Issue 10 | 20 Jan. 2007

All is not lost yet.

With barely seven one-dayers left before the greatest tournament in cricket, India's world cup strategy is in tatters. It would not be off the mark to say that we are perhaps the least prepared team in the world. The least we can do is to accept this harsh fact and make up for the lost time.

Maybe, just maybe, there is no need to be very despondent, for world cup history has shown that even the least prepared teams have not only made the grade but gone on to win the cup. Like the Pakistan team under the inspirational Imran Khan. Prior to the tournament, the Pakistanis under Imran were thoroughly ill-prepared, there was talk of much infighting in the squad, and to make matters worse, they had a disastrous start, but eventually with some generous dose of luck coming their way, and their patented brand of self-belief, they emerged triumphant.

India can take heart from this sub-continental history, and take a shot at rewriting its own piece of history. At the moment, it might sound too far fetched, for the most optimistic fan would consider the team lucky if it makes the last four. Anything more than this would be nothing short of miraculous, given the present state of our team.

At the outset, we should pin our cup hopes not so much on talent (which we have) or strategy (which we are not sure about), but on common sense (which we don't have). It has been said before, and it bears repetition to say that we have to play to our strengths. And that is batting, howsoever weak and rickety it seems to be. In any case, limited overs cricket is all about batsmen belting the life out of the bowlers and not the other way round.

India's most successful captain, Saurav Ganguly, will tell you that his record wins were scripted by packing the team with seven batsmen most of the time.

India have to pick seven - or maybe eight even - of the best batsmen in view and then make the best of the match. There's no other way out. If we lose, we couldn't have done worse, and if we win, we couldn't have done better. Come to think of it, it's not such a tough call to make, given the limited choices before us.