The most heartening aspect of India's performance in this tournament was the consistency and intensity they showed throughout. It was in evidence today too. After having toiled on a hot day yesterday, they came back on the field and did even better. I think this is the most promising Indian team in a long time. The shoulders don't drop, the spirit never sags, and they carry a self-belief which is quite amazing. Harbhajan Singh had another excellent game. He'd started the tournament bowling a flat trajectory, and seemed quite willing to concede the singles. But in the last couple of matches, and also against England, he bowled much slower through the air, flighted it more, and was a wicket-taking option for Sourav Ganguly. With Anil Kumble looking less potent, Harbhajan needs to take on the mantle of lead spinner. His performances in the last couple of matches indicated he could carry it off with aplomb.

But India took a step backward by recalling Javagal Srinath for the final. Perhaps it stemmed from the high regard that Ganguly has for Srinath, but it was unrealistic to expect him to fly in from England on the morning of the match, and play a matchwinning, or even a substantial role.

I think India should now start looking beyond Srinath. Throughout his career, Srinath has been hailed as India's best hope, but with him, expectations have always surpassed performance – he has always fallen short of delivering that matchwinning spell in all the overseas matches that he has played in. It's time to move on. Zaheer Khan, Ashish Nehra and Ajit Agarkar remain the three front-line seamers, but youngsters like Irfan Pathan and Tinu Yohannan deserve a look-in too. The home series against West Indies is a good opportunity to blood some youngsters.

The other disappointment was the experiment of opening the batting with Dinesh Mongia, and today, bringing in Sachin Tendulkar at No. 3. Ganguly seemed to be needlessly worried about the strength of the opposition; he should have backed the ability of his batsmen. Muttiah Muralitharan is a great bowler and will ask questions of the best players, but India had the might to answer those queries. By sending Mongia in at the top, Ganguly gave the Sri Lankan new-ball bowlers extra hope – they had an out-of-form batsman to bowl at, instead of being confronted, first-up, but two supremely confident, in-form players. Tendulkar at No. 4 gives the batting order a solid look, and fortunately for India, the changes in the batting line-up didn't prove costly.

The No. 3 position continues to be a bit of a bother, and I think India should be flexible when deciding who should occupy that spot. In the home series against West Indies, Mongia should have no problems at No. 3, but on more seamer-friendly tracks, Rahul Dravid could do the job. And if the team has got a start, then even Tendulkar could move up one position to consolidate. Yuvraj Singh and Mohammad Kaif at Nos. 6 and 7 are fine, but the one-down spot is one where the team management needs to show a certain amount of flexibility.

Sanjay Manjrekar, the mainstay of India's batting in the late 1980s and early '90s, has provided an Expert View for all of India's matches in this tournament, as well as the semi-finals and final. He was talking to S Rajesh.

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