ALL'S POSSIBLE: Kaif (above) and Yuvraj have India thinking of World Cup 2003

It was one of those days: when a raucous stampede of Indian cricketers clattered over the wooden floor of the Lord's Long Room, past old members spluttering into their gins wondering if Armageddon had arrived early, up over a gate and out onto the field, heading for their mates who had broken a three-year hex and set them free.

Thousands of miles away, it was one of those nights.

When there was impromptu dancing on Chowpatty beach in Mumbai and when a man rushed into a cinema hall in Allahabad to tell his parents the hell with Devdas and his interminable weeping, something quite extraordinary had happened.

Yuvraj Singh, tall, strapping and aspiring to macho-ness will never admit to tears. But when it was won, Yuvraj, talkative and extroverted, had no words. He silently crushed his batting partner and buddy Mohammed Kaif in a bear hug and carried him on his back like a sack of flour.

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The World Cup Blueprint "We have to understand what sort of team will win the World Cup: a quality fielding team with batting up to No. 8, a high-class batter who can bowl or keep wickets, and specialist bowlers who can keep it tight in the slog overs." Indian Team Coach John Wright "A HIGH-CLASS BATTER WHO CAN BOWL OR KEEP WICKETS" In a move planned for the one-day series against Zimbabwe at home but executed only during the away series against the West Indies, Rahul Dravid is chosen as the man given the difficult double role, thus lengthening and strengthening the batting. DOUBLE ROLE: With Dravid as wicketkeeper India now bats up to No. 8 "BATTING UP TO NO. 8" At the moment India bats to No. 7. Picking Dravid to keep wickets has given the Indians a chance to play a specialist bat, Kaif, at No. 7. Tendulkar has been moved down the order to No. 4, where he is expected to shore up the middle order. Ganguly, Mongia, Sehwag, Tendulkar and Yuvraj also bowl. "A QUALITY FIELDING SIDE" The team has hired Adrian Le Roux, a South African physical trainer. Le Roux runs the fielding drills and monitors the fitness, speed and agility of the players with weekly tests. When picking the one-day team, weightage is also given to fielding skills; so Kaif, Yuvraj, Agarkar, Mongia score over the slower legs of V.V.S. Laxman or Javagal Srinath. "SPECIALIST BOWLERS WHO CAN KEEP IT TIGHT IN THE SLOG OVERS" The pace quartet of Khan, Nehra, Agarkar and Yohannan is seen as the weak link of the Indian team today. It was inconsistent with the new ball in the NatWest series, where a solid fifth bowler was also missed. The team plays at least 16 ODIs and six Tests before the World Cup in February-March 2003, so keeping this important but fragile foursome in top condition is key. THE BRIGHT YOUNG THINGS DINESH MONGIA Businesslike middle-order bat who is a useful one-day opener too. A permanent Test place is some way off. But only some. VIRENDER SEHWAG Comparisons with Tendulkar may be far-fetched but the dasher gets the runs and adrenaline flowing from the first ball. ZAHEER KHAN Pacy and lefty, an accurate Khan will develop into a match-winner. Has added a slower ball. A little more variety and he'll be there. ASHISH NEHRA This left-hand fast bowler swings more and controls better. A few successes against quality teams may be all he lacks.

Kaif, whose brain ticks over faster than his feet move, had completed the winning run of the NatWest series final and hared off in completely the wrong direction. He charged away from the Lord's pavilion, intent, it appeared, on running all the way, bat aloft, to the team's hotel near Buckingham Palace.

The fortunes of a cricket team, specially this capricious one, shouldn't matter to a country creaking under greater strains than a target of 325. But they do. Then cynics will say they've seen new dawns before, wiser heads will counsel restraint and stern gurus will demand that perspective be observed.

But for the moment, stuff all that.

India's victory in the NatWest series-their first major limited-overs title since December 1998-was not born of cynicism, but out of the fearlessness and fresh thinking of the young. "When Yuvraj and Kaif got together, there were no rules. They said we're not supposed to lose these games. They were not conditioned to failure," says team coach John Wright. There is within the Indian team now a group of grit which has found the fight to win matches on its own, even if the old dogs have a bad day.

The NatWest series final has made Yuvraj, 20 and Kaif, 21, mascots for this generation: they understand the game's modern grammar and approach it with confidence and aggression because they are cricketers and athletes who bring bat, ball and body into play. From being a slow side that flip-flopped between good and bad, India are being talked of as one of the contenders for the World Cup to be held in South Africa in February-March 2003. It is the athleticism of the Indians, led by the lads of Lord's, that sparks off this buzz. A senior says, "When you look at these new guys, it hits you in the face-more than it did with some in the past-that these are players who can make a significant contribution not just to this team but to the future too."

