As the Indian team boarded their flight to England for the Champions Trophy, fans back home must have harboured a zillion expectations.
The batting was expected to come apart in the face of swing and seam from the likes of Steyn, Morkel and Irfan in the group stages.
While some fans anticipated heartbreak before the knockout stages, others expected India to scrape through on a wing, complicated NRR calculations and 1.2 billion prayers. Regular suspects like a last over Dhoni finish and ineffectual Indian bowling were high on the list of things to await. But the Indian team has failed to deliver what the fans expected them to.
By moving Rohit Sharma to the top of the order, the team management has deprived the Indian fans of the regular sight of him throwing his wicket away and squandering his natural ability.
The inclusion of Dhawan has led to the loss of the prospect of seeing a Gambhir or a Sehwag or a Rahane provide the anticipated top order melt-down, exposing the middle and lower middle order. (Dhawan and Sharma average 90.75 as an opening pair in this tournament against an average of 23.92 by other Indian opening combinations over the preceding 12 months.*)
The English pitches and atmospheric conditions have also had a role to play by generally not offering any swing or seam to the faster bowlers. Fans of Suresh Raina have been severely let down by the top four in the batting order as they did not even allow him to bat. And instead of crafting nail-biting last over finishes, Dhoni has either cooled his heels in the dressing room or tried to excite our imaginations with the ball in hand.
Team India has not managed to lose even a single match on their way to the final. They have failed to leave the fate of their entry into the knockout stages till their very last game, thereby even turning the marquee clash with Pakistan into a dead rubber.
They have been unable to provide any drama, tension and emotional turmoil in their journey to the final – not one loss to a less-fancied opponent, not one agonizing wait for the results of other matches to determine their chances of entering the knockout stage, not even one dramatic Virat Kohli masterclass in a mad scramble to prop up the NRR.
Moreover, India has entered the tournament final as the best side in the competition. Clinical and authoritative were never words Indian fans had associated with their team. Since when did Team India start encroaching territory that the Australian side of the past decade had made their own?
The least of the Indian fans’ expectations that might now materialise is the display of India’s historical below par performances in the finals of tournaments (India have won only 8 out of their 32 tournament final appearances over the last 15 years*).
But by the looks of the conditions at Edgbaston, Team India are going to upturn the expectations of Indian fans once again.
* Statistics as on June 21, 2013
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