India aim to break home jinx in World Cup

Mumbai (PTI) - Having faltered twice at the doorstep
of the title contest previously when they hosted the
World Cup, India would be eager to break the jinx this time
around and regain cricket's most coveted trophy when they
commence their campaign in the mega-event against co-hosts
Bangladesh at Dhaka on February 19.
In 1987, Indian cricketer Kapil Dev failed to lead the
country to their second successive crown as his team was swept
off the perch by Mike Gatting-led England in the semi-final at
the Wankhede Stadium in the country's western state Mumbai.
Mohd Azharuddin also could not pilot his squad back
on to the throne of One-day cricket nine years later when
India co-hosted the World Cup along with Sri Lanka and
Pakistan, as his team was knocked out by eventual champions
Lanka in the semi-final at Kolkata's Eden Gardens.
This time around Mahendra Singh Dhoni and his men are
aiming to disprove India's jinx as host nation of the World
Cup, aiming to make it third time lucky in the tournament that
the country is co-hosting with Lanka and Bangladesh.
The Dhoni-led team has the iconic Sachin Tendulkar, who
will be playing in his sixth World Cup that would place him at
par with Pakistan great Javed Miandad, to look forward to --
besides a very talented and balanced team -- for ferrying back
the World Cup to India after 28 years.
Seeded second in the tournament and ranked number one in
Group 'B', India's passage into the knock-out stage appears
reasonably smooth if they play to their potential and are
careful to avoid some pitfalls.

India's opening tie against Bangladesh would itself be
looked at with interest for it was the country's eastern
neighbours who inflicted a shock defeat on Rahul Dravid's team
four years ago in the West Indies, which eventually knocked
them out of the World Cup in the first round.
"The past is past. I am more optimistic than you," Dhoni
said here last week referring to the lung-opener against
Bangladesh.
India's next opponents eight days later would be South
Africa, against whom they have had mixed results in the recent
past.
England and the West Indies loom as the major threats in
the remaining matches but with the group also consisting of
minnows Ireland (11th seed) and The Netherlands (13), Dhoni
and his men would be fancying their chances of entering the
last eight from where the do-or-die stage starts.
Tendulkar, who has created a staggering array of records
in ODIs too apart from Tests, is going to be the lynch pin of
the team's strong batting line up.
The batting maestro is already the highest run-getter
in the tournament history (1796 in 36 matches) and has said
often that it is his dream to be part of a World Cup-winning
squad.
Over the last year or so he has played very few ODIs,
missing most of them either to take rest or recovering from
injury, to be totally ready for cricket's showpiece.
While Tendulkar would be the man marshaling the top
order that has top shots Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir,
Dhoni is there to take control of the latter part of the
innings in the company of big-shot players like Yuvraj Singh,
Yusuf Pathan and Suresh Raina.