India kick off World Cup with a bang

Winning a match or losing is not important. What is important is the spirit of the match. While the South Africa had a bad start and had lost to England and Bangladesh, the Indian team which is better known as 'men in blue' had a mixed bag.

They had several warmup matches. Though they had lost to New Zealand, they had defeated Bangladesh. It's a different matter that in the process, some players had done well while others failed to utilise the opportunity. On the contrary, South African players Lungi and Ngidi had been hit by injuries.

If we look back at the previous matches, India certainly had done a great job in world tournaments, particularly in one day international cricket during this decade. Records indicate that they had won 22 of the 27 matches they played in four tournaments.

India had won World Cup in 2011. Again in 2013, they had beaten England in the Champions Trophy. The men in blue were unbeaten before losing semi finals to Australia in 2015 and in two years later in 2017 they became the finalists in Champions Trophy in England.

The four matches India lost during the decade were against South Africa in Nagpur in 2011, Australia in Sydney in 2015 and Sri Lanka and Pakistan in 2017. If we look at their win percentage, it can be said that by far they are the best amongst all teams in these four tournaments. The win percentage, according to sports experts, was 81.48 percent.

What makes India special in tournaments is their consistency in domination. Even in post-World Cup scenario since 2011, the Indian team had shown best records. Reports say that they had won 15 of the 18 matches. The team that came close to them in consistency and domination is New Zealand which had won nine matches out of 15 followed by Pakistan and England with eight victories each in 15 matches. Sports analysts credit this phenomenal performance of Indian team to the excellent batting line up and team's commendable run in world tournaments in this period.

Records indicate that "Collective batting average of India is 47.45 – by far the highest amongst all teams. Coupled with that is the rate at which they have scored these runs – 94.29 per hundred balls – and this is what makes the Indian batting so devastating and threatening. The difference between India and the second-best team in terms of batting average – South Africa – is more than 10 runs per dismissal. The Indian batsmen have scored big at a high strike rate.

Not surprisingly, then, they have registered the maximum number of fifty-plus scores in these tournaments." Three big players Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Shikar Dhawan have achieved great number in ICC tournaments in post 2011. While Dhawan emerged as the highest scorer in the world in these tournaments, he was followed by Rohit Sharma and Kohli. Their presence in the top five had helped India mop up some fantastic scores. In terms of batting average, Dhawan and Kohli have come to be known as among top five.

While this being the situation in regard to batting, India is also said to have the best bowling average after New Zealand and Australia. They are known for having conceded less runs per wicket than the bowlers from South Africa, Pakistan or England. They had time and again proved their prowess both with pace and spin bowling. They had also proved their calibre in restricting the runs in these tournaments and to 4.99 per over which is considered to be lowest among all teams. Certainly, India by all means has a team to win laurels in the big tournaments.