India at Champions Trophy 2013 - A review

The all-conquering Dhoni’s team added the ICC Champions Trophy 2013 to the list of their achievements. The 2011 World Cup win was special as it took a long time coming and it gave the country a lot to cheer about. Yesterday’s victory illustrates that the team, despite some hiccups in the Test arena, has indeed consolidated its position as the most dominant team in the ODI format since then. The fact that we lead the ODI team rankings by a considerable margin also bears testimony to the fact.

What was refreshing to see in the current Indian team was that not only did they win convincingly when dominating the game, but also showed great resolve and fight to come back from tricky situations, which was best illustrated in the final. It was one of the few occasions when India played a multi-nation tournament with an unchanged XI. This was mainly due to the fact that every individual did their bit to contribute to the team’s success.

India’s cause was helped by the strong start that the openers gave in almost all matches. Shikhar Dhawan continued his dream run which started with his debut Test century, and he looks set to occupy the opener’s slot for India in all 3 formats for some time to come. Rohit Sharma impressed, and should be given a longer run as the opener. However, as elegant and entertaining player he is, his habit of throwing away his wicket still raises a question mark over his consistency. One hopes that he can finally do justice to his talent in international cricket.

Virat Kohi was solid at number 3 and played good knocks in the semifinal and final. The big scores which we have come to expect from him may be missing in the tournament, but he did play his part quite well, especially when wickets tumbled around him in the final. Dinesh Karthik scored a good fifty against Sri Lanka and his presence in the team also gave Dhoni the freedom to relieve himself from wicketkeeping duties to have a go at the bowling. Karthik’s two centuries in the warm-ups were key to India winning those, and these wins gave the momentum to the team to proceed and have an unbeaten tournament.

Captain Dhoni had a largely indifferent tournament with the bat, but he made up for it with his neat wicketkeeping and good captaincy. There is also little doubt now about who is the best bowler-keeper in international cricket! Suresh Raina didn’t do much with the bat, but contributed well with his excellent fielding and occasional off-spin.