It’s approaching 50 years since the maiden ODI was played between Australia and England at the iconic Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG). While T20s are the current darlings of cricket, it was the 50-over format which initially helped raise the popularity and exposure of the sport.
The format gave birth to the ICC World Cup in 1975, a quadrennial competition, which has become the benchmark for greatness in the game. Over the years, there have been several teams to have dazzled with their brilliant performances over both bilateral series and ICC competitions.
In this series, we take a look at eight of the best ODI squads in history. India’s World Cup winning squad of 2011 is the subject of our focus below.
SQUAD
Openers: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag
Middle-order: Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni (WK, C), Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan
Spinners: Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, Piyush Chawla
Pacers: Zaheer Khan, Munaf Patel, Praveen Kumar, Ashish Nehra, S Sreesanth
Overview
After what turned out to be a disastrous 2007 World Cup campaign in the Caribbean, the Indian ODI side was in a state of flux for several months. Several veterans were shown the door as a new era was unleashed under the captaincy of MS Dhoni.
The seeds of revival were sown in the inaugural World T20 held in 2007, where an unfancied Indian side led by Dhoni turned out to be the unlikely victors.
The ODI fortunes, however, continued to fluctuate as the team suffered several hiccups along the way over the next few years. In the end, it all came together quite nicely just in time for the World Cup on home soil, as Dhoni’s men attained a second title for the country in 2011. There would be more success two years later, as the Men in Blue clinched the ICC Champions Trophy in England.
Captain – MS Dhoni
A man who would ultimately earn the nickname of ‘Captain Cool’, Dhoni proved to be exactly the kind of leader India needed to rebuild themselves. Having burst on to the scene as a swashbuckling wicketkeeper batsman, the player who hailed from Ranchi was a surprise choice for skipper.
However, he proved his doubters wrong instantly by leading India to triumph in the 2007 World T20 in South Africa. With a calm and collected demenour bereft of emotions, Dhoni orchestrated the team from behind the stumps.
He brought the steel they had lacked in high-profile ICC tournaments and challenged them to ruffle the feathers of the all-conquering Australians.
As a batsman, Dhoni always led from the front and his exploits with the bat saw him rise to the top of the ODI rankings in 2009. Gradually, he transitioned from an aggressive batsman to one of the best finishers in history. His finishing qualities would prove to be instrumental in India’s 2011 World Cup triumph, with his winning six sending a billion plus fanatics into delirium.
STRENGTHS
Formidable top-three
In Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag, India had an opening pair that could be trusted to hand them a solid start. Despite being on the last legs of his ODI career, Tendulkar was batting like a man possessed in the 2011 World Cup. His 482 runs in the tournament were only bettered by Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan, with the ‘Master Blaster’ smashing two tons and as many half-centuries in the process.
The Delhi pair of Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir aggregated nearly 800 runs between them in the campaign, with the duo completing a formidable top-three for India.
All-round prowess of Yuvraj Singh
While there were several notable contributions towards India’s World Cup conquest, none of them were greater than Yuvraj Singh’s. The flamboyant star’s all-round prowess proved to be a game-changer for the hosts and gave them the requisite balance to go all the way.
Some 362 runs at an average of over 90 were phenomenal numbers from Yuvraj, but it was the effectiveness of his left-arm spin which propelled him towards the man-of-the-tournament award. His 15 wickets at an average of 25.13 meant that India could pack their side with seven specialist batsmen.
In terms of all-round displays, no one else comes close to Yuvraj’s 2011 campaign in the World Cup.
Wily Zaheer makes amends
His wayward bowling in the first over of the 2003 World Cup final had set the tone for a crushing defeat for India, but a more experienced and seasoned Zaheer Khan made amends spectacularly eight years later.
With 21 scalps in the tournament, the left-armed seamer finished as the joint highest wicket-taker in the World Cup. He was always on hand to give India some early breakthroughs with the new ball, while his clever off-cutters and accurate yorkers made him a tough nut to crack in the death overs.
Greatest feat – Back-to-back ICC trophies
Home advantage played its part in the 2011 World Cup for India, with the hosts ending up as deserved holders of the crown. A narrow loss to South Africa was the only blip as Dhoni’s men clinched the title at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai.
Their path to the trophy wasn’t easy and they had to contend with several tricky obstacles. In the quarter-final, they beat an Australian side which had won three World Cups in a row. A tough test against arch-rivals Pakistan awaited them in the last-four, with the Indians managing to hold their nerve in a tense clash.
In the final, they looked dead and buried after the early dismissals of Sehwag and Tendulkar in a chase of 275 against the Sri Lankans. Despite the immense pressure at the stage, timely innings from Gambhir and Dhoni helped India seal a magical night in Mumbai.
That they followed up the World Cup title with a Champions Trophy conquest in England two years later only enhanced the reputation of Dhoni and India. There, they won all five of their games, including a tight low-scoring final against hosts England in the final.
