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
Blesson Gregory
Roar Rookie
Yes, the real test for the young crop of Indian batsmen is going to be South Africa. Steyn, Morkel and Philander are going to be a handful in those conditions. I think there might be a case for trying out Dinesh Karthik as an opener in Tests, if Vijay fails. Similarly, I would like to see what Rohit Sharma can do in the Indian Test middle order.
Indian cricket fan
Guest
I must say, right now, the vast majority of Indians are secretly hoping & wishing, the seniors don't find their way back to the team - Sehwag, Gambhir, Yuvraj maybe Zaheer and I dare-say even Sachin. Granted tests are a different ball of wax but counting Pujara, India have a stacked batting order. M.Vijay is circumspect and I don't believe will last long - SAfrica is likely to be his Waterloo. I think Rohit will never make it to tests, Karthik has sticking power & enough technique to make the cut and be experimented with at #5. I'm not sold on Rahane. Bowling will always be the achilles heel although India's in a far better situation than ever before. It would look certifiably complete if Zaheer could regain complete fitness to replace Ishant probably 'cause Bhuvi & maybe Umesh have the scope to get better over time. Lastly, the batsmen can't really claim to have been tested in legit. English conditions in this Champions trophy. Yes they were playing with 2 new balls but they weren't test cricket cherries. Yes whites typically swing more but Kookaburras have a low seam that inhibits swing vs. Dukes or SG's. To compound things, this season's batch of Kook's in particular produced absolutely minimal swing according to an English commentator. To further ease matters for the batsmen, the wickets were bone dry with no hint of grass. So there you have it. The Indian batting order should hopefully face their test in SAfrica or NZ.
Blesson Gregory
Roar Rookie
The spinning track helped, I must say. But, yes. Great work by the selectors. They did the dirty job by dropping senior out of form players from the squad itself, instead of leaving them in the squad and expecting the coach and the captain to leave them out of the playing XI.
Indian cricket fan
Guest
What a final it turned out to be. Demonstrated higher levels of adaptability and fighting spirit than any Indian team has ever shown. Also showed the amazing foresight that Dhoni has. Don't know how many people noticed as I saw no commentary on it - Dhoni actually shadow-played Tredwell's attempted heave prior to the last ball to prepare Ashwin for it. Finally the new board of selectors have done far more than their predecessors have ever dared to - cleared the shelves of expensive ware that were past their sell by dates to bring in a new generation that would have otherwise seen their careers drift by otherwise.