Former India left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha said one of the reasons behind India's title-winning run in the 2011 ODI World Cup was then captain MS Dhoni's belief in creating a group of 25-30 players who will ready for the big occasions at any point of time. Under Dhoni's captaincy, India won the ODI World Cup after 28 years. They beat Sri Lanka in the final at a jam-packed Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai with Dhoni leading from the front with an unbeaten 91.
“I strongly feel that the reason the 2011 World Cup was a success for us was because MS Dhoni was very serious about all the guys who were going to be in the mix, the 25 or 30, needed to play at least 40 games before the World Cup started. You may have scored a lot of runs but if you don’t have the experience of dealing with various situations, you may not feel it during the league matches but the most important games, the knockouts, the semi-finals and the finals …. That is when that experience really helps you," Ojha said on FanCode.
The former spinner was speaking in the context of India's constant chopping and changing with their limited-overs sides despite the T20 World Cup being a little more than two months away.
{{/usCountry}}The former spinner was speaking in the context of India's constant chopping and changing with their limited-overs sides despite the T20 World Cup being a little more than two months away.
{{/usCountry}}“Jab aapke paas itna bada pool rehte hai, toh uska downside bhi agar aap dekhein, toh jabhi bhi aapko mauka milta hai … it will be limited. Agar aapka pool bada nahin hai, toh shayad aapko 10-12 mil sake hain but when you talk about Indian cricket right now, aapko 10 nahin aapko shayad 5 matches milenge ya shayad 3 kyunki pool itna bada hai. Competition has become neck to neck. Players are performing so you have to bring you A game, and if you do not perform and another guy does and some senior play gets back in, then unfortunately you will miss out," Ojha said.
He gave the examples of Suryakumar Yadav and Deepak Hooda who have grabbed their chances by smashing centuries against England and Ireland respectively.
"That is the truth. These players need to realise that they are playing for India and just grab their chances. Look at what Suryakumar Yadav has done … He’s getting hundreds. Deepak Hooda got a hundred. If you are scoring hundreds, in any format and at any level, then people start noticing you. In the Ranji Trophy the level of competition has gone up. People are not talking about who has scored a hundred, but who has scored double-hundreds and triple-hundreds. When the competition goes so high you have to raise your game too and go higher," he said.