India: brought to boil or barbecued?

For all of India's talk about the World Cup being a fresh start, it is difficult to escape the notion that it will take a supreme effort of mental strength and physical hardness to retain the trophy held aloft at the Wankhede Stadium four years ago.

The best measure of the difficulty facing MS Dhoni and his squad is the fact that they are confronting a schedule deemed so ruinous by England that they submitted themselves to the horrors of last year's back-to-back Ashes series and the 5-0 sweep down under in order to avoid the Australia/World Cup double tour that had become their lot since 2002-03.

India are hoping that a strong recent record in ICC events means the barren passage of their Australian tour so far means nothing, just as the supremacy of the hosts in the Tests and triangular series will be less significant than the fact that only four members of the Australian squad - Michael Clarke, Brad Haddin, Shane Watson and Mitchell Johnson - have played in a World Cup before. But on the eve of an Adelaide Oval warm-up fixture that has long had its ticket allocation exhausted, Dhoni admitted there was little between India being brought to the boil for the Cup and being barbecued by their schedule.

"Well, I know how to cook. There's a very fine line, especially if you do barbecue, you can understand that," Dhoni said in Adelaide. "But when we went and played the Champions Trophy we were in a similar situation like this, and the guys stepped up, and that's what I feel is important in the ICC tournaments. If you see the past, there have been quite a few teams that do really well in the ICC tournaments.

"They may not be the best of teams when it comes to the bilateral series, but they have always stepped up when it comes to the ICC tournaments. What we have seen is how you rise to an occasion like this and how you take the confidence forward to something that's more important and somewhat different to a bilateral series."

A couple of elements of India's World Cup blueprint - what other colour could it possibly be? - have come together in the improving fitness of Rohit Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Rohit is set to play on Sunday and Bhuvneshwar is also likely, though it remains to be seen whether Ishant Sharma is also back after time away from training.

More problematic is the lack of runs provided in recent times by Shikhar Dhawan, whose early wicket has been the common denominator in numerous stuttering Indian innings since their arrival in Australia. The loss of early wickets is particularly ruinous to India for their tail is longer than most, and Dhoni emphasised the need for a platform to be set, even if it is not done so at the sort of speed the team had once been used to.

"We knew the new ball is something that's key. If you can get partnership going when you're batting and if you can take wickets with the new ball, it becomes relatively easy to capitalise in those middle overs," he said. "But I feel the middle overs will be the key factor, how you rotate in the middle overs, what kind of a run rate you achieve, the minimum number of wickets you lose when you are batting will be the key factor.

"When you are bowling, how many wickets you can take in the middle overs will be crucial, because again, that will put pressure on the opposition so that they can at least go from the 35th over onwards with the second Powerplay and the slog. We haven't had much opportunity to bowl in the slog overs. That's something that will only come into action once the World Cup starts. We have got a couple of practice games, and apart from that we have quite happy with everyone, how they have come up."

The issues of the middle order seemed to play on Dhoni's mind more than most during the Tests and ODIs up to this point of the tour, and he agreed that approaches needed to change among some of his batsmen. "That's something, depending on the conditions, we have to alter a bit," he said. "Wickets in hand is something that's really our strength, but it will be slightly different.

"That's why I said the middle overs will be the key feature for us, how we rotate, what kind of options we have got, what kind of shots we play, where we can get the most number of runs with minimal risk, and once we have wickets in hand, we can really exploit the conditions. The ball will come on to the bat nicely, and if there's an error from the bowler's side we can make the most out of it.

"But we are not that deep when it comes to batting. It's somewhat different to some of the other teams. Yes, to some extent when you lose quick wickets it does play in your mind, especially when the No. 5 or 6 batsman, they're going to bat. They can't just freely play their shots, they have to calculate, and it's slightly different, the reason being when you bat like 3 or when you're batting at 4, you know there are four or five batsmen behind you, but when you're batting lower down the order and you know you have to get a decent score, but at the same time you can't lose too many wickets or play a high-risk shot."

Strength of character and clarity of mind will be required to make India's shortish batting order function to a level that can contend for the Cup. And in at least one respect, Dhoni showed tremendous resolve on Saturday - when acknowledging the news that his wife had given birth to a daughter back home, but declining to pine for home. "I've been blessed with a baby daughter," he said. "Mum and daughter both are good. But as of right now I'm on national duty, so I think everything else can wait. World Cup is a very important campaign, and everything can wait as of now."

If fatherhood cannot faze Dhoni, then India, for all their travel miles, might still have a chance.