Is This The Greatest Indian ODI Team?

India aren't merely beating opponents at this World Cup. They are pulverising them, batting better, bowling better and fielding better than anybody who has dared to cross their path.

- Vivek Krishnan

Their last two victories, against South Africa and Sri Lanka, have been by 243 runs and 302 runs, margins so emphatic that to call them contests would seem disingenuous. Virat Kohli is equalling records you once thought were immortal. Rohit Sharma is batting and leading as if he can do no wrong. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami are world class. Mohammed Siraj makes vital breakthroughs.

Ravindra Jadeja is paying tribute to the late Bishan Singh Bedi by conjuring deliveries to right-handers that land on middle stump and hit off. Kuldeep Yadav, India's highest wicket-taker in ODIs this year and capable of bowling rippers like the one to Jos Buttler a week ago, has been barely needed in the last two games.

They are doing all this in an understated manner that makes them likeable too-a trait hard to attain when you are winning all the time.

In the age of social media, consumed by the search for instant gratification and the tendency to offer definitive verdicts, it's of little surprise that India's current run is immediately inviting lofty parallels by experts and fans alike. Are they among the best one-day teams India have ever had? Can they be as ruthless as the Australians who won without losing a game in 2003 and 2007?

The present bunch has all the makings of a great team, but grand pronouncements, if at all necessary, are best delivered at the end of a World Cup. The players will prefer it that way, for they know their standing will pivot on how they fare in the week following the final game of the preliminary phase against Netherlands on November 12.