ALTHOUGH INDIA has qualified for the quarters in the Cricket World Cup, the real test will begin in the knock-out stage for the men in blue, who have been pegged as the world's best one day side and strong contender to win the coveted Cup.
If one sees the matches India has played so far in the preliminary round , 'Dhoni's devils’ have failed to impress even the local crowds as they struggled to beat the weak teams such as Bangladesh, Ireland and Netherlands, tied the sure-shot win match with England, and lost to South Africa cheaply.
India has not played like a world number one team. Unfortunately, ours is not a balanced team, thanks to Captain Dhoni and selectors.
The Indian team is a batsman-dominated side and our bowing is awfully weak, which even the selectors know. Munaf Patel and Ashish Nehra are in poor form and their body language gives ample indication to their bowling prowess. They don't match Zahir Khan and provide support from the other end.
Even Harbhajan and Chawla are not effective and are struggling to contain the batsmen thats leave Dhoni to call Yuvraj Singh to share the burden.
With this average performance will India win the World Cup? No, says former Australian captain Dean Jones. In an article written he had written in an Australian daily, he stated that Dhoni's aspiration to win the cup was just a 'dream'.
While giving his analysis for a team that aspires to win the Cup, Jones wrote that the team’s top four batsmen must be of a high quality and they must have the technique to play the new ball, as well as have the power and stroke play during Powerplays. These batsmen should have the ability and energy to bat through the whole 50 overs.
"All this taken into account, I do not believe India will win the World Cup 2011 with its current form. Everyone here has a huge regard for the Indian team. They have the batsmen, no doubt. Tendulkar and Sehwag can rip any attack. But that alone doesn't win the World Cup," he said.
While criticising unfit bowlers taken on board by the selectors, Jones said that Dhoni's bowling line-up comprising Zaheer Nehra, Piyush Chawla and Harbhajan Singh doesn't look as good as any of the line-ups of the previous teams.
Almost all TV commercials are predicting and wishing India to win the cup. In reality, we can even be beaten by Bangladesh or Zimbabwe if we don’t score more than 300. While dark horse Pakistan has been improving with every match they play, for India, its the other way around. We are losing our confidence with every match, and struggling to register as a world-class team.
In the last match against South Africa, though, our openers Shewag, Sachin and Gambhir gave India a splendid start, the middle order crumbled like a pack of cards.
From 267 for two we lost eight wickets for the score of just 29 runs. This doesn’t speak well for a team that is credited as a world class one day side.
When we failed to put up 350-plus runs on board, naturally with weak bowling we can’t even stop Kenya or Netherlands beating us, leave along the classy and disciplined team such as South Africa or Australia.
It’s foolish to think that with a strong batting line-up from head to tail and with choppy bowling we can beat any team. With poor fielding, bowling and lack of strategy, Indian cricket fans are in for a big disappointment - again.
Other Interesting Stories On >> ICC Cricket World Cup News, ICC Cricket World Cup 2011
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