India's ODI Quest, Aussie Echoes, and the Art of Forging a Unique Beat

ICC World Cup 2023: Can Rohit Sharma's unbeaten Indian team cross the final frontier against Australia on Sunday?

They say imitation is the best form of flattery.

That is exactly how the makers of the hit Hollywood movie There’s Something About Mary would have felt. It was rated as the fourth greatest comedy movie of all time in 2000. The storyline was simple- the leading lady has many interested suitors who are fighting for her affection. So, any attempt to remake this movie in any other language or territory was always fraught with danger. Yet it was remade in Hindi in 2005 as Deewane Huye Paagal, but it proved to be a complete disaster.

Therein lies a message for everyone trying to imitate the ones they adore in everyday life. Create your own path and do not try to be someone else.

This is the dictum that the current Indian ODI team has tried to follow while attempting to lord over all the other sides in the ongoing ODI World Cup. India has simply walked over all the other sides in grand style en route to the final of the mega event.

In what the Indian team has done in this World Cup there have been shades of the champion Australian sides of the 2003 and 2007 editions. Then the Australian sides would simply trample over their opposition without any worry.

Back in 2003 Australia did not have the aura before the World Cup because they lost their champion Shane Warne to a drug ban. Then they put together a decent team to destroy other sides. Remember Ricky Ponting took over as the ODI captain just a year before the World Cup because they went through a period of crisis in white ball cricket. But when the World Cup started in South Africa, Australia found new heroes every day during the tournament and won eleven consecutive games to lift the title. You have read this somewhere, haven’t you? It has happened similarly with the Indian team in the ongoing Cricket World Cup.

When Australia destroyed India in the 2003 final, more than a billion plus hearts were broken.

Cut to four years later during the 2007 World Cup, Warne did not turn up by choice as he retired from ODI cricket and then Tests. This time Brett Lee’s thunderbolts were not around for the Aussies but also not around seemed any credible contenders to challenge Australia for the title. As a career hack at the time, this writer had the privilege and honour of writing about that Australian side. They were genuinely outstanding and had no competition.

It seemed like all the other sides in the 2007 edition were involved in trying to finish second behind Australia. They were that good in that tournament with destructive batters and outstanding wicket-taking bowlers led by the incomparable Glenn McGrath on his final hurrah. That the 2007 final ended in a whimper, thanks to the match officials, only resulted in dampening the spirit of their triumph a bit, but they were on an all-time high.  That 2007 side of Australia must be the best side, comparable only to the West Indies champion sides of 1975 and 1979.

One common factor between then and now from an Indian perspective is the head coach Rahul Dravid. He was at the receiving end of the Aussie juggernaut in 2003 as the vice-captain of the Indian side and as a wicket-keeper. He saw from close quarters in the final how Ponting destroyed India. Then in 2007 Dravid was the Indian captain, but may have been thanking his stars that they did not have to face the Aussie juggernaut in the later stages of the tournament.

You may wonder just why these comparisons are being made between this Indian ODI team and the then champion Aussie sides, then it is very simple. India has won 10 successive games in this World Cup and is on the verge of equalling the record of the Aussie sides’ 11 straight wins. If India does win on Sunday, it will make it 11 straight wins, on par with Australia’s champion sides of 2003 and 2007. So, there is plenty to talk about in that sense.

India have been awe-inspiring in this tournament. They have come through all games unscathed, except maybe against New Zealand. Their bowling has destroyed their rivals and the batters have been destructive. Shades of those Australian sides you feel? It gets more interesting when you also talk about injury to India’s only seam bowling all-rounder, Hardik Pandya. So, they have had issues with balancing the side but have not felt the pinch thus far.

When you consider that their opposition in the final will be the Australians, then inevitable comparisons with the 2003 edition do come up.

Consider this:

• India won eight straight games in 2003. India lost just twice in that edition, both times to Australia (group stage and final) while Australia won 11 straight games in 2003

• India won 10 straight games in 2023, beat Australia in the league phase, while Australia has won eight straight games this time

The roles have reversed, now India just must reverse the result in the result to complete the circle.

If it does happen that way on Sunday, the happiest will be the head coach Dravid because he had to endure the heartbreak 20 years ago. He can more than make up for it vicariously if India becomes the ODI World Champion.

In cricket very few sides have been undisputed ODI world champions. West Indies in the 1970s and then the Aussies took over in the late 1990s.

Indian ODI sides between 1983 and 1987 did win many titles. But they were not unbeatable. Then India had a surfeit of all-rounders unlike now. The 1985 World Championship of Cricket side under Sunil Gavaskar is rated as the best Indian ODI side of all time. They won all their games convincingly in that tournament through their all-round strength.

Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s side of 2011 did not inspire confidence early on but slowly started building steam in the lead-up to the final. Dhoni’s 2013 Champions Trophy side had more depth and were convincing in their triumph with a much younger set of players.

Thankfully for India the current Australian side does not match up to the heights of their past. They are not invincible like Ponting’s sides were in both Tests and ODIs, but they are not pushovers either. They will keep fighting and will never give up like Glenn Maxwell showed us against Afghanistan in Mumbai.

Despite not having the same galaxy of superstars, Australia has been in and around every major title bout in the last couple of years. They won the T20 World Cup in 2021 in Dubai, then earlier this year beat India to win the World Test Championship (WTC) and then also retained the Ashes. To make it to the ODI World Cup final this time completes their circle too. The strength of the Aussies comes from a professional system where they look at every format differently and build their squads accordingly. Even if they were to win the final, they would only consider themselves the only World Champion in ODI format. That they also the Test crown is incidental to this debate.

India needs to emulate this attitude if they do win the title on Sunday. Back in 2011 when India became the ODI World Champion they lost everything in Tests both at home and away.

Remember emulating someone else is fine, but trying to ape them can sometimes become cumbersome.

So, in life if you get a chance try remaking The Godfather as Sarkar, or A Kiss Before Dying as Baazigar, every other retelling is fraught with disaster!