At a speech during a promotional event last year, India's Davis Cup captain Mahesh Bhupathi had been bullish about the status of singles tennis in the country.
"The depth we have today, we have never had. Prajnesh, Yuki and Ram are all doing well. India hasn't had this kind of talent pool before in the men's team," Bhupathi said.
It was a good note to end the year on, especially since India were scheduled to face a tough opponent in Italy and beat them if they were to advance to the elite World Group stage of the Davis Cup for the first time since 2011.
Cut to Friday, and Yuki Bhambri, who was the second highest ranked Indian singles player at the time of Bhupathi's quote, is expected to be present at the draw ceremony for India's Davis Cup tie with Italy, although not as part of the Indian team.
Bambri has been laid low by the latest of the injuries - knees this time - that have routinely plagued his career. Considering India were already on paper the weaker opponent - their two highest ranked singles players are Prajnesh Gunneswaran (102) and Ramkumar Ramanathan (133) - this doesn't bode very well.
Italy meanwhile have three players ranked inside the top 60 in the world - Marco Cecchinato (19), Andreas Seppi (37) and Matteo Berrettini (54).
The comforting solution in such a scenario, has in recent years been to look forward to the second day of competition. That's when the doubles match would be played and where, theoretically, India have their best opportunity of picking up at least a point. Bhupathi, though, has put on a brave face.
"We are not focused on the doubles. We obviously have to win three points to win the match. So singles are as important as the doubles for us," he says.
That's of course easier said than done. In the last five years, India have been in a similar situation as they will be over this weekend - needing to beat a higher ranked opponent to advance to the World Group stage. Each time, they have in the words of Davis Cup coach Zeeshan Ali, hit a wall in the shape of the singles matches.
"If you want to consistently play in the World Group you have to get points from your singles players," Zeeshan says. "If you see the last five years we have always fallen short at the World Group playoffs. We are regularly hitting a wall at this stage. We have ended up playing Serbia (in 2018 and 2014), Canada (in 2017) , Spain (in 2016) and Czech Republic (in 2015), losing all of them. Unless you can win singles matches consistently in these ties, it's going to be difficult to advance."
It is not like there haven't been upsets.
"Part of the charm of the Davis Cup is that rankings don't really say it all. Sometimes passion will make the difference and if the crowd is behind you then that too can cause you to push yourself beyond your limits."
There have been matches where an Indian did just that. Somdev Devvarman, ranked 164, gave India hope when he beat world No.40 Jiri Vesely in the second singles of the tie against Czech Republic in 2015. A year earlier, he had forced a decider after beating Serbia's world No.61 Dusan Lajovic. But these upsets ended up being mere footnotes in team losses.
"We have had the ability to pull off upsets but I don't think we have ever gone into a playoffs or World Groups tie as the team to beat. We have always been the underdogs," Zeeshan says.
At Kolkata's South Club, India have the dice loaded in their favour as much as possible. They will be playing on grass - a surface the Italians have not had the most success in in recent years. The duration of the matches - best of three sets rather than the usual five -- also gives them some hope.
"When you're trying to beat players who are better than you it's always easier to do it in two sets rather than three. So, when it comes to playing big teams, who are constantly in the World Group, I think this change in format is great for the Indian team," Bhupathi admits.
There is also the fact that the two Indians who will play Friday's matches are coming off their best years on the circuit. Ramanathan reached his first ATP final on grass at Newport last year, while Gunneswaran has soared to a career high 102 and is coming off his first Grand Slam main draw appearance. "If I carry my momentum into the tie against Italy, then anything's possible," Gunneswaran says.
Then, of course, is the fact that, all things said, India have had a habit of advancing beyond what their rankings would suggest.
"If you go by rankings, we never should have achieved anything close to what we have. We have reached two Davis Cup finals with players who on paper were far lower ranked than their opponents," Zeeshan says.
"If we are facing three players ranked in the top 50 against Italy, I also remember when we were competing against three players ranked in the top 10 during our Davis Cup final against Sweden back in 1987. The Davis Cup does something to us. We won't get intimidated by the rankings."