India know it to do it!

Skipper Rohit Sharma during India’s practice session at Melbourne on Saturday. Pic/AFP

Rohit Sharma seemed momentarily taken aback when it was pointed out to him on Saturday afternoon that in the 35 Twenty20 Internationals India have played since the last T20I World Cup in November last year, they have tried out 29 players.

"29?" he asked, his eyes widening slightly, his thick brows coming together in surprise. Soon, though, he made peace with that massive number, for it meant the process of sifting through the chaff and arriving at the personnel best suited to fuel India's campaign at this World Cup had been comprehensively thorough.

Rohit himself has played 26 of those 35 games, the skipper for the last 11 months therefore in a first-hand position to ascertain which resources fit the new mantra of freedom and security that the think-tank of Rohit and head coach Rahul Dravid constantly espouse within the confines of the dressing room.

Back-to-back victories

From the standpoint of results, India are on the right course to mount a strong challenge at the World cup, where they will face old foes Pakistan in their opening encounter at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Sunday. Since the last World Cup, they are unbeaten in 10 bilateral series, which is a remarkable statistic given how volatile and unpredictable the 20-over format is, but in the lone multi-team event in that period, they failed to make the final of the Asia Cup in the UAE last month.

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It's precisely this lack of meaningful silverware that Rohit will seek to correct over the next three weeks. "It is a challenge," he acknowledged. "We haven't won an ICC title for the last nine years, our last victory was in the Champions Trophy in 2013. As a player, that's always in the back of your mind."

Rohit's ‘challenge' smile

But the immediate focus will be to take one opponent at a time, one step up the ladder. Pakistan present a formidable challenge, and not just because they won the last World Cup game between the two sides exactly 12 months back or because they bested India in their last showdown in the Asia Cup, also in Dubai, last month. As always, there is a plethora of exceptional talent through the Pakistani ranks and Rohit pointed out that it would be a "challenge" to play them. "I like to use the word challenge," he smiled, but if there were any nerves at all, they were superbly couched.

India have come a long way since Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan consigned them to a 10-wicket pounding 12 months back, but Sunday will test their resolve in a multi-team, global setting. It will be interesting to see how brave, fearless new India respond.

Eight
No. of T20I matches India have won against Pakistan. They lost three