Recipe for success

Three years ago, the Indians had gone to England on a high. The hype preceding the World Cup had been intense and shrill, backed by an awful ditty exhorting the Indians to 'show 'em.' If the song was ludicrous, the team's overall performance was only marginally better, and the only positive fallout of India being eliminated in the quarterfinals was that we didn't have to hear the cacophony every time we turned the television on.

But another day dawns and the time is close for the hype and hysteria to start again. No one seriously believes the Indians will spill guts on the field and come back bloodied and victorious. In the last two years, they have lost enough One Day finals on the trot to erase any lingering memory they might have had of winning one.

And yet, it is tempting to believe that this time we might actually be closer to reaching the semi-finals than the last time. Last time we had one of the strongest teams in the tournament - on paper. This time we have a stronger team in fact. If it performs at its optimum level, then we might all be in for a surprise.

Let's take the bowling department first. Zaheer Khan, Srinath and Ashish Nehra, with Agarkar as back-up, can be devastating -- providing they keep to a consistent line and length and remain injury-free. Harbhajan Singh, Kumble and Sarandeep Singh are the weapons which the Indians will deploy to destroy the middle orders, and again, if they do not succumb to pressure they will be more than a handful for opposing teams.

Next comes the wicket keeping. Ajay Ratra has shown the inclination to become a world-class wicket keeper/batsman in the mould of Nayan Mongia, if the selectors stick with him and not go into one of their juggling spasms. Deep Dasgupta should be strictly for warming the bench.

The batting has been bolstered by Virender Sehwag in a way that only a second Tendulkar could have. That is nothing to be sneezed at. The opening pair has to be revised however. Is it to be Sachin/Sehwag or Sachin/Ganguly?

Neither, I say. Pick Ganguly and Sehwag to open and reserve Sachin for the number 3 slot to bolster the middle order. There are good reasons for this. While the Tendulkar/Ganguly partnership has yielded rich harvests and is currently the best in the world, the cycle has started to take a downturn. Ganguly is unsure of the short ball and Tendulkar seems unsure of which plan to follow. Unlike when he opens with Sehwag and they know there is only one plan - let the show begin!

And herein lies the problem with having these two open. So alike, so made-for-each-other, and so obviously valuable that they must be separated like the Coke executives who travel on different planes. Sachin tends to get carried away seeing his apprentice score freely, and being human, tries a risky shot of his own at inappropriate times. If Sachin goes early, Sehwag has the tendency to look lost, and things get worse when he finds himself checkmated completely with number 3 and 4 struggling to make runs.

The correct opening pair therefore, should be Ganguly and Sehwag, with the latter taking the onus of keeping the scoreboard ticking till at least the first 15 overs. Dravid comes in at number four.

Last, and not the least, is the captaincy. This is the grey area presently. The whole story changes if Ganguly is not picked for the World Cup. A frightening thought simply because we don't have a left-hander who can fill the void he will leave. Hopefully, we will not have to contend with that possibility. Nor, I pray, will we suffer another badly composed ditty.