The Indian team had arrived in Brisbane riding high on confidence. They had good reason to feel good about themselves. They had two wins and a tie below their belt and it felt it was only a matter of time before they improved their standing as
World Champions. In its place, they flounder badly in both their matches against Australia and Sri Lanka and now face the view of a quick exit and an early return home.
The bashing at the Gabba, however, didn't seem to influence the players much except that the signs of a divided house were reflected from the manner in which the team travelled from Brisbane to Sydney on Wednesday afternoon. They simply tried to sport a smile to anything was happening.
Call it coincidence or whatever; it was surprising to see the players dotted in different places in its place of being together as a group which is more often than not the case on team flights.
MS Dhoni and Suresh Raina was seat next to each other in one of the front rows. A few rows back Sachin Tendulkar had Zaheer Khan for company and seat at the back them were Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. Irfan Pathan was all by himself in one corner bang away at his laptop, while Parthiv Patel sat in the company of media manager GS Walia and was busy understanding the sports page of most important English daily here.
Probably the team had checked-in in dissimilar groups, but to see the players session aloof in different instructions didn't make for a pretty sight.
There was the customary chit-chat and sharing of jokes among the young team as they waited for the flight gates to open and followed the queue to enter the aircraft. The seniors followed their own path. A few also choose to have a quick bite before boarding the flight. The only familiar sight was that of the fans who swarmed the players with requests for pictures and autograph.
One hopes that the prospect of their fans will push these players to raise their presentation levels and they live up to their billing as
World Champions.
The team will take a break on Thursday before recurring to the nets on Friday and Saturday. Rains have been forecast for Sunday when India is scheduled to play Australia. India indeed will also need some divine help besides a top-class show on the field if they are to stay alive in the competition. For now though, all eyes will be on the Sri Lanka-Australia match at Hobart on Friday.
Gaji
