Maybe those who follow the Indian men’s cricket team – that includes a large proportion of the country’s population – analyse and agonise a bit too much. Injuries to key players, holes in the batting line-up, difficulty in getting a quality left-hander in the middle order, and options in the spin bowling department have been treated as matters of great national concern in the lead-up to the 50-over World Cup.
To be fair, every time a FIFA World Cup or a respective continental championship approaches, one sees such levels of obsession in England or Brazil. But a decade-long wait for a senior ICC trophy and the fact that the tournament is being held in India has taken this phenomenon to another level, convincing long-suffering fans that India is not likely to get a better chance. That India emerged triumphant when they last hosted the tournament has only added heft to that belief.
India is the lubricant that keeps the global cricket show moving. It’s the passion of the Indian fan – in the country and among the diaspora – that makes the game and the big tournaments financially viable. If there was no such emotional investment in the fortunes of the Indian team, big corporates would think twice before putting the sponsorship amounts in the game that they readily do. But this financial and marketing muscle doesn’t bring any divine right to dominate on the cricket field.
As it is, India has been doing better than most over the last ten years and has been ranked at the top in all three formats at various times. They have just not been able to get the job done in ICC tournaments despite reaching the sharp end on almost every occasion.
The team selection for the Asia Cup – in ‘usual’ times, an excuse to schedule as many as three India-Pakistan games within two weeks, a windfall for broadcasters – wouldn’t matter so much if it wasn’t for the proximity to the World Cup.
Whether Jasprit Bumrah and Prasidh Krishna can get through 10 overs of bowling and 50 overs of fielding in a day, whether Shreyas Iyer’s back and KL Rahul’s back hold up, and whether Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma can replicate their T20 form in the 50-over format have become existential questions for the die-hard follower. It all adds to the hype, the lifeblood of all high-profile events, if one asks the marketing gurus.
As of now, the inclusion of all these players in the squad going to Sri Lanka has injected a feel-good adrenalin in Indian cricket – that all is well and their destiny will culminate in glory in Ahmedabad on November 19. But in a way, all this could be setting up the fans for a major disappointment when the main course, the World Cup, gets underway. If anything goes wrong with these players in the middle of the tournament, there will be a readymade explanation of injured players returning to top-level cricket a bit too early.
But then, such was the widespread concern about their availability that the risk may seem well worth it. Rishabh Pant is already unavailable for an indefinite period. However, as far as the endless analysis and dissection of India’s chances are concerned, it may just be pointless. If Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma have the tournament of their lives, if Hardik Pandya blitzes the bowlers in the death overs, if Mohammed Shami and Mohammed Siraj breathe fire, and if Kuldeep Yadav continues to spin a web around batsmen as he has done lately, the prayers of millions of fans could well be answered.
It all depends on everything coming together during the month and a half and more crucially, the few matches at the business end of the tournament. Whatever happens before and after the World Cup will hardly be remembered by too many other than the statisticians.
Hardly any side these days is a perfect team. The last team that came closest to that description would be the Australian legends, who won three World Cups in a row (1999-2007), especially the units that clinched the last two of those tournaments. Otherwise, something somewhere is always lacking. Hence, the pursuit of perfection is a fruitless exercise. The team that works around its imperfections in the best way possible has the biggest chance of success.
The team that won the 2011 World Cup wasn’t the perfect side either. It was just the best equipped to deal with the conditions on offer and had the good fortune of key players stepping up and delivering on the big day. Before the tournament, hardly anyone would have expected Yuvraj Singh to come to the party with the ball or Suresh Raina to play vital cameos in the quarterfinal against Australia and the semifinal against Pakistan.
Hence, both the casual fans as well as the avid cricket-lover would do well to set the anxiety to one side and enjoy the fare on offer over the festive period. After all, sport is not a matter of life and death.