The National's Sport cover for the Wednesday, March 11 issue, featuring India as they clobbered Ireland at the 2015 Cricket World Cup for their fifth win in five tries at the tournament.
Sizing up the result, Dileep Premachandran writes from New Zealand:
“The last time India won five straight matches in this part of the world, they went on to win the World Championship of Cricket in March 1985.
“It probably shouldn’t surprise anyone that the common link between the two campaigns is Ravi Shastri.”
He adds: “When Shastri took up the role especially created for him ahead of the one-day international series in England last summer – India won 3-1, after losing the Tests by the same margin – he spoke of the need to make cricket “fun” again. He also spoke of how his experience of the conditions – he was the first Indian to score a Test double-hundred in Australia as well – could prove invaluable come the World Cup.
“With the team in high spirits, and a quarter-final against Bangladesh on the horizon, his recruitment is beginning to look like the smartest bit of business the BCCI have done in years.”
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