It's been an interesting World Cup. Lit up by Virender Sehwag's blazing 175 on the opening day of the tournament it soon descended into the bizarre with contests that couldn't be termed contests at all. For all the talk about taking the World out of the World Cup one has to be real. If this is your marquee tournament let it stay that way. Let's have the format used in the 2006 Champions Trophy where the top teams qualified directly while the rest including the defending champions West Indies had to play a qualifier. So after nearly 40 days of absorbing and mainly non-absorbing cricket the jury is still out. But it's time to start that other contentious debate. There have been some outstanding performances out there so lets pick the dream team for this World Cup.
I have not gone with reputation but on World Cup form and keeping in mind that this team would be playing in the sub-continent.
Let's start with the openers. Sehwag blazed away against Bangladesh and set the tone for the tournament. It's been a typical blow hot, blow cold tournament for the Delhi Daredevil. He destroyed Umar Gul in that crunch semifinal against Pakistan and has given India the starts that ensured a little breathing space for the rest that followed. Promised so much but nothing substantial after the 175.
Andrew Strauss has always been more recognised as a Test batsman. But that has to change after this World Cup. He conjured up an innings of such magnificence in Bangalore that even the most ardent India fan would have applauded despite the fact that he was shredding our attack to bits.
Graeme Smith flopped and so did Chris Gayle. Shane Watson gives you the all-rounder option but he didn't dominate the way you want an opener to do so in the powerplay in perfect batting conditions.
So I'll go for Sachin Tendulkar who will walk into any team of the tournament and Tillekaratne Dilshan. Dilshan also gives you that option of getting in 10 overs without leaking too many.
On to the most contentious one then. I've gone for Jonathan Trott at No 3. He doesn't play a shot in anger, still scores at nearly 80 and is the ideal man to bail you out if you have lost that early wicket. It also helps that all the other number three's in the tournament haven't done too well. I have always believed that that the Indian selectors gave Rahul Dravid a raw deal and seeing the way Trott and Hashim Amla have batted proves my point.
The No. 4 slot gets me thinking. Tendulkar and Trott aren't very aggressive these days and another accumulator at four could induce the yawns. Ross Taylor was an option but the beauty about Kumara Sangakkara is that he knows how to pace an innings. And when he starts to go towards the last 15 there isn't much one can do except pray for a run out or for him to make a mistake. He is a class act both with the bat and behind the stumps. So no place for MS Dhoni who despite leading India to the finals had a miserable time with the bat. Sanga has just been the better batsman and keeper in this tournament and gets the captaincy of this team as well. MSD you should have tried the helicopter shot at least once!
At No. 5 I have AB de Villiers. Even as South Africa went home this batsmen held his head high. An outstanding player of spin and great against the quicks as well. I would pay to watch him bat any time and I confess some of that bias does creep into the selection. But leaving that aside, whenever he played there was something calming about him; you knew this man was in command and you need that kind of batsman at five.
Six is not the place you would associate Yuvraj Singh with. He loves that number five slot in the Indian team and has got the runs in crucial situations. He is a certainty for any dream team but where to bat him is the problem. The reason I go for Yuvi at six is that he is simply the best finisher out there. We heard a lot about the Pathans and Pollards but their stay has been as short as Yuvraj's was in his Yorkshire days. At six you need a calm head who can explode while setting a target or get you home with 60 needed off 45. No one does it better than Yuvraj. The bowling is more than a bonus. I must confess I thought of Yuvraj at five and the outstanding Umar Akmal at six but the young man is a star in the making and will get his chance in the years to come.
His batting has gone downhill even as his bowling graph headed the other way but Shahid Afridi has to bat at seven. I saw him destroy India once with a 45-ball 100 on a minefield in Kanpur and that carnage I can never forget. Yes he did not get big runs here but whatever he got it came pretty quick. And anyways he is picked for his bowling so the batting is a bonus if it comes off.
On to the bowlers then. Harbhajan Singh has very simply disappointed. It's no use being a containing bowler. World Cups are won by taking wickets and in that department Harbhajan has fallen short. The magician Murali though has got the wickets but I always got the impression he wasn't fully fit. So I go for Graeme Swann for the simple reason he looked like taking a wicket whenever he ran in. And importantly he delivered each time Andrew Strauss looked to him to get England back in the game. Tosses the ball up and doesn't mind getting whacked.
Nine and 10 pick themselves though I'm not sure who should bat where. But fast bowlers have a big heart and India have benefitted from Zaheer Khan raising his game when it mattered. Like Swann he has swung it back for India when it was required and shown that the young tearaway who couldn't control his nerves in the 2003 final has learnt with time, something Shoaib Akhtar could never do.
Umar Gul finished the tournament pretty badly but on every other day he was outstanding. He is in the form of his life and should bounce back pretty quick from that hammering. New ball or old ball, like Zaheer and Swann he delivered when it was needed.
For the final place in the team the toss up was between Lasith Malinga, Dale Steyn and Brett Lee. Steyn bowled like he always does, with aggression and pace. But somehow he never managed to rip through an innings apart from the deadly spell against India and that's why he misses out. Same with Lee. Malinga on the other hand is simply the best bowler in the world with the old ball and for someone to bowl yorker after yorker with slower balls in between without losing the length is just special.
Three seamers then, two specialist spinners and Yuvraj and Dilshan the back-up options. Both would feel offended at being called that though. That shows the depth in this team.
So here is the final XI again:
Tendulkar
Dilshan
Trott
Sangakkara (C)
De Villiers
Yuvraj
Afridi
Swann
Zaheer
Gul
Malinga
12th Man : Shane Watson
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