Can Team India repeat ICC World Twenty20 glory again this year?

Can India win the World T20 in March India won the inaugural edition in South Africa and came perilously close in the last edition too Before going further with regards to Indiarsquos chances in this edition letrsquos take a moment to look for the common thread between the previous two successful campaignsThe Indian team celebrates winning the inaugural ICC World Twenty20 championship at Johannesburgrsquos Wanderers Stadium on September 24 2007 India won the event after beating archrivals Pakistan by five runs in the final PicAFP While batsmen walk away with the accolades it will be criminal to ignore what the bowlers bring to the table In South Africa it was Indiarsquos pace bowling of S Sreesanth and RP Singh while the spin of Harbhajan Singh that played a crucial role Then the good showing in Bangladesh was also largely due to the superb performance of the spin trio of R Ashwin Amit Mishra and Ravindra JadejaItrsquos commonly believed that T20 games are won by explosive batting but nothing can be farther away from the truth If the pitch is good enough to post in excess of 180 batting from both sides is likely to cancel each other outThatrsquos exactly what happened last year in Dharamsala when India posted 200plus but South Africa chased it down without a fuss Now the difference between winning and losing wasnrsquot the quality of batting but the quality of a bowling spell which Kyle Abbott produced for the visitorsMS Dhoni PicAFPBowling worriesThis forces us to look at the Indian bowling attack closely and unfortunately thatrsquos where the fault lines lie Indian bowling has been quite toothless in the business ends of a T20 game mdash which are the first six overs of power play and the last four overs of an inningsIndian pace bowlers have not only leaked a lot of runs in these periods but also failed to pick wickets and hence the results havenrsquot gone Indiarsquos way post the initial success Given that India hosts one of the best T20 leagues Indian Premier League in the world India should have found an answer to this problem but unfortunately thatrsquos not been the case These lsquotough oversrsquo in the IPL are bowled by the overseas recruits and hence Indian bowlers often slip under the radar Obviously thatrsquos not possible in international cricketAakash ChopraSo how did India make it to the finals in the last edition Well the pitches came to Indiarsquos rescue for it assisted Indian spinners Most games that India played were 140150 run games and MS Dhoni could control the game with his spinners And thatrsquos what India must do in MarchApril to give itself a chance to recreate the magic of 2007 If India plays on flat pitches Indian bowling will show up but if the pitches are slow and turning Indiarsquos spinners will rule the roost Thatrsquos when Ashwin amp Co will come to their own and spin a web around most batsmenPowerpacked battersOn paper India boasts of one of the most aggressive T20 batting order for therersquos a fair sprinkling of matchwinners from top to bottom Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina are as good as gold in this format Virat Kohli averages in 40s and Dhoni has been one of the best finishers this game has ever seenDhoni is at his best both as a captain and as a player in T20 cricket Remaining calm under pressure is an asset in this format and Dhoni has shown that in abundance over the yearsIndiarsquos fortunes in this World T20 depend a lot on how he leads this unit and more importantly how he bats His hitting abilities have been on the wane for quite some time and itrsquos quite apparent that he needs more time to explode but for that to happen he must bat higher up in the orderIn all likelihood this is Dhonirsquos last ICC tournament as a skipper and itrsquoll be interesting to see if he has one more world title left in himThen there is Yuvraj Singh the only man to hit six sixes in a T20 Internationals Ideally this batting should not only win matches on its own but also make up for the mediocre bowling But thatrsquos unlikely to happen in this World T20 till a few things fall in placeIndiarsquos taking a huge gamble with Shikhar Dhawan in T20 for he isnrsquot the same impact player in the shortest format as he is in ODIs So much so that yoursquoll struggle to recall any T20 game that he won on his ownMoving from one southpaw to the other mdash Raina is one of the finest T20 batsmen in the world but only if he gets enough overs to make an impactHersquos done that for eight years for CSK because Dhoni allowed him to bat mostly at No 3 and definitely not later than fourCan India find a way to give him the right order to bat Not to forget that sending him down the order cost India the finals in BangladeshAakash Chopra is a former India Test opener