For Yuvraj, a tempestuous talent out of Chandigarh, England has marked a second coming. Known as a clean and powerful striker of the ball even when younger, Bishan Singh Bedi had to introduce a special rule for the 14-year-old Yuvraj at his clinic in Chail, Himachal Pradesh. Six was out-because every time Yuvraj connected, the ball, each one costing Rs 300, would be forever lost in the valley below the highest cricket ground in the world.

A blazing debut of big-hitting in the ICC Knock-Out tournament of October 2000, was followed by crash and burn. The trappings of stardom were far too seductive and success on the cricket field became tough to repeat. Yuvraj missed out on four series and 19 one-dayers, going from hot property to nobody inside the space of a few months. Backed, he says, by "my mother and my captain", he has returned a man determined not to stumble again. In India's last 10 one-day wins, he has scored three fifties and was named Man of the Match twice. Vice-captain Rahul Dravid says he sees, "growth and maturity". "Yuvi has all the talent but he knows he has to keep going at this level for a long time."

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From Allahabad with Attitude FAMILY PORTRAIT: Kaif's family enjoys the limelight in Allahabad HOME FRONT The son of Uttar Pradesh Ranji Trophy player Mohammed Tarif, now a train ticket collector, and Kaiser Jahan, cricket runs in Kaif's family, with his elder brother Saif also turning out for the state in the Ranji Trophy. The story of how his father, a heart patient, and his mother went to watch Devdas when Kaif came in to bat at Lord's is famous; few know that brother Saif did watch the cricket and ran over to the hall during the interval to tell his family what had happened. When mother spoke to Kaif, the first question she asked him was, "Beta Honey, Ganguly tere upar chad gaya tha, tujhe chot toh nahin lagi (Didn't you get hurt when Ganguly jumped on you like that)?" GROWING GAINS: Kaif (sitting extreme right) in his early days COMING OF AGE At 12, Kaif joined a sports hostel in Kanpur to pursue cricket. He worked his way up the ranks in junior and Uttar Pradesh cricket, a boy driven by ambition to prove that cricketers from his state could make it big time. The Lombard Under-15 World Cup of 1995, where India beat Pakistan in the final, was the time Kaif's name began to circulate on the national stage. He then led India to victory in the Junior World Cup 1999, and has since kept knocking on all the right doors. PORTRAIT "Kaifu" to his teammates, India's new "finisher" is one of the fittest players in the team. When the team first introduced "bleep" tests for endurance, Kaif topped the minimum level of 11 set by the physio, reaching a level of 14. As his other teammates struggle with dietary restrictions, Kaif chuckles-he's one of the rare few who has been told to put on weight, and can eat what he likes. In the field they reckon on a good day he can save the team between 12 and 16 runs. Off the field, he's a quiet sort, who prays five times a day and listens to old Hindi film songs to relax once the cricket is done. Other than cricket, Mohammed Kaif, regular kid, loves climbing on the roof of his home in Kali Mai Lane in Keetganj, Allahabad, to fly kites.

Maturity was never an issue for Allahabadi Kaif, captain of the Indian team that won the 1999 junior World Cup. But making the most of his resources was. Regarded as a careful rather than carefree batsman, Kaif came home from three Tests in Sri Lanka last autumn aware his game needed sorting out.

He asked friends to let fly off 18 yards, increasing his range of strokes off the backfoot. "If you have to survive in international cricket, you have to tackle the short ball," he says. India A teammate Murali Kartik remarks that Kaif's time in the nets today is "match-oriented", where he practises the one-day shots-the pull, the chip, the reverse-sweep-over and over again. Kaif explains, "I watched how good players in other teams bat at No. 7 where I play. In the nets, I give myself a little time, like I would get in the middle and then begin to play as if in an innings."

They know their roles in the line-up, which is how they chased nine-an-over in the big final like it was a spot of toast and tea. Yuvraj, all cool confidence, says, "I enjoy situations like this. I think, 'What if I can do it for India? What if I can do it for my team?'" What if, indeed...

There are others of their kind: Harbhajan Singh, whose 32 wickets against Australia make us forget he's only 22, Zaheer Khan, who has shown he has the heart of a strike bowler if not yet the steadiness, Ashish Nehra, a developing swing bowler who makes old-timers' hearts sing, and the left-right batting combination of Dinesh Mongia and Virender Sehwag. On India's rocky road, post-match-fixing, each of them has shown he has the capacity to be a match-winner on his own.

India's win in England is memorable not just for that final: this year, India have lost seven of their 21 one-dayers. The most crushing were three at home to England, all chasing totals of 250-plus. Then, England captain Nasser Hussain had constantly crowed, "Put the Indians under pressure (i.e. get Sachin Tendulkar) and they tend to crack." Six months later, he tried again. First-up, the Indians chased 274. A fortnight later, England piled on 325 and still India did not crack. Hussain said gloomily, "This Indian batting line-up keeps coming at you."