There is an air of invincibility around the Indian team at the World Cup. For a team that was not seen as an outright favourite to lift their second world title on home soil, India has been the team to beat by far, as the tournament reaches the semifinal stage.
Cricket World Cup: How India can buck law of averages, Hayden and Hussey share the secret
Right from their first match in Chennai, where they recovered from an early wobble to post a commanding win, India have only been upping their game and intensity every time they have taken the field. Having the best fast-bowling unit they ever had, allied with a very resourceful batting line-up that isn’t short of match-winners on their own, this team under Rohit Sharma is showing the Men in Blue faithful how the Aussies would have felt in the noughties.
Of course, despite their dominant cruise through the league phase, India have not won anything yet. But never before in the past 12 editions has any team, barring the all-conquering Australia of 2003 & 2007, looked unbeatable. As India keep ticking one box after another, with only two more to go, there is this quintessential question lingering in every India fan’s mind. Will the law of averages catch up with India in the knockouts?
The question is not without merit. For in 2015, they were on a similar run, only for Australia to show them the reality in the semifinal in Sydney.
However, the sort of dominance that India have displayed this time against each of their nine opponents is unforeseen. The only team that had a similar dominant run from start to finish was Ricky Ponting’s Australian side in the 2007 World Cup. Even though they had won the title in the previous edition as well, they were run close by England and New Zealand in South Africa, but in the Caribbean, none came close to even posing a challenge.
Even back then, Australia faced similar questions, especially about the law of averages, more so because they had their bigger players in the twilight of their careers.
Right from their first match in Chennai, where they recovered from an early wobble to post a commanding win, India have only been upping their game and intensity every time they have taken the field. (Reuters)
“That’s really for the pundits to decide and discuss around a World Cup. But ultimately, inside a team unit, you can gauge the barometer of the success and the taste and hunger for a trophy and title by each game. Playing each game on merit really is the only focus so it becomes really a ball-by-ball, over-by-over, innings-by-innings, match-by-match exercise,” Matthew Hayden, who won World Cups in 2003 and 2007, tells The Indian Express
Proving Doubting Thomases wrong
Like it was the case with the Indian team before the World Cup began, in 2007, despite being two-time defending champions, Australia were not seen as the favourites. An indifferent home summer when they lost the tri-series to England, and a whitewash in New Zealand just weeks before the World Cup, had sort of undermined their credentials. And with South Africa emerging as strong contenders, it looked to be a tournament where the Aussies would crack, but the winning streak that began at the 1999 World Cup continued throughout the Caribbean too.
“There is always the fear that one match you could fall over or you could fall flat in one spell. But it’s really about focusing on exactly what you can control and eliminate everything that you can’t. Ultimately, that can only be done at an individual level and we had strong characters. It can be done through not beating your chest, but through beating the opposition, and beating the moment. It’s as simple as that. There’s not a lot of rocket science to winning World Cups, but there certainly has to be a belief that you can. You are in the moment every time and from that point on, the rest looks after itself,” Hayden, who is now a commentator for Star Sports, says.
India’s Virat Kohli celebrates the wicket of Netherlands’ captain Scott Edwards with Rohit Sharma during their Cricket World Cup match in Bengaluru. (AP Photo)
There is also another similarity in India’s campaign so far to that of Australia in 2007. They had good gaps between matches, which meant they have had enough time to recover and maintain the intensity that has made them ruthless. Like how India have been having optional net sessions to team-building activities to take the pressure off, Australia used the Caribbean landscape – the beaches and mountains – to unwind.
“Preparation was key and the level of detailing we had was unbelievable as in we were prepared for each situation and game. At the same time, we had lots of time between games, so we were able to sort of relax, get away from the game, and then come back and really prepare. It didn’t matter who we were playing or that we won in the past. That was already all gone. It was already moving on to the next one, putting the previous game in the bin. We had experienced players, all that we needed was to have the right ambience,” Mike Hussey, who was part of the 2007 team and is currently the batting coach of Chennai Super Kings, tells The Indian Express.
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Crunch time
As India enter the key part of their campaign, both Hayden and Hussey believe the real test starts now. In that 2007 World Cup, South Africa, who came in as No.1-ranked side and looked like genuine contenders, tried to unsettle the Aussies in the semifinal and self-destructed.
“Just because it is a semifinal doesn’t mean you need to try harder or put more pressure on yourself. As it turned out in that game, South Africa tried to change the way they played. Instead of just playing a good, hard game of cricket, they tried to come out ultra-aggressive, and lost too many wickets by trying to go too hard. I don’t think we played any better than we had earlier,” Hussey recalls.