India have tasted the bitter sweet beauty of making the top league. Now as they look to propel themselves to the very top, the ICC Champions Trophy in South Africa could be the platform to test their preparedness. (Psst: India lost the warm up match to New Zealand by 103 runs)

India lived to barely enjoy a single day of being the number one team in the ICC’s ODI rankings. They would certainly want to taste more of it for a longer period of time. But India unraveled after the first match of the Compaq Cup, the tri series in Sri Lanka. While their batting was propped up by the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Rahul Dravid and Indian captain, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, the initial euphoria about the performances of the likes of Ashish Nehra, the bowling and fielding has been a sore point.
There is little time to make a lot of changes. However, perhaps the team needs fine tuning and with the opportunity to acclimatize themselves with a week in South Africa prior to the tournament, India should get into the groove. They though have their work cut out for them – they have to improve upon those standards, gone astray in Sri Lanka despite winning the trophy, if they are to banish more than a few teams at the league stage. The match winners, as Sachin Tendulkar refers to his team mates, need to come to the party, especially after the disappointment in the 2009 ICC World Twenty20 in England. It will be tough without Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan but India is not short of talent or experience. What better time to come good?

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