Team India's defeat against Bangaldesh, early exit from World Cup 2007 shocks fans

Yuvraj pats Bangladesh's Mushfiqur Rahim after he had hit the winning run

In the Caribbean, it seems that the Hurricane season has come early, shaking the foundations of what appeared to be strong structures, ripping away a sense of security.

Its target, the Indian cricket team, now struggling to keep its head above the water in a World Cup that has turned their plans and dreams to debris.

On an island where life itself is a cause for celebration, India are faced with the uncertainties of sudden death. A shock defeat to Bangladesh in their Cup opener turned the ostensibly relaxed opening rounds into screaming red alert. Bermuda was beaten two days later but India's best World Cup team, a team many within the camp believe is a better batting side and better prepared than Sourav Ganguly's men in 2003, put itself in danger of missing the Super 8s.

Over the last year, India have played 16 ODIs outside the country, winning only three and losing 12.

After the game against Bangladesh, a few of the players, including Sachin Tendulkar and Ganguly got together in a hotel room at the Port of Spain Hilton and cooked themselves dinner. They were trying to come to terms with the defeat. Even after the win against Bermuda, Robin Uthappa was to be found making lonely laps around the Queen's Park Savannah, the city's green centrepiece. It is a time of individual reckoning and collective cohesion.

"I was surprised by India, because they are such an experienced team," says former West Indian batsman and Trinidad local Larry Gomes. "They were outplayed by Bangladesh in all departments, but they know what they got to do now." Win and win big.

In the short game, Rahul Dravid's side have always been great at taking the lead and putting vast distance between themselves and the opposition. Their margins of ODI series victory under Dravid are: 5-1, 4-1, 5-0, 3-1, 2-1. But all at home. Their response to adversity or a sudden reverse, particularly away from home, has an implosion. Over the last year, India have played 16 ODIs outside the country, winning only three and losing 12 (one was washed out). More alarmingly, they have batted their full quota of 50 overs only on four occasions in 16 games, including their first two matches in the 2007 World Cup.

Former Test batsman Sanjay Manjrekar wrote, "In the last couple of seasons, I have seen that India struggled when there has been something in the pitch?whether you are playing in South Africa, England or West Indies. If there is something in the pitch and India bat first, then they struggle." The Queen's Park Oval pitch was expected to seam and move in the first hour of the morning. India had as good as made up their minds to bowl first on the eve of the Cup opener. When the team turned up the following morning, Dravid & Co saw what looked like a different wicket, drier and likely to turn in the afternoon, so they chose to bat. Having read the surface, India, strangely, still went in without Anil Kumble and then caved in to a young inexperienced side that had only two frontline pace bowlers. Ravi Shastri said, "The Indians panic and their fear of losing is palpable."

For India, the quality that will be put under the most stringent of tests is 'bouncebackability.

As the other frontline contenders pick up steam, points and momentum, India must pick up the pieces. This is the most pressure they will have faced together as a unit: the quality that will be put under the most stringent of examinations now is their 'bounceback ability'. The batsmen, who made a dog's dinner of their first Cup innings against Bangladesh, are the ones who will either lead the Indian revival or will be responsible for the team's early departure.

Virender Sehwag is found reading books like Geet Sethi's Success vs Joy and has admitted to meditation. He hinted at some semblance of form with a century against Bermuda as did the other batsmen putting up a World Cup record score of 413 and winning by a record margin. But more than numbers, India need proof of all their batsmens' full powers.

There is also the feeling that the Indians may have got ahead of themselves far too early in the Cup. All the talk amongst the players tended to centre around the word 'Barbados' where India was scheduled to play their last three Super 8 games. There were also, if whispers are to be believed, even a speech on how India should approach the final. Yes, that final. It seems absurd.

Captain Dravid remains hopeful, "We need to pull ourselves up for that one big performance. If we make the next round, I'm sure we can do very well." Between now and then is the stumbling block of the fierce Sri Lankans, the mental state of an overachieving Bangladeshi team, a working knowledge of the laws of probability and a dense fog of mathematical calculations.

The early results have turned the economics of the Cup into a game of dice. Former West Indian batsman Gus Logie, now coaching Bermuda, was asked about the prospect of a World Cup Super 8s without India and said that apart from cricket, the 'financial implications' were enormous. An ICC official put it more bluntly, "If India goes early, we're screwed."

The disenchantment between the players and the support staff of Chappell and Frazer is mutual.

All teams work with internal churning, but after the bad days, all rumbling is amplified and little with India these days is happy-clappy. The disenchantment between the bulk of the team and the core support staff of Greg Chappell and Ian Frazer is mutual and widespread. They continue to live, travel and work together but their co-existence is a prickly one, their overt conviviality forced.

Failure will be on every man's head and every man knows it. The 100-strong press pack follows them around like a swarm, the supportive and the shrill, each wandering around trying to spread their individual gospels. Eric, a doctor, asks in complete befuddlement, "Why do Indians take cricket so seriously?" Foolishness was one answer; an illogical connection to national self-esteem was another. "But I've heard that there are more billionaires in India than anywhere else. That should be good for self-esteem."

It never really works that way. Indian cricket operates on the far side of extreme and sympathy is of no comfort to the Indians. They have only one choice. It is encapsulated by a catch phrase that came into being in the Dravid-Chappell era and has returned with a new, urgent and angry tone. Perform, it demands. Or perish.