Like Dhoni in 2011, Rohit needs to find his Raina, Ashwin, Nehra, Munaf and Gambhir for 2023 World Cup

It’s not that Indian cricket lacks options. There is a strong party of recovered / recovering players who aren’t in the West Indies but remain in contention. Adding Jasprit Bumrah, R Ashwin, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Mohammad Shami, Prasidh Krishna, alongside latest Test debutant Yashasvi Jaiswal, to the star-studded Indian team in Barbados, blends into a talent pool that can field two competitive sides at this World Cup. But the tougher part is to pick a balanced squad that is mentally strong, isn’t heavily dependent on a few and malleable enough to change form in this long tournament of twists and turns.

Reference point

To know what that ideal Tournament Team looks like, refer to the scoreboard of the 2011 India vs Australia quarter-final. The team sheet that day read as follows: Sehwag, Tendulkar, Gambhir, Kohli, Dhoni, Raina, Ashwin, Harbhajan, Zaheer and Munaf. For this crucial knockout game, India had dared to make a course correction. Blessed with variety and experience in their squad, they dared to switch to Plan B for their first knockout game.

In the previous six league games, India had persisted with all-rounder Yusuf Pathan. Like Hardik Pandya now, Pathan back then was the team’s Man Friday. He could bowl in the powerplay, bowl with the new as well as the old ball. He was also the big-hitting floating batsman, skilled to play the role of pinch-hitter, disruptor and finisher. Despite repeated chances, Pathan couldn’t be the game-changer. The punt was proving to be wrong.

For the Australia game, Team India had the confidence of drafting in Ashwin and Raina, players who had played just one of the six league games. In those 10 months, Kirsten and Dhoni had prepared themselves for all eventualities. Having observed every player closely in crisis situations, they didn’t take the safe option of sticking to the tried and tested. Every player had been thrown at the deep end and none had sunk. Leaders of battle-hardened units aren’t jittery of change.

Flexible templates

India in the 2011 World Cup didn’t need to be a slave to any format. In the 9 games they played, they went for ‘3 pacers, 1 spinner, 2 all-rounders’, ‘2 pacers, 2 spinners, 2 all-rounders’ or ‘2 pacers, 2 spinners, 1 all-rounder’. Plus, Dhoni also had the cushion of having the occasional bowlers in the side. Sachin and Kohli could bowl a few and Raina, on his day, especially with his off-breaks against left-handers, could play the role of a frontline spinner.

So for the ‘highest hurdle’ Australia game, India dropped Yusuf for the first time in the tournament and split his role between Ashwin and Raina. Since there were just two pacers – Zaheer and Munaf – Ashwin took the new ball. Raina batted in the middle-order. Unfazed by the responsibility, Ashwin delivered the first blow. He got opener Shane Watson. Ask anyone with even a fleeting interest in cricket the importance of getting Watson in a knockout.

Raina, meanwhile, played an inning that Kirsten would rave for days and years. He, along with Yuvraj, took India home in a tight chase. It’s a feat that several of India’s batting greats have failed to perform in ICC events. In a team that had Tendulkar, Sehwag, Gambhir and Kohli; it was Yuvaj and Raina who stood on the burning deck when the team was five down and needed 74 at almost six an over. That too against Australia in the World Cup.

In 2017, at a corporate talk, Kirsten would say: “Suresh pretty much won the World Cup for us with that knock against the Australians in the quarterfinals. He had just played one game and then he went on and played the most responsible, mature knock and won us the game. For me, that was really a combination of years of making mistakes but learning along the way.”

Yuvraj in his book ‘The Test of my life’ writes about the partnership. He recalls the time Raina was bombed with short balls but he survived. The Aussies would sledge him and Raina tried to confront them but Yuvi restrained him. “For the first time in 12 years Australia was thrown out of the World Cup. They may have won three titles, but not this one. We got there with two overs to spare. No huffing, no puffing. Calm, tight, methodical, clinical work and that too in the middle of all the tension and ever-louder verbals from Australians,” Yuvraj would write.

For the 2023 campaign to succeed, India will need to find their own Raina and Ashwin, players who rise to the occasion and play out of their skin. But that’s not all, the World Cup trek isn’t that easy. As Yuvraj’s book tells, a World Cup winning team also needs seniors to inspire and be inspired.

Words of inspiration

There is a touching section of ‘The Test of my life’, where Yuvraj, feeling low, gets a dinner invite from Tendulkar. The interaction would put Yuvi on the path of greatness and get him the Man of the Tournament award. The trigger was a suggestion that Tendulkar gave: “Play the tournament for someone you love or respect or for someone who is special and has played a huge role in your life. Make the World Cup part of that debt that you have to fulfill.”

Yuvi didn’t have to go too far to search for that person. He decided to play the World Cup for Tendulkar. He got prints of two pictures – one of Tendulkar playing on-drive and other of him playing the same stroke – and pasted them on his kit bag. Every time he reached out for his bat, he saw the pictures that constantly reminded him of the goal.

Like in the quarters, the semi-final against Pakistan would see another unfancied player shine. Ashish Nehra struck two crucial blows to be the most effective bowler of the game. Munaf Patel would be the second best. In the final, if not for Gautam Gambhir, the cult of Dhoni wouldn’t have shaped.

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Back to Kirsten and the evening where he was asked about Dhoni. “I would go to war with this guy,” he said. With a brave, multi-dimensional and inspired army behind Dhoni, who wouldn’t?

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