Feb. 12: Pressure can do different things to different people. With less than a week to go for the World Cup rollout, Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s team seem blissfully unmindful of the pressure of playing at home and are going about in a utterly relaxed manner.
It’s a huge plus; the burden of expectations can weigh you down on most occasions and if anything, the captain’s cool demeanour seems to have rubbed off on his team.
Going into their biggest battle in recent times, especially after the disastrous 2007 World Cup in the Caribbean, Dhoni’s team have a settled look to it and it will only help their cause if they can maintain their composure through the next month and a half. Of course, for that to happen they have to make it to the knockouts but given the home conditions and their overall form in general, Team India, one of the tournament favourites, appear to be a happy bunch and comfortable with that tag.
Having played out of their skins in the recent South African ODI series where they were edged out 3-2 by the hosts, Dhoni’s men are secure in the knowledge that they can turn things around in quick time even when the dice is loaded against them. Conditions on that tour and here in the World Cup are like chalk and cheese and in any event, their first warm-up game against defending champions, the Australians, at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday, will be a pointer of things to come.
The challenge of facing Ricky Ponting’s men should stand the Indians in good stead for once the tournament proper starts, a couple of low-key matches may just reduce their intensity just that bit. Overall, the practice game on the morrow may well see all the 15 members in action as the International Cricket Council has permitted the full usage of the squads in these unofficial games with the rider that only 11 can bat and only 11 can field. Focus obviously will be on trio of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir, all of whom missed the South Africa ODI series and it will also reveal the extent of their recuperation from injuries.