ICC World Cup: How fit are the fitness gurus for Team India?

Ian Healy became the legend he is because of injury Afghanistans coach Peter Anderson widely regarded as one of the best wicketkeepers never to play for Australia stood up to Ian Botham at the WACA in a Sheffield Shield match and busted a finger Healy was drafted into the Queensland team as a replacement Australia were at their weakest for decades so they punted on a youngster and the rest is historyIshant Sharma during a training session at Adelaide Oval in last November PicGetty ImagesBy his own admission he didnt start out as the best wicketkeeper in the country but by the end of his career he was regarded as one of the alltime greats Its about taking your chances when they come even by accident Mohit Sharmas chance may have come at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday morning when his namesake Ishant Sharma was withdrawn from the World Cup squadMohit faltersA few hours later six overs and 62 runs later to be precise his chances of playing a significant role in the World Cup may have disappeared almost as predictably as the fulltosses and halfvolleys he served up If that was his chance to stake his claim to fill Ishants shoes he may have blown itFortunately for Mohit and unfortunately for India such is the paucity and quality of their fast bowling attack one poor showing in a practice match may not prove terminal It may well be the case that India have to pick from a sore and sorry bunch of bowlers low on confidence lacking in basic skills short on fitness and too full or short in lengthYes my assessment is harsh because these lads have potential and could surprise anybody in the knockout stages but rarely does potential win you a major tournament World Cups are littered with examples of great performances by players who transcended potential and delivered the goods under pressureI wouldnt wager my dogs kennel let alone my mortgage on Indias bowlers to hold their nerve under fire Their execution of death bowling skills is amongst the worst in world cricket at the moment And thats no mean feat in an era of atrocious death bowling from most professional cricket teamsRohit SharmaBefore I digress too far though somebody please tell me how Ishant gets so badly injured that he is withdrawn from the squad when he hasnt played for more than a month This is a system that employs multiple experts who stretch massage rehabilitate and rebuild cricketers so they can play cricket and someone in their care who has not bowled a ball in anger for nigh on six weeks is now ruled out with injury And no one in the BCCI is asking questions about how this can happenApart from accidentally stepping on a ball or being hit in the nets one can only draw the conclusion that the more time a cricketer spends in the hands of the medical staff the less chance he is of being fit Its like that old joke about never allowing yourself to be sent to hospital because more people die in hospital than anywhere else Or if youre feeling unwell for goodness sake dont lie down because most people die lying downStay away from emIn the case of cricketers the world over my advice would be to steer clear of the medical staff Just keep bowling pretend those little niggles are a natural sideeffect of hard work and play on The modern cricketer perhaps influenced by the medicos who need to justify their jobs has become a hypochondriacThey appear to be more susceptible to injuries sustained when doing nothing more than what their standard day at the office entails Rohit Sharma makes one decent score on the whole tour and injures himself for a few weeks Did he pull a muscle when he was waving to the crowd when he got to double figuresIndia are by no means the only victims Mohammad Hafeez made a rare score last week and promptly injured himself to the point where his World Cup is now over He didnt get hit by a bouncer break a finger or smash into the boundary hoardings He did it whilst batting doing the routine things that he is meant to do as part of his sole occupation as a professional cricketerJames Faulkner did his injury whilst bowling Fancy that Mitch Marsh at the Gabba Four overs into his spell and tears a muscle doing exactly what the medical staff had supposedly prepared him to doThe format of this World Cup may just give India a glimmer of hope though The first few weeks are irrelevant mdash the big boys should get through to the quarterfinals and then its just straight knockout India are timing their run perfectly Theyre out of form at the best possible time If they can peak at the right time wait for the other teams to lose form and lose key players to injury or suspension and get lucky on tired pitches by tournaments end they may still surpriseus allKohlis mojoWe know they can chase anything down if Virat Kohli can find his mojo again so its just a matter of whether the bowlers can limit the damage For those who think the pitches will not favour the Asian teams think again Australia proud winners of the Asian Cup soccer start as favourites so if they win is this a triumph for Asia It goes to show ridiculous the football victory is because most Australians do not consider themselves Asian in any respect except when its convenientOn a more serious note though India are determined to prove that the pitches will play no role in their strategy Watching them bowl towards the end of the innings on Sunday it was clear that they had no intention of landing the ball on the pitch Full toss after full toss boundary after boundary each one followed with a rueful smile and a repeat of the same ball World Cup cricket Try World Series baseball insteadMichael Jeh is a Brisbanebased former firstclass player