shantanu_rooney
Chairman of Selectors
India's Road to the World Cup 2011
After the World Twenty20 Champions were knocked out in Super Eight stages in 2009 World Twenty20 Championship in England, India are now looking forward to produce a much better performances in upcoming 2011 World Cup which is going to take place in the subcontinent. But the journey to the World Cup is much difficult and the Indians will face some very tough obstacles in between.
The Indians had a some of brilliant series before the World Twnety20 Championship which took place in England. They had successful Test Series against the Aussies at home which they won 2-0 and then later that year they trashed England at home, 5-0 in the One Day Series and 1-0 in the Test Series. The Indians had a short tour of Sri Lanka where they defeated the host 4-1 in the One Day Series and also won the only Twenty20 International between the two sides. The Indians then had their final international tour in New Zealand before the World Twenty20 Championship in England. Indians got off the worst start by losing the two international T20 games but later created history by winning their first ever One Day and Test Series on New Zealand soil.
Then came the Twenty20 World Championships in England and the defending champions India were termed as the favourites along with mighty South Africans. Indians got off to a good start in the tournament by beating both Bangladesh and Ireland comfortably in the group stages but failed to deliver when needed in Super Eights against West Indies and England, and so the defending champions were knocked out of the World Championships.
The Indian fans were angry by the team's poor show during the World Championship and most of them blamed skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni - who lead India to victory the inaugural Twenty20 World Cup - for poor captaincy. Many people also blamed the BCCI by saying that the Indian Premier League which was played in South Africa a week before the start of the World Championship, created a lot of fatigue in the players.
But now is the time for the Indian Cricket team to regroup and forget about the defeat in the Twenty20 World Championship and move forward and concentrate on the future. There is still a lot of time for the World Cup but the Indians have a very tough schedule ahead with the tour of West Indies, ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa and many more.