Dhoni can upstage earlier captains like Kapil Dev, Ganguly and Azharuddin, if his team can survive the immense pressure building up.
Indian fans want nothing but the World Cup. Here is a team formidable in batting and with reasonable bowling, with the subcontinental spin tracks aiding their bowlers. India has the best spin attack in the world with three front line and four part time spinners.( India always had the best spin attack. It is a tradition ! The famous quartet - Bedi, Prasanna, Chandra and Venkat were the greatest quartet to grace cricket ). Why not take the Cup? The only enemy will be pressure, but then the Indian team is habituated with pressure.
The next Cup will be in Australia and nobody will give India high chances, as those pitches will aid fast bowling. But the Cup matches are in India ! Here is the golden chance which India need.
Even though India had won the Cup in 1983, Dhoni stands to go one better, if his team lifts the Cup on Apr 2.Dhoni's men had already won an international title in 2007, when they lifted the T20 World Cup. ( In the team is Virat Kohli, whose Under 19 team lifted the Under 19 World Cup !).
It is obvious that the entire team is under pressure. It is said that Sachin, in 2003, combated a nervousness induced insomnia ( he did not sleep for 12 days ) to blast Akhtar and Waqar out of the ground, in a blistering 98, which won the match for India !
Despite the great pressure building up, Dhoni seems relaxed. The Indian juggernaut rolled mercilessly in the warm up matches and ruthlessly crushed an inform Bangladesh !
"There is pressure if you win and pressure if you lose" said the maverick Commander ( Dhoni ).
"I would have told you the exact figure (of pressure) if I had a machine to measure it."
Such a massive pressure situation is ineluctable, as India is both favourite and host.
Astrologically, India with favourable transits of Jupiter and Saturn, and Sachin with a favourable time, and Sehwag with time favourable, stand as favourites ! The pressure can only build furthur up !
The legendary Kapil Dev is bullish about India's prospects. He says Dhoni is a better captain than him !
"Dhoni should do better than me," he said recently. "He is a very fine cricketer, a fantastic captain and I hope he can achieve everything he wanted."
"The Indian team for the World Cup is the strongest batting lineup we have ever seen in world cricket. It looks a balanced team, though the bowling is a bit weak. So if they can play to their abilities they can emerge world champions." he said.
With Kohli and Pathan in sublime form ( with recent centuries in ODIs ), Indian batting looks powerful on paper and is the envy of rival captains!
Dhoni led his team, the Chennai Super Kings to victory in the IPL and the Champions League.
Dhoni's men had won 14 out of 24 Test matches and 53 out of 94 ODIs, a success rate of more than 50%.
"I think he (Dhoni) backs his players and gives them opportunities consistently, which is very important," said former captain, Ganguly. "He takes risks, which is also crucial for a captain because as a skipper you cannot just do things in the typical stereotyped manner."
The 29 year old Dhoni is a great inspiration for cricketers from smaller cities, as he hails from Jharkhand. ( He says village people have more mental toughness than the urbanites ! ).
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