Smells like team spirit

Rohit, Dravid have been open supporters of instilling security

Having endured the weary travel-train-play-travel routine for the last week, India’s cricketers were finally accorded the luxury of catching their breath, reflecting on their campaign, but otherwise putting cricket totally out of their mind. Friday was a rare break from the monotonous grind, a total day off and therefore the chance to catch up with sleep and other old friends in this beautiful Victorian capital that was bathed in glorious sunshine.

Zimbabwe lie in wait on Sunday at the intimidating MCG, the last stop in India’s potential journey to the semifinals. Pakistan’s defeat of South Africa on Thursday has made sure that if India win as form and everything else would suggest, they will top Group 2 no matter how the other results pan out.

Three wins in four matches is a fair reflection of the brand of cricket Rohit Sharma’s team has portrayed, though things could so easily have been different. Two of those wins, against Pakistan and Bangladesh, came off the last ball of the match and while the temptation might be to link those results to luck alone, that will be unfair to a team which has shown in the past that it has the wherewithal to dig deep and shade tight contests.

Victory against Bangladesh in Adelaide the other night showcased the virtues of team spirit and bonding, of an atmosphere of trust and openness, of transparency and keeping communication lines open. Within the camp, there is a relaxed air that is testament to the kind of work put in behind the scenes by Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid. Since they got together as the management group a year back, they have been vocal and open supporters of instilling security within the players and letting them know where they stand in the overall scheme of things, and none of the 29 players who have represented the country in the interim can claim otherwise.

Some of their decisions might appear bizarre from the outside – not all of them can be explained away to everyone’s satisfaction, in any case – but the clarity within the set-up is quite apparent even to the casual onlooker.

India were under the pump when Litton Das was eating into their not inconsiderable total with utter disdain, but there were no hangdog looks or a resignation to their fate. India are far too seasoned to not know that such a staggering tempo was impossible to sustain for too long, and when the rain interruption threw them a lifeline and KL Rahul threw out Litton, the Indian juggernaut gathered force to steamroller Bangladesh.

By then, Rahul had already typified what the unstinted backing of the think-tank can do. In his most stressful phase, both Rohit and Dravid threw their weight solidly behind the vice-captain. Comforting words of reinforcement were backed up by assiduous work in the nets and a studied effort to put his mind at ease in the conviction that Rahul was too good a batsman not to hit his straps soon. The result was a gorgeous half-century of Rahul-esque grace, and the run out that even Rahul might not have believed resided in him.

It’s standard practice to talk up a new management regime, perhaps; that the tone of sincerity which has accompanied the tributes to the Rohit-Dravid school of leadership has been led by former captain Virat Kohli is particularly telling. Kohli is the prime beneficiary of the encouragement and support of his successor as well as the man under whom he made his IPL debut for Royal Challengers Bangalore nearly 15 years back, and he has responded by bouncing back with the kind of impact that had gone AWOL for nearly three years.

Dravid has sought to deflect praise, placing it instead at the altar of Rohit’s captaincy and opting to operate silently in the background, which is in tune with his philosophy of coaching. India must count themselves fortunate that after Kohli and Ravi Shastri, their next captain and new head coach are on the same page as each other, even if this page is different from the ones their predecessors espoused.

(Writer is a senior cricket journalist)