This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !!

[Ram]

Hi !! Much has been said about India's chances at this world cup. I personally feel this is our best chance to win the cup after a gap of 24 years and here is the reason why.. Its common knowledge that one day internationel victories are often fashioned by your batsmen and our batting line-up can rank among the best in the world, not just interms of the amount of runs it has already scored or the experience, but the way it is structured. ODI wins are often started in the first 10 overs , consolidated in the middle 25 and ended in the last 10. India has the perfect mix of attacking batsmenship at the top ( uthappa , sehawag and if required from Ganguly too) , a stable experineced middle order ( Sachin , Rahul ) and blitzkrieg firepower from the lower middle order ( Yuvi and Dhoni). This makes our battin line up probably the best in the world right now , if its on form. Our bowling looks good too. Zaheer is back in form and looks like picking up a wicket during every spell he bowls. Ajit has always been steady in ODI's. These two will go after early wickets during the initial overs. Then there is Munaf ( who in rahul's words has been india's best ODI bowler in the last 15 matches). Munaf does a brilliant containing job in the middle but also can attack if the match situation so warrants. Also , Harbhajan has been very economical during the middle and latter overs. Add to the fact the zaheer and ajit are n not bad death bowlers themselves -- you have a very decent bowling line up. Also , the fact other important contenders for the world cup are going through form slumps has increased India's chances quite a bit. The Australians have been battered in the last 5-6 games they have been playing and couple this with the fact that they major injury concerns , it wont be easy for them to bounce back. Pakistan hasnt been performing too well of late and they too have injury worries with their bowling attack. Much has been said about fielding. Even though we arent the most athletic team around ( and that can cost us 15-20 runs a game) , there is no one in the team whom you can call a bad fielder ( except maybe munaf). Most of our players are safe yet un-dramatic. To put it in a nutshell, if at all we lose a match it would either due to bad batting or bowling and not fielding. Expect some fireworks from the Indian team this world cup. Believe that we can actually lift the cup at the end of the tournament. God bless the Indian team !!! Cheers.. Marirs.

[Guest BossBhai]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! -- Removed on request of the user --

[MundaPakistani]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! Excellent post. This team is about as good as the team that went to SA but the Aussies are not as good as they were so yea IND have a fair chance.

[gabbar]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! yes I agree - india has a good chance- especially with gangs, dravid and tendu probably playing their last world cup- they may let it all hang out over there

[Lurker]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! Welcome aboard MM, Gosh has it really been 24 years since we won last Thats quarter of a century and another reason why Kapil Dev is the greatest!! Coming to the team combination, you are quite right about batting. Certainly looks formidable on paper and for once Indian batsman hopefully shall fire on the ground as well. They have the wherewhithal to do it, lets hope they provide the bowlers with a good target to bowl at. Bowling wise I am not so confident of our team but it is not disappointing either. I dont expect our bowling to roll over other teams for under 200 but I do expect them to defend a good total. Fielding would be my concern. We have fielders like Munaf and Kumble who are frankly terrible. We do have some young guns but a lot of fielders - Sachin, Ganguly,Dravid etc- while safe fielders as such are hardly the kind that will cut down the 3 to 2 or 2 to 1. So fielding and running between wickets remain my concerns. Overall a good team, possibly best(only contention being Powar should have got the nod ahead of Kumble). xxx

[Parth]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! I hope guys we will win, the 1983 team only had Kapil and Gavasker, we have too many to name, but i'll give you the best three: Dravid, Tendulkar and Ganguly, these three can destroy any team.

[kabira]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! 3 batsman have 10 K runs.. That is $hit load of runs.. All 3 have good record in WC...

[kumble_rocks]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! Welcome aboard MM and Good first post. Agree with your assessment on batting but I wouldn't agree with your assessment regarding fielding. We have 3 bad fielders in Kumble, Munaf and Ganguly . And they have weak arms too , so therefore , their throw from the deep generally lacks bite. To top it all , they are slow movers. Part of the reason why Zaheer has become more dangerous now, is his ability to swing the ball both ways. Therefore , he is not as predictable as before. Still needs to regain his yorker which used to be lethal in 2003. Agarkar was and will always be an average performer . Munaf needs to up his pace in order to be more effective. I feel more batsmen will give him the charge during WC and he has to adjust and be more pacy.

