India at Champions Trophy 2013 - A review

The all-conquering Dhoni’s team added the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 to the list of their achievements. The 2011 World Cup win was special as it took a long time coming and it gave the country a lot to cheer about. Yesterday’s victory illustrates that the team, despite some hiccups in the Test arena, has indeed consolidated its position as the most dominant team in the ODI format since then. The fact that we lead the ODI team rankings by a considerable margin also bears testimony to the fact.

What was refreshing to see in the current Indian team was that not only did they win convincingly when dominating the game, but also showed great resolve and fight to come back from tricky situations, which was best illustrated in the final. It was one of the few occasions when India played a multi-nation tournament with an unchanged XI. This was mainly due to the fact that every individual did their bit to contribute to the team’s success.

India’s cause was helped by the strong start that the openers gave in almost all matches. Shikhar Dhawan continued his dream run which started with his debut Test century, and he looks set to occupy the opener’s slot for India in all 3 formats for some time to come. Rohit Sharma impressed, and should be given a longer run as the opener. However, as elegant and entertaining player he is, his habit of throwing away his wicket still raises a question mark over his consistency. One hopes that he can finally do justice to his talent in international cricket.

Virat Kohi was solid at number 3 and played good knocks in the semifinal and final. The big scores which we have come to expect from him may be missing in the tournament, but he did play his part quite well, especially when wickets tumbled around him in the final. Dinesh Karthik scored a good fifty against Sri Lanka and his presence in the team also gave Dhoni the freedom to relieve himself from wicketkeeping duties to have a go at the bowling. Karthik’s two centuries in the warm-ups were key to India winning those, and these wins gave the momentum to the team to proceed and have an unbeaten tournament.

Captain Dhoni had a largely indifferent tournament with the bat, but he made up for it with his neat wicketkeeping and good captaincy. There is also little doubt now about who is the best bowler-keeper in international cricket! Suresh Raina didn’t do much with the bat, but contributed well with his excellent fielding and occasional off-spin.

‘Sir’ Ravindra Jadeja continued his good all-round form, making crucial quick runs against South Africa and England, was brilliant in the field, and took plenty of wickets to finish off as the tournament’s most successful bowler. His hard work has been the main reason for the change from him being a subject of mockery to now universal respect and admiration, and he deserves a lot of credit for this. Succeeding, when achieved against the odds and expectations, is never easy.

It was a good tournament for Ravichandran Ashwin with the ball, as he continues his development as a fine world-class off-spinner. He is also developing well as a neat slip fielder. Bhuvneshwar Kumar impressed everyone with his economical opening spells, and regularly scalped the wickets of the opening batsmen. Ishant Sharma was his usual enigmatic self. He leaked runs many times, which should concern the team management. But his 2 wickets off consecutive balls changed the course of the final, and his performance in the semifinal was impressive too. Umesh Yadav was pacy and picked up some important wickets, but is another one who needs to look at avoiding freebies to the opposition.

The fact that none of the pacemen who featured in the World Cup 2011 final were part of the Champions Trophy squad, highlights the need to nurture and develop Bhuvneshwar and Umesh properly, and not lose them like those before them, who came, showed potential, and then fizzled out.

From the team that played World Cup 2011 final, only Dhoni, Kohli and Raina featured in the Champions Trophy and that shows the amount of transition that has happened in just over 2 years. This is a younger and more athletic squad, and the improvement in fielding standard was there to see for everyone. The likes of Raina, Jadeja, Rohit, Kohli and Karthik were livewires on the field. Credit must go to the selectors and the support staff too for their efforts in the development of this team.

The aim of the team should be to continue their ruthless streak in ODIs, and also extend it to the other formats, and target to defend the World Cup at Australia/New Zealand in 2015. From what we saw at the Champions Trophy 2013, we seem to be very much on the right track.