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India aren’t merely beating opponents at this World Cup. They are pulverising them, batting better, bowling better and fielding better than anybody who has dared to cross their path. Their last two victories, against South Africa and Sri Lanka, have been by 243 runs and 302 runs, margins so emphatic that to call them contests would seem disingenuous. Virat Kohli is equalling records you once thought were immortal. Rohit Sharma is batting and leading as if he can do no wrong. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are world class. Mohammed Siraj makes vital breakthroughs. Ravindra Jadeja is paying tribute to the late Bishan Singh Bedi by conjuring deliveries to right-handers that land on middle stump and hit off. Kuldeep Yadav, India’s highest wicket-taker in ODIs this year and capable of bowling rippers like the one to Jos Buttler a week ago, has been barely needed in the last two games.
They are doing all this in an understated manner that makes them likeable too – a trait hard to attain when you are winning all the time.
In the age of social media, consumed by the search for instant gratification and the tendency to offer definitive verdicts, it’s of little surprise that India’s current run is immediately inviting lofty parallels by experts and fans alike. Are they among the best one-day teams India have ever had? Can they be as ruthless as the Australians who won without losing a game in 2003 and 2007?
The present bunch has all the makings of a great team, but grand pronouncements, if at all necessary, are best delivered at the end of a World Cup. The players will prefer it that way, for they know their standing will pivot on how they fare in the week following the final game of the preliminary phase against Netherlands on November 12.
“When things look good, everything looks good, everything works well. I know how this whole thing works. I’m quite aware of one game here and there, I know suddenly I’ll be a bad captain,” Sharma said before the game against Sri Lanka, fully aware that reactions can swing depending on results.
Success in elite sport, whether right or wrong, eventually boils down to titles. Which is why the feats of Kapil Dev’s team at the 1983 World Cup have left an indelible impression. It had a lot more going for it of course. It was the classic underdog story, an ostensibly ragtag bunch turning up for the event with little hope of doing anything substantial. That they should beat West Indies in the final in a proverbial David vs Goliath contest to win the tournament is material ripe for biopics and books as we know now.
Over the years, numerous tales — some true and some apocryphal — have been narrated to illustrate how expectations were at a bare minimum going into the World Cup. Some of that was influenced by India’s record in the first two World Cups in 1975 and 1979, winning just one of six matches – against East Africa. But there was probably always more to the team winning in 1983 than mere happenstance. There has to be to win six of the eight matches in the tournament. Aside from Kapil’s genius, it was perhaps the mix of all-rounders that allowed for batting depth till No. 10 and six bowling options. That Roger Binny, Mohinder Amarnath and Madan Lal were seam-bowling all-rounders particularly helped in English conditions.
The rising stature of the team was underscored two years later when India, led by Sunil Gavaskar, won the World Championship of Cricket in Australia. The core was still around with Gavaskar, Kapil, Lal and Amarnath, and the emergence of Ravi Shastri, Mohammad Azharuddin and Laxman Sivaramakrishnan helped infuse further zeal as India went undefeated. From Kapil to Shastri, many of that vintage have said this was the best Indian one-day team they played in.
An exception to gauging greatness based on silverware maybe Sourav Ganguly’s team at the 2003 World Cup. They fell way short in the final at Johannesburg, but up against them was an indomitable Australian outfit that could seamlessly cope even with the absence of talisman Shane Warne. The circumstances were also different, and for an Indian team to beat everyone barring Australia in South Africa was a tall deed meriting unqualified praise. While Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid were the senior statesmen, a throbbing vibrancy was provided by the young bunch of Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh, Harbhajan Singh, Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra.
If these teams were lauded for their adaptability away from home, the challenge for MS Dhoni’s men in 2011 was to live up to the enormous expectations at home. This was a team studded with stars from top to bottom, and anything less than a final flourish at Wankhede Stadium on April 2 would have been viewed as a letdown. Therein lied that team’s greatness, epitomised best by the uber-cool temperament of the leader on the evening of the final.
No Indian team has been able to replicate such a high at a World Cup since. It’s not to say that the teams in 2015 and 2019 weren’t up to scratch. In Australia and New Zealand eight years ago, India enjoyed a similar unbeaten streak till running into a rampant Australia in the semi-final. Four years ago in England, some excellent cricket for a majority of the tournament was undone by a poor display of the top order against New Zealand in the semi-final.
It goes to show that there’s just a fine margin between good and great teams. One that the current Indian set-up will hope to bridge come November 19.
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