India aims for Champions Trophy encore

India go into the tournament without Sachin, but with the comforting thought of having rediscovered their winnings ways.

Joint defending champion India go into the US $1.25 million Champions Trophy on Friday with a huge disadvantage of missing an injured Sachin Tendulkar, but with the comforting thought of having rediscovered their winnings ways.

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India, who shared the 2002 Champions Trophy with Sri Lanka, beat England in the inconsequential third match of the NatWest Challenge on Sunday to put an end to their losing streak - and start afresh with an aim for an encore in the most important tournament after the World Cup.

Significantly, India's well-fought win on Sunday came without Tendulkar, who has also been ruled out of the September 10-25 Champions Trophy with an injured elbow, and pacer Zaheer Khan, who is recovering from an injury in India.

India without Tendulkar have done well in the past and this time too Sourav Ganguly and his team would be keen to tell critics that missing the maestro at the top of the order would not affect the overall performance of the side.

If anything, the team could motivate itself by looking at the 2002 Champions Trophy statistics of Tendulkar, who had then scored a mere 39 runs in five matches while batting in the middle order, captured four wickets and took a solitary catch.