In-form India don’t want their World Cup scuppered by arrogance

Who can stop India winning this World Cup?

So far eight teams have tried and eight have failed.

The Netherlands, who Rohit Sharma’s men face in their last round-robin match perhaps?

Unlikely.

There are two narratives emerging locally as the tournament — finally — heads into the playoff stages.

One is that India needs to lose or get that one bad performance out of the way, because they don’t want it happening in the semifinal or final.   

That’s just lazy thinking.

Australia got through two tournaments in 2003 and 2007 without dropping a match but that was a great Australian team.

This Indian one, thinks it is the equal of any of the best teams to win previous editions of this tournament — including the 1979 West Indies and Ricky Ponting Australians — so any thoughts about losing shouldn’t enter their thinking at all.

India’s head coach Rahul Dravid is not considering any drop off in standard from his team, adopting the old “one match at a time”, mantra.

Ravindra Jadeja, who smashed 29 off 15 balls and took five wickets against South Africa on Sunday, said the players weren’t wasting time thinking about whether they needed a tough match ahead of the play-offs.

“It is good that there should not be any tough match, if the opponent team comes to play, they should feel that they are under more pressure and we want them to panic,” said Jadeja.

With the exception of a four-wicket win against New Zealand, India hasn’t faced much pressure — from opposing sides — at this tournament.

The expectation of their countrymen is another matter, but that is something the players are long accustomed to.

When the players walked through Kolkata airport on Monday morning, hundreds of screaming fans were on hand to show their love, many of them having checked in for their own flights.

Phone cameras were out in force with travellers capturing images of their heroes.

Besides concerns about a bad performance, the second element that India should be worried about is hubris.

He may say he was just caught up in the moment after their 243-run victory over South Africa on Sunday, but Mohammad Shami, who bowled beautifully in that match, may live to regret his words.

“Look at the condition of the team that has been scoring 400 runs often,” Shami joked with the Hindi broadcaster, referencing the 83 all out demolition of South Africa he’d helped inflict.

The same post-match analysis included former Indian international Mohammad Kaif wondering if there was anyone left to challenge India.   

“You beat Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Where will we get a new team now, from the moon?” Kaif chirped.

Dravid and Rohit, will want to nip that kind of arrogance in the bud.

They won’t concern themselves with Kaif, but Shami as a member of the squad may get a talking to, away from the cameras. 

India will want to tread carefully.

Right now they are entitled to feel good about themselves but recent ICC events have seen them freeze in the knockout stages. 

For all the good they have done by topping the points table in the last few weeks, it will count for nothing if they don’t actually win the World Cup on November 19.