India will not win the World Cup

As the two ‘W’s, Shane Watson and David Warner were busy belting the Indian bowling attack all around the park, Indian skipper M.S.Dhoni must definitely have pondered on what really went wrong for India in their 9-wicket thrashing against the Aussies on Friday.

Firstly, leaving out Virender Sehwag to accommodate an extra spinner backfired badly, plus the Indian spinners did not seem intimidating enough to trouble both Watson and Warner(as evident by their 133 run opening wicket stand!).

10 sixes were carted off India’s bowling, and the pre-game theory of Australia’s age old ‘vulnerability’ against spin was thrown out of the window by Watson and Warner.

Now, beating England by relying on spin bowling, and trying out the same strategy against the Aussies is a different matter altogether.

While, India could beat England heavily relying on spin, repeating the same strategy against the Aussies came out to be a cropper.

Plus, Zaheer Khan‘s lack of form did not help India either, and Sehwag may definitely have contributed much more to the Indian scorecard.

India’s batting was mediocre to say the least(Irfan Pathan top scored with 31) and though Aussie skipper George Bailey cannot be included along with the likes of former Aussie greats Adam Gilchrist and Steve Waugh, he definitely has it in him to lead Australia to their maiden T20 World Cup triumph.

Now, India have to win their next against arch rivals Pakistan(who did a ‘houdini act’ against South Africa), and another insipid performance may lead to the former champions going home early.

Having said that, I do hope India do a turn around, starting with the Pakistan tie. However, Fridays’s match has definitely marked Australia as hot favourites to win this tournament.

And even if India do reach the final, and face the Aussies once again, it would be the Aussies who will come up trumps.