The favourites tag hangs heavy on India as they start their 50-over cricket World Cup campaign with a day-night outing against Australia at Chennai on Sunday (8 Oct, 2023).
Living up to the expectations of a surcharged home audience, which is expecting nothing less than India reclaiming the World Cup, is no an easy task. The expectations from diehard fans — along with the social demands of family and friends – can prove to be a double-edged sword. The Indian teams discovered that in two previous World Cups on home turf, where they were ranked among the favourites, but stumbled in the penultimate round.
Both in the 1987 and 1996 World Cups, India faltered in the semi-finals, but managed to overcome the home jinx by emerging triumphant in the 2011 World Cup. A couple of more semi-final exists in 2015 and 2019, India are the odds on favourites at this “home” World Cup. With a team that is primed for success, cutting out the “surround sound” is among the main tasks assigned to the Indian squad management.
How does the team management protect the team from the mounting pressure? In 2011, trying to protest the players from the pressure of expectations, the management went to the extent of debarring the players from even receiving the newspapers in their hotel rooms and not to read or listen to commentators and critics.
Yet, the players were consistently implored – by all and sundry – that “we must win the World Cup” even as they criss-crossed the country to play their games in different venues. There was simply no escape from this narrative for the Men in Blue.
One could argue that the Indian cricketer has been through all this, growing up in a cricket-mad nation. After all, they are used to absorbing pressure day in and day out, playing multiple home limited-overs series every winter. Ask the cricketers and they will confide in you that it is not so simple when the fate of a quadrennial dream rests on a single outing in a stadium packed with screaming fans.
Imagine the pressure that builds upon the Indian cricketers when the stakes are such that you are considered a failure unless you win the home World Cup.
India have recently posted a 2-1 victory over Australia in the one-day series, but the Chepauk Stadium at Chennai has some bitter-sweet World Cup memories for the home team, which in the 1987 World Cup opener suffered a shocking one-run loss to Australia.
The World Cup is a situation vastly different from a bilateral series, where it is easier to play freely without any pressure. Even if the hosts lose a game, they can still win the series by a huge margin. However, coming to a crunch situation, such as knock-out game like the World Cup semi-final. One totter and the pressure begins to mount. Isn’t that what happened four years ago in England when India were the favourites going into the semi-finals, and yet they came a cropper against New Zealand when chasing a modest target in the rain-interrupted game at Manchester.
Losing three early wickets in the chase, India’s strong batting line-up got subdued and faltered in the chase although they stayed in the contest till the end. The shock loss agitated millions of dejected fans.
Collectively, this pressure is building on the Indian side, where a late change of players – seasoned off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin replacing injured left-arm tweaker Axar Patel consumed more newsprint than weeks of celebrations after India’s triumph in the 1983 World Cup against all odds.
It is understandable when captain Rohit Sharma says,” We should just focus on the task at hand, one thing at a time … We cannot afford to get ahead of ourselves.”
This is the first time India is staging the 50-over World Cup on their own, after being joint hosts three times – in 1987, 1996 and 2011. In 1987, India jointly staged the World Cup with Pakistan, while Sri Lanka joined them as the 1996 World Cup was played in three nations. Three sub-continental nations were against joint hosts in 2011, with Bangladesh replacing Pakistan.
