When India first won the ICC World Cup in 1975 under Kapil Dev’s captaincy, they surprised the whole cricketing world. It was because India had a terrible overseas record and had been eliminated in the previous two World Cups in the first round only. But since then, the scenario has changed. India bounced back into the tournament in the 2003 World Cup. When they arrived in South Africa for the 2003 World Cup, they came with a mission in mind. While nobody expected India to put up a fight, keeping in mind their disastrous tour of New Zealand just prior to the World Cup, but the Men in Blue started winning games after games. They also won many hearts along the way as they only lost to Australia on their way to the finals at Johannesburg. But they lost the plot badly as they could only manage 234 runs before Australia’s mammoth total of 359-2. The loss left a scar on the team’s mind even though India continued to be a major force in the world cricket. Four years later, high on expectations, the Indian team arrived in West Indies for the 2007 World Cup. They lost to Bangladesh and then Sri Lanka, which made their last game against Bermuda a mere formality. While they did manage to pile up the highest team total of the tournament, they failed to make it past the group stage and had to return back in shame.
Then in 2011 World Cup, with new bunch of players and a young captain in the command seat, team India rose to their home crowd’s expectations and won the World Cup, for the second time. It was captain MS Dhoni himself, who hit the winning six as India comfortably chased down Sri Lanka’s 274-6 at Mumbai. Now the defending champions look fiercer than before and better prepared than any team in the world.
With an able, dynamic and super cool captain in MS Dhoni, the ship is always afloat. Sachin Tendulkar may have retired from the ODI’s but India still have services of Virender Sehwag, but only if he makes it to the playing eleven. Virat Kohli has cemented his place in the team and there’s always Gautam Gambir and Yuvraj Singh to the rescue. Then there’s Ravindra Jadeja, probably one of the world’s best all-rounders at this time. Indian bowling department looks little weak right now and fans can only hope that speedster Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh remain fit till 2015. Whichever angle you look at, India is the team to beat.
