It’s not often that one finds a champion team being asked to qualify for the next edition of the tournament, but that’s what the West Indies team have to do to be able to defend their Champions Trophy title. This is simply because when the draw for this edition was made, the West Indies were not in the top six teams in the ICC LG rankings and since the decision was to give a direct entry in the ‘Super 8’ to the top six teams the other teams had to qualify which also includes the West Indies team whose form after that terrific win in 2004 has made them go down in the rankings. They have played a lot better in the last six months or so but unfortunately the rankings taken into account when the draw was made were of last year when the West Indies were quite clearly struggling to win a game and were pretty much at the bottom of the table.
They will have a lot to prove in this tournament and looking at the way they have played recently, they will be a team that will either surprise a good team or go down to a minnow. Their form fluctuates wildly and there’s not much consistency in their game and it seems that some of their players are quite happy to get runs or wickets in one game so that their places are secure for the next few. Brian Lara has certainly made a big difference in his third avatar as the captain and the team are a lot more focused and committed than ever, and if they can address the consistency factor, then they can give a hard time to the others in this event.
The other surprise team trying to qualify for the main event is Sri Lanka and if one goes by their recent form under Mahela Jayawardene then they should be serious candidates for the title, leave alone qualifying for the main part of the event. Jayawardene has taken to the captaincy like a duck takes to water and he has led from the front. The captaincy has made him value his wicket a bit more than earlier where he could be a carefree batsman in a team full of good players and now that he is the one who tosses the coin, he is looking to show the way and lead from the front, which is reflected by the number of centuries he has now got. He has always been a top player but he wasn’t good at converting his 50s into centuries and so caused a lot of heartburn in his supporters who wished him to be reckoned among the top batsmen in the world. He is definitely in that company now that he has begun to get big centuries rather than attractive 60s, 70s and 80s. With Jayasuriya also coming back to form, and Sangakarra being combative as always, they have a strong core of batting with the promising Tharanga and Atapattu also in the frame. The bowling remains in the hands of Vaas and Murali and the fielding is good, so Sri Lanka have a good chance to win the title. The other two teams trying to qualify are Bangladesh and Zimbabwe and they have a tough task ahead of them. In the recent clash between these two teams Bangladesh were surprised by the performances of the Zimbabwe team and it will be a battle between them as to who will end up as the bottommost team in this tournament. Bangladesh have not capitalized on their sensational win over Australia last year and have been pretty ordinary since then. Both teams have some good players but don’t really have the fire power to surprise other teams above them and so will look to get their confidence up by just being competitive.
So West Indies and Sri Lanka should qualify for the main event but as we all know one-day cricket can spring a surprise or two, so expect the unexpected.
