Mumbai is a city which is always on the move. See, my boys and I have brought the entire city to a standstill today,” he said during the felicitation at the Wankhede stadium. And they certainly managed to do so.

It was a great team performance, so was their home coming. Thousands of people lined up on the streets of Mumbai braving the heavy rain to welcome their heroes. But now the focus is on the Australian series, with the first of the seven ODIs starting tomorrow it will be interesting to see how Mahendra Singh Dhoni get his act together, specially when the big three are back. What will be the dressing room atmosphere? Will there be any kind of uneasiness among the players and if any, will that have any effect on the team performance?

One has to wait and see, as I am writing this article a day before the start of the first one-day battle at Bangalore.

However, the victory on the big stage has certainly given cricket fans a big sigh of relief that the future of Indian cricket is in safe hands of these youngsters who are willing to fight fire with fire.