There's a lesson for all of us in the Indian cricket team's inability to enjoy its victories

IS IT possible to be too good at cricket? India is giving it the old college try and an entire subcontinent is freaking out as a result.

- Jack Kessler

The team has reached the final of the men's 50-over World Cup without losing a match. In fact, none have even been particularly close. Packed with all-time one-day greats such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma with the bat, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja with the ball, this is hardly a surprise. I mean, India has left out players who would walk into every other starting XI in the competition. So why are its supporters in something of an anxiety spiral? I'm not the first person to ponder this.

Cricket media all-rounder Jarrod Kimber posed a similar question, one that I've not been able to stop thinking about. The theory goes something like this: India needed to get a defeat out of the way, like a parent trying to engineer a bout of chicken pox for their toddler. And there is a perverse logic to this. All winning streaks come to an end. Better to happen in a dead rubber than the final.