The Avengers: Is this the best Indian team ever?

Shikhar Dhawan

When the topic of the best Indian team of all-time arises, the team of 2011 comes to mind. And why not – it won us the World Cup after 28 years. In the process, it became the first team to win a World Cup on home soil. And, more importantly, Sachin Tendulkar finally got his hands on the game’s ultimate prize.

But use a sharper fingernail to scratch the surface and the questions start to arise. India’s campaign was far from perfect but the cracks got papered over by the end result. Even his most die-hard fan would admit that Virender Sehwag‘s campaign had started and finished with the opening game of the tournament and his opening partner washed all his previous sins with a single match-winning innings in the final.

The middle and lower orders collapsed against South Africa and West Indies with Yusuf Pathan proving to be whiter than an elephant made of ivory. Barring the final, M.S. Dhoni let his captaincy do the talking over his batting. And the bowling ranged from somewhat impressive to atrocious (especially in the death overs) but never exceptional.

More importantly, you could sense the feeling that this side would not be around in two years time to play the Champions Trophy. Tendulkar was already 38 while the likes of Sehwag and Zaheer were pushing 35. Harbhajan Singh had started his journey on the downward spiral while Ashish Nehra’s fragile body had taken too much of a beating for his own good. And most significantly, it would be a long time before the next major ODI trophy would be played in the subcontinent.

With the new-look Champions of the Trophy, things are more than slightly different. We find out why.

The openers – It might be too early to call this Rohit Sharma’s second coming but he has taken a few steps in the right direction. He is still some distance off from writing a full-fledged novel with his silken blade but each of his short stories has demonstrated why even after six years of diminishing returns India chooses to put its faith in him. Many would question the tactic of sending a batsman with temperament issues and slighted technique to open the batting in overcast conditions but go back 11 years and you had Virender Sehwag in the same position. And we all know what happened later.

As for Shikhar Dhawan, he does most of his talking himself – with the bat. Cynics would point out that he has not been tested in unfriendly conditions yet and that he has ridden the wave of luck more often than not. But nine years of waiting in the wings while watching his colleagues climb the ladder above him would have steeled in Dhawan the virtues to deal with adversity. We will wait for it when the time comes.

The all-rounders – It might be a touch too early to say this but India just might have found the answer to a long-time problem – the number seven slot. And interestingly, we are not talking about a single individual here.

The earlier Indian sides had a clear fault line running through the side – the best young batsmen in the world till number 7 and the best non-batsmen in the world after that. There was a palpable lacuna of an all-rounder.

Ravindra Jadeja

Ravindra Jadeja is no Yuvraj Singh but then Ravi Ashwin and Bhuvi Kumar are no Venkatesh Prasad either. Jadeja knows this and it has allowed him to go out in the middle and take the attack to the opposition – a trait where his long-time rival Yusuf Pathan was expected to beat the stuffing out of him. With the ball, Jadeja was always an effective limited overs option but he has really come across with the bat in this tournament – I would go as far as to say he is a better package deal than Ashwin for a sole spinner’s spot if you factor in his fielding efforts too.

While Ashwin and Kumar haven’t had to bat too much in this tournament, both have earlier showcased their abilities to play both the waiting game and that of an aggressor. On paper India has one of the strongest set of batsmen in their line-up but on that odd off-day it can look forward to numbers 7,8 and 9 stepping up to be counted.

The fielding – M.S. Dhoni is not one of the greatest braggarts of all-time. So when he says his side is the best fielding side in the tournament, chances are he is not lying. Gone are the days when the Indian team had more passengers on the field than a morning train from Dadar to Churchgate. There are specialists now – from panthers who man the inner circle to hawks who wait with undying patience in the slip cordon. The weakest fielders Ishant and Umesh Yadav would fight for top spot in the best Indian fast bowling fielder rankings of all-time. The team still needs a couple of power throwers from the deep but lamenting the lack of the same at present would be an exercise in extreme pessimism.

The age – In the unchanged XI that India fielded throughout the tournament, Dhoni, at 32, was the oldest by quite a bit. Among the reserves, only Amit Mishra would be touching 30 this year. In two years time when the World Cup comes calling Down Under, most of these guys would be around and, more importantly, in their prime. If they can keep themselves grounded and hungry, Indian cricket has more than a few exciting years ahead of it.

The pack mentality – The current trend is to call any pitch with a hint of turn a subcontinental pitch. It is almost akin to comparing a green Nagpur surface to the WACA turf. Yes, the pitches took turn more often than expected but the overcast conditions and the wet ball evened up things for spinners. And by no stretch of imagination were Ashwin and Jadeja the most anticipated tweakers of the tournament. And there was none of the flatness that is associated with the batsmen friendly dustbowls of Asia.

What worked for India was the sum of the parts being greater than the whole. Rohit and Dhawan saw off the seaming and swinging new balls on more occasions than one leaving the middle order in a highly desirable position. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar (swing), Umesh Yadav (pace) and Ishant Sharma (bounce) completed the holy trinity of a fast bowler’s arsenal. And Ashwin and Jadeja added equal doses of guile and consistency to the mixture to make it a potent potion. It is a formula which will work more often than not in most conditions.

This was the place where, in 2011, the team had suffered its first real ignominy in recent years after one of the biggest successes of all time. Revenge might have been the last thing on their mind – coincidentally they beat England to win the final – but the “Avengers” have begun on a successful note. Many would be keeping track of their progress.