World Cup loss isn’t end of road for Indian team
While massive disappointment and some bit of anger among Indians here and abroad over the defeat of the country's cricket team in the World Cup semi-final match against Australia is understandable, what is not is the condemnation of the men in blue — as if they deserve to be hanged from the nearest lamp-post. The team led by MS Dhoni had given a sterling performance throughout the tournament, not just winning all its seven matches before the second-last stage but also bowling out its opponents on every single occasion. This magical consistency was something that the Indian side had not been known for, at least in the recent years. Not only had the young but solid batting side clicked, with one player or the other making it big, but the much-ridiculed bowlers too had shown lethality no one had suspected them of possessing.
One must remember that a number of these batsmen and bowlers were either playing their first World Cup or they were less experienced than others they faced in the course of the matches. Victories and defeats are part of the game, and the loss in the semi-final should propel the players to learn lessons from it. There is no need for them to be defensive or offer excuses — such as that the team had been playing too much cricket in recent months and, therefore, the players had been exhausted; or that losing the toss had put the pressure on India before the first ball was bowled — for the failure. It is a simple case of the better side that day winning. Australia outperformed India in every aspect of the game on Thursday, and Dhoni and his men had no answer. The famed batting collapsed, the bowlers appeared out of touch, and even Dhoni's captaincy lacked the aggression that it is reputed for.
As professionals, the Indian players are supposed to take itinerary pressures on the chin and not complain. After all, they had gone into the schedule with their eyes wide open. As for the toss, it would be childish for any cricketer worth his salt to pin hopes on winning it on every occasion and thereby crafting the game’s strategy. A good team needs to fire up, whether it bats first or later. It should be a matter of worry for the Indian side that it generally has problems chasing a total — and in the semi-final, this was a formidable 328 runs that is not easily achieved.
Since the world has not come to an end for Indian cricket — though, by listening to the raucous indictment of the national team across all platforms of the media, one may be forgiven for believing it is so — the captain, the coach, the selectors and the rest of the team including the support staff, must gird up their loins and look ahead. The failure at not being able to retain the Cup won four years ago, will no doubt rankle for a long while, but four more years ahead, there will be another edition of the tournament. We do not know whether Dhoni will be around, nor do we know how many of the present players will find a place then. But what we can be assured of is that, given the depth of cricketing talent in India, there will be no dearth of quality players. Meanwhile, Dhoni and the team should look ahead and not allow the defeat to shackle them or shake their self-confidence.