The Avengers: Is this the best Indian team ever?

Shikhar Dhawan

When the topic of the best Indian team of all-time arises, the team of 2011 comes to mind. And why not – it won us the World Cup after 28 years. In the process, it became the first team to win a World Cup on home soil. And, more importantly, Sachin Tendulkar finally got his hands on the game’s ultimate prize.

But use a sharper fingernail to scratch the surface and the questions start to arise. India’s campaign was far from perfect but the cracks got papered over by the end result. Even his most die-hard fan would admit that Virender Sehwag‘s campaign had started and finished with the opening game of the tournament and his opening partner washed all his previous sins with a single match-winning innings in the final.

The middle and lower orders collapsed against South Africa and West Indies with Yusuf Pathan proving to be whiter than an elephant made of ivory. Barring the final, M.S. Dhoni let his captaincy do the talking over his batting. And the bowling ranged from somewhat impressive to atrocious (especially in the death overs) but never exceptional.

More importantly, you could sense the feeling that this side would not be around in two years time to play the Champions Trophy. Tendulkar was already 38 while the likes of Sehwag and Zaheer were pushing 35. Harbhajan Singh had started his journey on the downward spiral while Ashish Nehra’s fragile body had taken too much of a beating for his own good. And most significantly, it would be a long time before the next major ODI trophy would be played in the subcontinent.

With the new-look Champions of the Trophy, things are more than slightly different. We find out why.

The openers – It might be too early to call this Rohit Sharma’s second coming but he has taken a few steps in the right direction. He is still some distance off from writing a full-fledged novel with his silken blade but each of his short stories has demonstrated why even after six years of diminishing returns India chooses to put its faith in him. Many would question the tactic of sending a batsman with temperament issues and slighted technique to open the batting in overcast conditions but go back 11 years and you had Virender Sehwag in the same position. And we all know what happened later.

As for Shikhar Dhawan, he does most of his talking himself – with the bat. Cynics would point out that he has not been tested in unfriendly conditions yet and that he has ridden the wave of luck more often than not. But nine years of waiting in the wings while watching his colleagues climb the ladder above him would have steeled in Dhawan the virtues to deal with adversity. We will wait for it when the time comes.

The all-rounders – It might be a touch too early to say this but India just might have found the answer to a long-time problem – the number seven slot. And interestingly, we are not talking about a single individual here.

The earlier Indian sides had a clear fault line running through the side – the best young batsmen in the world till number 7 and the best non-batsmen in the world after that. There was a palpable lacuna of an all-rounder.