Praveen's injury will not affect India : Bedi

B S Bedi, the spinning legend, said that the exclusion of Praveen will not affect India's chances adversely.

"One person cannot affect a team's chances. In fact, it is good that Praveen has been replaced before the start of the World Cup because rather than having played in just a couple of games and then spending rest of the tournament on bench, it is always better to have a fit player becoming a part of the team from the very first match," said the famous left arm spinner.

India's greatest drawback are great expectations from the fans, which has built up tremendous pressure. Huge burden of expectations from the cricket crazy, who will not tolerate anything but the World Cup !

Indian cricket crazy fans feel that this is the best Indian side ever, the best batting line up in the world, the best side with maximum experienced spinning allrounders who can revel in subcontinental conditions, with favourable home conditions, so why not ?

Costly mistakes will not be forgiven ?

"Everybody wants India to win the World Cup and so do I. I want it more so because this would be Sachin's last World Cup and I hope India win it. And I am sure Sachin will lead the team to that final victory," said the left arm spinner, who was dreaded in the 1970s.

The dream final happens to be in Sachin's home town Bombay, on his favourite Wankhede Stadium. You can imagine the tension built around and this has immense pressure on the Bombay wonder !

"All these might mean a lot of pressure on Sachin but it is nothing new for him. He has been handling pressure for the last 21 years, so I don't think it would affect him at all. In fact, his game is beyond such trivialities."

In 1983, Kapil Dev had nothing to lose, as India was defined as 100/1 favourites !

"In 1975 and 1979 editions of the World Cups, India were just participating in the mega-event with no hopes attached to it. But after the 1983 triumph, we actually started to compete at the international arena. And since then, the expectations only mounted."

"Ever since the expectations have been only growing and now it has almost reached its peak. I feel we have a peculiar tendency of either putting the team on a pedestal or throw it to ground, which is not good."

Besides the weight of expectations, the former spinner also raised concerns about the bowling department of the Indian team, saying that it was not up to the mark.

"India's bowling is not as penetrating as it is required to win the matches on its own. The bowling would require a brilliant fielding effort. Moreover, even batsmen will have to score at least 50 more runs than an expected good total to give some margin to the bowlers."

He expressed doubts about the 3 spinners in the side ."We have an extra spinner in our side. I feel two would have been enough on these subcontinent pitches. Instead, I think Rohit Sharma should have been included in the team."