[ad_1]
There hasn’t been a World Cup in 30 years where India haven’t been favourites. At home though, it doesn’t stop at that. 1996 teases with memories of that epochal high at Bangalore before India nosedived in the semi-finals as the stands of Eden Gardens went up in flames once defeat was imminent at the hands of a once-in-a-generation Sri Lankan side. In 2011, victory came as a vindication of talent and passion the size of a billion, riding the most photographed moment in Indian cricket history. India had finally seized the day, triggering the evolution of a behemoth that knows no bounds.
Life has now circled back to a World Cup again in India with the hosts staring at a daunting, if not punishing, schedule to justify once and for all that cricket is synonymous with India. Not that it isn’t by any stretch of imagination. From ICC revenue to broadcasting moolah, India commands the biggest share. The IPL is well and truly an ecosystem by itself even though contracted male cricketers can’t play elsewhere. And apart from the Ashes, nothing sells like a full tour of India. But they haven’t won a World Cup since 2011, and that’s a massive red flag.
The format too is facing an existential crisis. The World Cup was always an opportunity to take stock of the game — to conduct resets, roll out innovations and bait the game into moving forward with the lure of a world title. The tournament thrived in the 1990s and much of the 2000s till every edition started getting hailed as the one that could lend some parity to an unhinged world of cricket. But by then Twenty20 had given the game a whiff of blood. Spectacular chases, more sixes, bigger totals and last-over finishes — the world had seen so much of it within so little time that the appeal of ODIs was bound to wane.
There can be an argument that England threw the game a lifeline with that manic, heart-stopping World Cup final for the ages at Lord’s in 2019. But since then, their 50-over game has been largely kept under wraps courtesy a partial calendar that saw them playing 12 ODIs in each of the post-pandemic years. Australia have been no better, playing just 17 and 11 matches in 2022 and 2023. India, by comparison, have played more matches but even that has been halved from the heydays of the 2000s where they easily logged at least 45 matches per year. We have been here before, more specifically in 2011, when one-dayers were supposedly heading for a premature demise. India won, and then again in the 2013 Champions Trophy, and doomsday was pushed back. If they win it, the format might, just might, hold on to its place. But this campaign could be more complex than 2011.
Usually, it’s enough to say India are playing at home. Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer’s timely recovery and assuring comebacks were crucial, as was reintegrating Ravichandran Ashwin as a course correcting move when Axar Patel was injured. And winning the Asia Cup and the ODI series against Australia too make for the right kind of buildup. But the touch of invincibility has been missing for a while, especially in the last-four stage.
There is no better stage than a World Cup at home to rectify that. “I have said it from the start, you know, every leader sitting here wants to achieve something really special for their country,” said India captain Rohit Sharma at the captains’ day meet in Ahmedabad on Wednesday. “It is something that is very highly prized; the 50-Over World Cup is something that I have always dreamt of growing up as a child, and I am sure it is the same for all the guys sitting here as well.”
Carrying similar weightage but more oomph, however, are defending champions England who— with Ben Stokes coming out of retirement — are seeking an encore in more challenging conditions. “It would without a doubt be a bigger achievement for England to win this World Cup than when we won in 2019,” Eoin Morgan, architect of that 2019 win, has said in his column on Sky Sports. “Winning here would carry a lot more weight than winning at home.”
Neither can you count out New Zealand who have made a habit of quietly reaching the final since 2015. “We just tend to, I guess, Kiwis fly under the radar a little bit and go about our business in the way that we want to,” said New Zealand captain Tom Latham on Wednesday. Pakistan, possibly at their best one-day version, need to live down an unenviable history of getting knocked out of the World Cup to India in India. South Africa, not as pedigreed as they once used to be, enter the competition free of pressure.
But Australia’s low-key entry is suspicious given no other team is more well versed in the art of winning World Cups. And even though Pat Cummins might seem more natural for Tests, his leadership does a fantastic job of insulating the likes of Steve Smith or David Warner from the kind of psychological grind these tournaments come with.
But playing in India isn’t as taxing as it once was, more because of the familiarity IPL has bred in the last decade. “We know what to expect,” said England captain Jos Buttler on Wednesday. “And lots of the other teams are in a similar position with that. So, I believe that’s an advantage for most teams to have played quite a bit of cricket in India.”
India may hold a slim advantage, but it’s this kind of level field that could make this World Cup all the more exciting.
[ad_2]
Source link