World Champions! It is a crown that Indian Cricket has worn proudly since April 2, 2011. In about a month Team India will begin the defense of their title in Adelaide, against Pakistan. This time they will be far away from the comfort of home, taking the gauntlet thrown by the tough cricketing lands of the southern hemisphere.
The general public perception has always edged on skepticism when it comes to Indian team’s prospects of succeeding in countries like Australia and New Zealand given the vast contrast in conditions and pitches from back home. But the tenacity and heart that MS Dhoni’s young team has shown in the last three years playing in relatively alien conditions has injected a hope in India’s chances for the 2015 ICC World Cup.
More importantly, while there is hope on the outside, there is belief brimming from within. And it stems from a man who has seen and experienced more than an average lifetime’s worth of cricket.
Duncan Fletcher, with his sagacity accumulated in over 45 years in the sport, as a player and a coach, believes India stand a more than fair chance of defending their title. His opinion might be skewed towards the team he is at the helm of, as the head coach, but only because he has witnessed this side build and grow over the last four years, and is well aware of what they are capable of achieving.
Fletcher does not speak glowingly of India’s World Cup prospects because he has to. His optimism has its roots in facts and figures. Here is the coach’s exclusive analyses of Team India for the 2015 World Cup.
This is will be your first world cup with the Indian team. How excited are you about it?
This will be my third World Cup as a coach and I am very excited, especially given the side we have. I think we are a good chance to win after the way the team has been building over the last three-four years. A big reason for my belief is our Champions Trophy (2013) victory in England. We played in very foreign conditions that didn’t suit the side and yet we played so well that we didn’t lose a single match. That shows that the side is used to winning and that’s really exciting.
It is a very young team with only four surviving members from the 2011 World Cup winning squad. How do you see this squad in terms of experience?
This is a very important point. We do want experience. You cannot beat experience. Now, we have played three ICC tournaments in the last three years – the ICC World T20, 2012-13 and 2014, and the ICC Champions Trophy 2013. And people will be surprised to see that we have only lost two games in all of which one was the final. That is quite a record to be proud of. And the team in all those tournaments was more or less the same. So, these boys do have the experience when it comes to the big tournaments and they do know how to win them.
What makes this team special is that over the last few years they have faced all kinds of situations in the limited overs cricket and have shown they are capable of coming out successfully from all of them. That’s why I say that we have a good chance to win this World Cup.
Now India have reached a point where the Test and ODI squads are very similar. Does that help in maintaining the continuity? And how important is this continuity?
I think it’s very important. I truly believe that in these times if your squads are very similar in all three formats, it’s a huge advantage. The players are together all the time, they know each other’s games and the roles they have to play within the team. I’ve always believed that to play cricket, you need to have certain technical aspects not for the format you’re playing but for the game on the whole.
Since most of these boys have played in the Test series, they know the conditions well and how each player approaches his game in these conditions. When too many new players come in, it takes time for everyone to get used to their little idiosyncrasies and how they cope in certain situations. But when you know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, you are doing away with the learning curve and that gives you a chance to hit the ground running.
How big an advantage spending two and a half months in Australia before going into the World Cup would be?
It is going to be a huge advantage. Also, playing the tri-series just before the World Cup is a great idea for us in getting used to how the white ball behaves here. What’s more is that we don’t play these two sides (Australia and England) in the group stage and this series will be a good chance to have a look at them for the advance stages of the World Cup.
Will the team approach the tri-series as a preparation ground for the World Cup?
That’s one area where we will have to be careful, in maintaining the balance between trying to win the tri-series – and there’s no doubt that we want to win it because it will give us a huge momentum and confidence boost going into the World Cup – while also using it to try out some things that we might do in the World Cup, because by the time we get there, we want to be settled. We have to be careful in doing that – trying to sort some stuff out, be it a technical issue or a selection issue or getting the players to be comfortable with their respective roles going into the World Cup.