[Ram]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! Luker is absolutely right when he says powar should have picked over kumble. Off late west indies pitches have been notorious for their slowness and low bounce. We should not forget that almost all of the pitches to be used to for the tournament are newly laid and its possible that they are also sluggish in nature. Powar would be a much more useful bowler under these conditions, with his loopy spin. The management would almost anyway play only one spinner per game ( harbhajan ) and its baffling to see why they picked kumble as a back up when its evident that powar is more suited to the conditions than kumble.

[DesiChap]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! Excellent stuff marirs_mania

[Predator_05]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! On paper, the '99 team was better IMO

[Chandan]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !!

powar should have picked over kumble. Off late west indies pitches have been notorious for their slowness and low bounce. We should not forget that almost all of the pitches to be used to for the tournament are newly laid and its possible that they are also sluggish in nature. Powar would be a much more useful bowler under these conditions, with his loopy spin.

WI pitch was slow, sluggish even last year. Can someone post what were Powar's bowling's in those 5 matches?

[King Tendulkar]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! This team will bring back the trophy to India! :hmph:

[Tiger]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! good post. and right...its about time we bring the freakin cup !

[Rahul]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !!

powar should have picked over kumble. Off late west indies pitches have been notorious for their slowness and low bounce. We should not forget that almost all of the pitches to be used to for the tournament are newly laid and its possible that they are also sluggish in nature. Powar would be a much more useful bowler under these conditions, with his loopy spin.

WI pitch was slow, sluggish even last year. Can someone post what were Powar's bowling's in those 5 matches?

3 matches, 29 overs, 4 wickets at 38.25. got hammered by bravo at port-of-spain in a relatively low scoring game. had a good game at kingston, tho. good spell, that.

[Chandan]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !!

powar should have picked over kumble. Off late west indies pitches have been notorious for their slowness and low bounce. We should not forget that almost all of the pitches to be used to for the tournament are newly laid and its possible that they are also sluggish in nature. Powar would be a much more useful bowler under these conditions, with his loopy spin.

WI pitch was slow, sluggish even last year. Can someone post what were Powar's bowling's in those 5 matches?

3 matches, 29 overs, 4 wickets at 38.25. got hammered by bravo at port-of-spain in a relatively low scoring game. had a good game at kingston, tho. good spell, that.

So that performance doesn't say that he'd have been a success, if chosen. I think Bhajji, Kumble and our part-time spinners are enough to fill the quota of slower bowlers.

[Ram]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! It looks as though powar does not have such a great in WI. But just going by recent form , you would have thought that he would have been picked. Maybe the team knows something we dont know !! :)

[yoda]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! Our bowling is the weak link. Aggy will blow it either early or late. Zak has shown that he is still capable of 15 run overs. Sree is a guaranteed run a ball bowler. Munaf is good when awake, harby/kumble can go either way.

[veer]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! no one has 'great' bowling attack.. all are in ok to good range.. batting is our strength and we can bank on that to all the way.. back to the topic though.. this is not the best team, but has the best chance to win the cup..

[Zap_Brannigan]

Re: This is the best Indian team to have gone to a world cup !! On paper, we were the best in 96..If only Azhar hadn't decided to bowl in eden garden... Azhar,Sachin,Jadeja,Prabhakar,Kambli,Kumble,Srinath,sidhu - on paper we had the best chance to win 99 was a good team on paper too.......Our bowling was stated to be perfect for the seaming conditions of England and ofcourse our batting .... we had a near perfect batting line-up then...Sachin and gangs opening then dravid,azhar,jadeja and robin singh with Mongia and agarkar coming in after...Our bowling tanked and the loss against Zim proved to be really costly.. But as far as teams on paper and the form we were in, I would consider the 07 team only slightly better than the 92 squad while in 96,99 and 03 we had much better teams.