dna edit: A team for the future

The Champions Trophy victory has a particular significance for India. Edgbaston 2013 is no Mumbai 2011; the World Cup is the pinnacle of the sport as far as limited overs cricket goes, and the Champions Trophy has always been its awkward younger brother. But in the long run, it may prove to have as much significance.

The World Cup victory was special because it felt like a culmination of the careers of several of the players in the team. Lifting the Champions Trophy, on the other hand, is something of a beginning — a major success by a relatively raw squad full of young faces and lacking several familiar ones. If the benefits of new blood have ever needed emphasising, this victory has done so handsomely.

There was no Yuvraj Singh or Zaheer Khan in this team; no Harbhajan Singh, Virender Sehwag or Gautam Gambhir. Dropping those stalwarts — albeit currently underperforming ones — could not have been an easy decision or a safe one. The Sandeep Patil-headed selection committee deserves praise for taking it anyway. So does Mahendra Singh Dhoni for his captaincy.

He has made mystifyingly successful decisions based on instinct or some indecipherable inner logic too often for it to be put down to mere luck. A steady nerve and aggressive intent tend to create their own luck in any case; so it proved this time when he tossed the ball to a hitherto sub-par Ishant Sharma.

His tactical nous may sometimes be lacking in Test cricket, but in the limited version event, he has few peers.

On current evidence, the dropped seniors will have a difficult time forcing their way back into the team. That is as it should be. Reputations cannot be allowed to outweigh performance. Shikhar Dhawan has ensured Sehwag will not be unduly missed and R Ashwin is firmly India’s best spinner. Umesh Yadav and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar are worthwhile prospects while Ravindra Jadeja handily manages to pull double duty as a genuine all-rounder — someone who can turn a match with ball or bat, not the bits-and-pieces kind that have come to typify the breed of late — and a pop culture phenomenon.

There will be more severe tests for this team. But it looks to be one for the future. If that future has to be realised, however, the Champions Trophy victory must not be allowed to brush aside the recent concern about the manner in which the Board of Control for Cricket in India functions. Too often in Indian cricket, deep-seated problems are forgotten in the passing flush of victory. That is a weak foundation on which to build a strong team. It must not be allowed to happen this time.