A classic example of this point is pertaining to our bowling attack. The two bowlers in the tri-series who are not part of the World Cup squad – Dhawal Kulkarni and Mohit Sharma – will be used to give those who played the Tests a bit of rest. This is where we’ve got to be smart. We still want those main bowlers to learn and be ready to be able to bowl in one-day conditions with the white ball. At the same time we don’t want to over-bowl before the World Cup.
What is your assessment of India’s bowling in the Test series and how do you see them faring in the ODIs?
I agree that there is a lot of work to do with the bowlers and they must realize their responsibilities at the Test level. But I also think the Indian pacers get a lot of unwarranted flak. You look at the highest wicket-takers in the Test series. (Mohammad) Shami (15 wickets at 35.80) has taken more wickets than (Mitchell) Johnson (13 wickets at 35.53) at a similar average. And this was Shami’s first tour here. Umesh Yadav (11) has only one less wicket than Josh Hazlewood (12). And this is after being in and out of the Test and ODI team on a regular basis, which is not good for the confidence and rhythm of any bowler. For these bowlers it’s just the matter gaining experience of bowling in these conditions. It was something that Ishant showed right through the series.
As for in the World Cup, we have to remember that when we won the Champions Trophy, the bowlers defended a very, very low total for us and they must be given credit for that. I feel that they are much more confident when they bowl in the one-day game because they have played more amount of limited overs cricket with the ODIs, IPL and T20Is. They have much more experience in the shorter formats as compared to Test cricket and I am sure they will put on a good performance.
Are you overall pleased with the form of the batsmen?
It’s good to see almost all the batsmen among runs, especially that outstanding performance by Virat. He has also done well in Australia in ODIs and I hope that continues. He is such a positive individual and has a very positive influence on the side. The other batsmen, at times, have shown good form. The one area they need to work on is their risk assessment. In the Test matches, at times, I felt like they got themselves out. Now they need to understand what shots are on in certain situations. That will be one important aspect for us to work on in the tri-series.
Was it difficult to pick a squad for the World Cup given the matches are divided between two countries?
It wasn’t difficult because the conditions in New Zealand are quite similar to those in England. And we have done well in England in the ODIs. Also, most of these players did well in the one-dayers in Australia last time. So, this side is pretty well covered to play in both the countries.
India’s first two big matches in the group stage are in Adelaide (against Pakistan) and Melbourne (against South Africa), which were also the Test venues. Will that help?
I think it will make a difference. We basically lived in Adelaide for the first part of this tour and we have played a Test in Melbourne, which is going to be a huge advantage. Even if you take the change in format into consideration, I don’t think there will be any significant change in the conditions and the wickets. I don’t see them preparing any different wickets for the ODIs.
What is that one quality that gives this team an edge over the others?
One-day cricket is all about handling extreme pressure when the side is down; understanding where the game is poised at that stage and finding your way out of that situation to end up on the winning side. Our excellent record when chasing totals shows that. The team has been led by MS Dhoni’s attitude. Most other sides can’t do it because under such pressure, you lose your cool, the decision-making becomes cluttered and you lose your way. Because MS is so adept at soaking in the pressure, we have done well in those situations. It is important to be calm and take the game all the way and win with maybe three balls to spare. People might say, ‘Oh, they barely got home’, but getting home is the most important thing.
Does MS’s calmness in such situations rub off on the other players?
It does rub off on the team as a whole but as individuals, it is not something you can impart to someone. Your upbringing and nature determines that. It is very difficult to teach someone how to be calm under pressure. MS knows how to do it himself but how do you explain how it is done to someone else? It comes from within.
Given the conditions here, do you think the team is covered when it comes to having a quality all-rounder in the middle-order?
That’s one area that makes me a bit nervous. What we need in these conditions is a good batting all-rounder who bowls seam. That will add depth in our batting and give us that extra bowler. That is the real reason why we have Stuart Binny in the squad. We’ll have to have a close look at him here because batting deep is going to be very, very important in this World Cup.
I think it’s very critical that our top batsmen bowl a bit too. I genuinely believe that some of our batsmen have very, very good bowling actions. They just need to put it into practice in the nets. If they really put in a good effort, they could turn into really good spin bowlers.
By: BCCI
