The World Cup 2015-- My Perspective

India are the defending champions  and I strongly believe that they will not be able to defend their title. 

Several reasons/ factors that make me believe that they cannot win the title back.

Let us look at the reasons for the Indian team success in 2011. Some key factors that led to the win :

• Sachin Tendulkar – he had to retire and the whole team was unified in ensuring that he had a grand send off. What more it could be  than the World Cup  title for the farewell party. The team worked hard to pay tribute to the Little Master and they succeeded. There was a purpose to achieve
• Home Crowd support – There is always extra buoyancy that the home crowds can do to inspire performance. It can go the other way as well . Create pressure that may lead to downfall. But in India’s case , it just went their way
• The team composition itself—The batters , bowlers were at their peak of their performance. Added to that was the performance of Yuvaraj throughout the entire tournament . he could do nothing wrong – he out batted everyone , fielded magnificently and if the ball was given to him to bowl, he got wickets.. And in the final , the Captain took responsibility to ensure that the team won
•      Sub-Continent Pitches – this was a big advantage to the team. Pitches were flat if not helping their spinners ..The team knew if the bowlers had a bad day, they could chase it as the pitches were flat .

Now here are some reasons why the Indian or any team from the sub-continent will do not win the 2015 title :

•    Pitch Conditions – Although the pitches may be flat , they do afford bounce and this to me cannot be handled well by the Indian batsmen. Case in point is the Adelaide  Oval where each of the commentators indicated that the wicket is great for batting and yet you will found the Indian batsman struggling to play and get runs on the board. So, batting ability  on bouncy tracks is going to be a big challenge to the Indian team . 
•     Bowling—We may be having the worst bowling line up. Our bowlers have neither pace nor can swing the ball nor can bowl accurately to create pressure that will slow down the run rate and get wickets
•   The team Composition – No Yuvaraj  nor any one with match winning capability.. We have a Dhawan in the team who has made no runs in the recent Australian tour and a Vijay who made tons of runs not in the team.  Baffling selection ?…  We need more consistency from the Rahane’s and Rohit’s of the world.  And Dhoni is looking at his retirement post this World Cup is my assessment  . He looks jaded and out of sorts which is something that we do not see often . In the warm up matches , his bowlers were taken  to the cleaners but his body language showed no reaction – Was it because it was only a Warm match?. The only way I see India upping their performance is a dramatic change that the Captain only can provide through his leadership .. (  He has refused to go home to visit his wife who gave birth to their first child indicating World Cup was more important).

So who do I place my bets on –

It is Australia and South Africa

Australia have an edge over South Africa  for the following reasons :

1. .       Matches are being played at home
2. .       They have two openers who play the 50 over a side as a 20 -20 match   ( Warner and Finch )
3. .       Steve Smith is in great form
4. .       Bowling armory is in very good shape  with plenty of backups to support any injury concerns
5. 5       May it is their time to get the Cup back

South Africa is also equally equipped if not less , but they have a Big Job on their hand. They have change their “Chokers” tag .

The dark horse could be New Zealand , going by their recent performances at home…

And India Play Pakistan in their first match. Now, they need not defend their title but they cannot loose to Pakistan . They have a legacy to retain and that is not  losing to Pakistan in all World  Cup Tournaments , so far... Coming Sunday is going to be a fired up one !