Dark Horse Arts and Sciences

2015 was a disastrous campaign for the England cricket side in the world cup held in Australia and New Zealand as they lost to Bangladesh and eventually got eliminated in the group stage. Then, Eoin Morgan took responsibility and started rebuilding England in the shorter formats of the game. He slowly revamped the side with proper strategy and a clear-cut goal with a fixed set of players on board playing together for a longer period of time. And eventually, the rest is history as England lifted the 2019 ICC World Cup beating New Zealand in a thriller of a final at Lord’s.

The reason I’m saying all this is I am really pissed off at what’s going on with Indian cricket right now. They have a world cup knocking at the door, that too, at home. Yet, there is no particular team. The captain is most of the times injured, nowhere to be seen. There is no constant vice-captain either. Middle order issue of 2019 world cup is still not resolved. Shikhar Dhawan, the guy who performs the best in ICC tournaments has been dropped despite leading the side during the absence of the heavyweights. The most premium fast bowlers are injured due to playing in meaningless IPL games. Bhubaneswar Kumar had started his career as a swing fast bowler, now he has turned into a slow off break bowler. Noone knows what has happened to Mohammed Shami, where is he? Jasprit Bumrah is also nowhere to be seen. Arshdeep Singh played the T20 world cup, then why is he not playing in the T20 series against Sri Lanka? Mohammed Siraj is doing alright, yet not getting constant opportunities to settle his place in the team. Despite this, there are so many issues that need to be addressed in terms of fast bowling.

Come to the batting department, the captain himself hasn’t scored anything substantial for the last couple of years. T20 world cup was a disaster for him, barring a fifty against the Dutch maybe. I don’t think KL Rahul fits into the ODI squad anymore, courtesy his lackluster performances lately. It’s also good that he has been sacked from the ODI captaincy as I could rarely see a trace of intensity during his captaincy on field where he mostly just stood there, unable to cope up with the situation. He was not even able to go and stand up to his seniors to tell them their mistakes. It’s not like I hate KL, I love him. I love his batting and fielding. Yet, despite given so many chances, he is unable to convert them into anything substantial. And he never performs on big matches, that’s the truth.

Come to the middle order. Shreyas Iyer is doing alright. He has been in good form lately, both in test and ODIs, making a strong case for himself. It’s yet to be seen how he performs on big stages like the World Cup or World Test Championship final or the test series against the kangaroos in February where he will really be tested. For Shreyas to strengthen his place in the test side, he has to perform really well against Australia this summer. After Rishab Pant’s unfortunate accident, that wicket-keeper position is there to occupy. Ishan Kishan is the best bet for that considering his recent rich vein of form. Shubhman Gill is also knocking the selectors’ doors constantly through his good form. I wish Ravindra Jadeja remains fit before the world cup as he is the most complete package in the team. Even if he doesn’t score or take wickets, he will somehow save you 20 runs in the field and take wickets through outstanding runouts. Hardik Pandya and Shardul Thakur both should be considered for the all-rounder position whereas Yuzi Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav pair must return for the world cup. R Ashwin is not any more a choice for the shorter formats. He is at his best in whites, to be frank. Fast bowling department should consist of “Fast-bowlers”. Not off break, slow cutter bowlers, but genuine fast bowlers like Mo Siraj, Mo Shami, Jassi Bumrah, Umesh Yadav and if possible, Umran Malick, who is a raw, genuine fast bowler.

Lately I don’t see that passion anymore in players. That aggression and intent is somewhat missing. But I think that is the somewhat the responsibility of the captain also, to energize the players at all cost. That is my only problem with Rohit Sharma’s captaincy and Rahul Dravid’s coaching style. Their style seems to relax the players, which I think is kinda counter-productive, whereas during Virat Kohli- Ravi Shashtri tenure, there was utmost aggression, passion and desire to win, to keep performing and fighting no matter what. There was no relaxing period. The team was relentless. They kept winning and pushing the opponents. They beat England, Australia (twice) and almost South Africa in their own backyard. I don’t think this Rohit Sharma led team can do that as I see no particular plan or blue print of Rohit to forward this team in that direction where India can play with that aggression and passion like they used to do under Virat. First of all, Rohit is most of the times injured. How will he lead a test team for a five test or four test series? I also can’t see anyone among the current Indian set of players as to who has that capability to lead the team the way Virat did in tests. There is a big shoe to fill up. World Test Championship final is coming this June and there is a huge chance India are qualifying for that, if they can win against the Aussies this summer. And it will be a hell of a contest at The Kennington Oval to see two of the best test teams going at each other in London this English summer. But for that again, India needs to be prepared and alerted.  Alert of the fact that its major players don’t get injured at crucial periods. Let them be fresh. Don’t put too much on them during meaningless IPL.

There is also another thing that can be done, but I am sure no one will do. That is, if most of the test regulars, instead of playing IPL, go to county cricket to gain some exposure before heading into the final at The Oval, that would be great. Pujara, Vihari, Rahane, Ashwin are already playing county, so why not others? I sometimes think what if Virat goes there, spends some time facing the swing and seam of English fast bowlers. That would be great as it won’t be easy at all this WTC final as Indian batsmen would be facing probably the best pace attack of the world, i.e., the trio of Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazzlewood and skipper Pat Cummins and also an exciting talent like Cameron Green who takes really important wickets at crucial occasions and if one of them gets injured, there is Scott Boland who is again one hell of a seam bowler who once starts picking up wickets, just goes on and on and on. So, I hope India goes with a proper blueprint into all this since 2023 will be one hell of a year for cricket.

To be continued……….