The circle of grief, they say, never disappears; it just changes its shape as time passes. Four years have passed since the mother of all heartbreaks occurred in Manchester – when MS Dhoni was stumped by a precise, long-distance slingshot from Martin Guptill – and the grieving is still on. It will continue to be grieved, at least until India don’t win another ODI World Cup title. It’s a strange kind of grief, not rooted in any tangible loss, and manifesting itself in the form of rage, dissatisfaction, and denial, though in whichever form it appears, the basic crux remains the same: the non-relation between wealth and trophies.

The richest cricketing board in the world has won zero ICC tournaments in the last 10 years. If they can’t win a trophy, what’s the point of having the deepest coffer? Well, as it has turned out, there is definitely a correlation between wealth and victory in modern sports, but it’s not the direct, linear relation that many assume. No matter how hard the sporting bodies try to eliminate the randomness inherent to the game, they can’t weed it out entirely. Sometimes it’s one bad decision that spills over and drowns you in a mess, other times you lose despite doing everything right.

This uncertainty adds to the allure of winning a World Cup, and also explains the fixation of supporters with the World Cup title. In the course of the next 30-35 days, the fixation will touch its zenith, a non-stop chatter that will trespass any insulation method that the Indian cricket team employs. They know more than anyone else, the significance of not fumbling again at the final hurdles in front of their own backyard. They have had enough of it. For once, they would like to win this whole goddamn thing, they are good enough to do this, have always been wherever they play, yet the magical taste of silverware eludes them.

 

The onus to snap the winless streak now falls upon the captain Rohit Sharma. His records as a skipper remain unparalleled, but his tenure as Indian captain divides opinion, and the final verdict won’t be out before the conclusion of this tournament. Rohit is 36, an age where the thought of retirement seems more realistic than playing a tournament four years in future. Much of his legacy as Indian captain will depend on how the team fare in this World Cup. If he leads the team to World Cup glory, even the deepest of troughs following it will be forgiven. If he fails, even the loftiest of zenith will be dismissed.

But Rohit is not the only one who will be defined pretty much by the result of this event; this applies to the coaching career of Rahul Dravid too. It’s a well-documented fact that Dravid wasn’t very keen on taking this position. However, once in as the coach, there’s no option of pulling back. Dravid would have loved a bit more stability in the team, but the unrelenting schedule spread across three formats hasn’t helped his cause. Barring the two-month break during the Indian Premier League, there’s hardly a week where the Indian team aren’t in action. This also raises the importance of workload management, and more often than not, one or other player needs rest to recover, meaning Dravid rarely gets the opportunity to play a first-choice, full-strength squad.

This year’s Asia Cup was one such tournament where every cog of the team was in place, and they looked far more threatening, going on to win the tournament – their first multi-nation title under Dravid’s helm. Yet, not all questions were answered. They still had little idea about what their middle order would look like, given Shreyas Iyer’s comeback didn’t pan out as anticipated in the Asia Cup, and he got run out cheaply in the first ODI versus Australia.

Iyer’s form and fitness became a huge concern, as they can’t risk taking a player who not only came after a long layoff but is also to prove his form. Luckily, in the next match, Iyer quashed all such doubts by hitting an impeccable century. Arguably the best player of the spin, Iyer has an innate ability to keep the scorecard moving, rather than getting stuck in tough situations. KL Rahul is another player on whom immense trust has been placed by the team management, and Rahul, with a match-winning century against Pakistan, showed the trust wasn’t unfounded.

It’s not that India have all bases covered, but they are as good as anyone. It will be interesting to see whether they rise up to the pressure or crumble under it in the next few weeks.