Mediocrity against class

India’s dismal performance in the current ODI series against Australia is as mcuh a reflection of the difference between one day internationals and 20-20 as it is an assertion of the class of the world champions. The unprecedented euphoria surrounding India’s victory in the T20 final seems to have fizzled out earlier than expected and the recnent ‘world champions’ have met the real one.
Reams of newsprint has been wasted regaling and reviling team India time and again. A win means superlatives for our talented stars and rising young guns, while loss brings venom spewing out of the same pens. However, what no one writes — I wouldn’t say fail to recognise, as several sports writers have confided in private the same — is that the Indian team is primarily mediocre.
Except for bursts of occaisional brilliance and sporadic feats, Indian team has offered little to its over-expecting fans ever since its last World Cup win in 1983. Indian team basically is a bunch of extra-ordinary cricketers, some of them endowed with Godly talent, who have seldom played as a cohesive unit that takes collective responsibility. It is unfair to expect mediocrity to show brilliance all the time.