Team India's road to World Cup 2015

Can MS Dhoni and Co defend their World Cup crown?

It is that time of the year when cricket and academics would seem to have quite a few things in common. There is a major board exam scheduled early next year, and the high school students are getting into the groove by putting in a lot of preparation for the D-day. There will be two kinds of students sitting for those exams: one who are consistently doing well and just need a minor revision for a smooth build-up to the exams, and the other who are hoping that the chaos around them starts to make sense soon.

The cricketing world is facing a similar situation. All the top teams are treating the tournaments in the build-up to the World Cup as pre-boards to get the strategy in place. While some of the consistently performing students like Australia are zeroing in on the final few pieces of the jigsaw, teams like England are stuck with a squad that looks like a secluded boat stuck in middle of troubled waters. As a cricket fan, it will be interesting to follow the fixtures of the next few months from close quarters as all the teams focus on mustering the best army for the war Down Under.

A new-look Indian side

Among those armies, there is one camp that lacks the experienced men who led them to victory in the previous war. For the defending champions India, there would be no Sachin Tendulkar amassing hundreds of runs. There might be no Zaheer Khan to inflict those crucial blows on the opposition. There might be no Virender Sehwag to provide the momentum in those early overs. Still, the ones who have taken over the baton are no pushovers. They form a formidable and cohesive unit led by arguably their most successful leader. It is a unit that has started to find the lost stability and zeal again. Their ODI form has not been affected by the long disastrous run in the longer format. The convincing series victory over England has stamped their authority as one of the favourites for the World Cup. Some permutations have started to make sense after that series, which witnessed a great fight back by the touring side.

Some permutations have started to make sense after that series, which witnessed a great fight back by the touring side. Rahane has found comfort in his new role as an opener, and Shikhar Dhawan has started to rediscover the Midas touch of 2013. The lower middle order looks more reliable with the presence of the in-form Ambati Rayudu, Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni. Rayudu, though, faces a serious competition from Rohit Sharma, who might walk in as a No.4 when he recovers from the shoulder injury.

Things would get a lot interesting if the Hyderabad-born carries his good form to the West Indies series. Dhoni won’t mind this problem of plenty in that packed middle-order. Jadeja’s clean hitting has found some consistency of late. Along with Ashwin at 8, he makes up for the lack of a genuine No.7 batsman in the line-up.

Concerns that need to be addressed

But there are a few loose screws that need to be tightened before February next year. One of the major concerns remains the drying up of runs from Virat Kohli’s bat. His vulnerability to the balls outside the off-stump brought a lot of ducks for him in the English conditions. India’s chances at the extravaganza depend a lot on how quickly the Delhi batsman finds a way out of his worst slump in form. The bowling department seems a little over-dependent on the Jadeja-Ashwin duo for stopping the flow of runs and for plucking out wickets at crucial junctures.

The vacancies for the supporting third spinner are still up for grabs in case Dhoni experiments with a three-spin attack in Australian conditions. Amit Mishra and Karn Sharma were the two major contenders for the spot, but the selectors have gambled for the West Indies series by bringing in a surprise element in the form of Kuldeep Yadav. This makes this mini-battle among spinners even more interesting. But the pacer-friendly conditions in Australia/New Zealand and Raina’s good form as a stop-gap spinner might rule out the possibility of a third spinner in the final line-up. In the pace department, only Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been able to string together some consistent performances in the last year. It has opened up the gates for an interesting contest among Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, Varun Aaron and Mohit Sharma to prove their mettle in the upcoming ODI encounters.

Door shut on the rest

Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Sanju Samson, Stuart Binny, Pankaj Singh, Murali Vijay and Dhawal Kulkarni will, in all probabilities, not have too many opportunities to prove their case. Meanwhile, a few others like Manoj Tiwary, Kedar Jadhav, Wriddhiman Saha, Akshar Patel, Ashish Nehra, Cheteshwar Pujara and the veterans Zaheer Khan, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag would find themselves at the rear end of this queue, almost certain of their fate. It is still a long way before India takes guard in the much-awaited World Cup Down Under.

Besides the 5-match ODI series against the West Indies, they have a long tri-series scheduled against Australia and England. The odds of winning could change drastically in these final few months with 10 international bilateral series scheduled in the next five months. India would hope that they find answers to the few questions that still stand between their chances of defending the World Cup.

When MS Dhoni steps out on the field on October 8, he will realise that every single move he makes on and off the field from then on will matter in deciding if he can defend the World Champions crown. Winning back-to-back World Cups won’t be a cakewalk. Only time will tell which student comes out with flying colours in those exams. For India, the road to the World Cup has certainly begun.