Pick out any India side and on paper, there isn’t a day most of the names won’t evoke awe. Same with this ODI World Cup squad.
Only India can pick three double centurions—Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan—and not be sure about giving all three a game together. Virat Kohli lives every day shouldering the kind of hype and expectation only Sachin Tendulkar can relate to from a time when there were no Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag
Pick out any India side and on paper, there isn’t a day most of the names won’t evoke awe. Same with this ODI World Cup squad.
Only India can pick three double centurions—Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan—and not be sure about giving all three a game together. Virat Kohli lives every day shouldering the kind of hype and expectation only Sachin Tendulkar can relate to from a time when there were no Rahul Dravid, VVS Laxman, Virender Sehwag and Sourav Ganguly around him. KL Rahul brings with him exceptional game sense, especially in those middle overs. Jasprit Bumrah is a world unto himself, Ravindra Jadeja hasn’t been knighted by MS Dhoni for no reason, and Hardik Pandya fans fevered dreams like no fast bowling allrounder has since 1983.
But are they good enough to win the World Cup? The jury is still out on that.
Here’s the reality: none of them have played together in recent times before the selection committee announced the World Cup squad. Quite a few compelling reasons can be cited here. The ODI lull after the 2019 World Cup isn’t abnormal. Then came the pandemic that wiped out nearly 18 months of international cricket. That was followed by overlapping and frankly chaotic cycles of ICC tournaments that kept shifting the goalposts and saw the scheduling of two T20 World Cups and two World Test Championships in the space of 24 months.
Whatever time was left before and after went into hosting the IPL and playing a crazy number of bilateral matches to keep all the stakeholders happy. Injuries and burnouts have been normalised to the extent an average India fan doesn’t expect Bumrah to play half the matches in a year nowadays. There is barely any time to prioritise, prepare and condition a core for the long haul.
ODI World Cups used to stoke a sense of occasion, probably because the four-year gap made it so worth the wait. And with every edition, we were wired to think this one–or maybe this one—will surely be the greatest India side to win the World Cup. Even on paper, the India squad of 2011 was no patch on those of 2003 or 2007. But they still won.
Now? India hardly exude the vibe of a side confident of their strengths, aware of their weaknesses and hopeful of a winning outcome. Rahul hasn’t played competitive cricket since May. One Asia Cup match was all that the selectors needed to pick Shreyas Iyer. Bumrah is yet to bowl in ODIs since July 2022. Only from Sunday’s Asia Cup Super Four match against Pakistan are India supposed to be full-strength for the first time since Sharma was appointed captain. Everything could still go wrong from here and even Sharma seems to know that.
That’s probably why he chose to speak on how ODI World Cups allow for mid-tournament comebacks instead of talking up his team’s chances of winning it. “The 50-over format is different, especially where you play nine league games and semifinals and finals—11 games. There’s always a chance for you to make a comeback,” he said at Tuesday’s press conference. “The format gives you more time to think about strategy and what you’re going to execute as a team. You have lesser time in the T20 format. Yes, ODIs do give you a little more breathing space.”
These are signs of a team still not on top of their strategic game. Rotational policies and injuries have played a major part but India might be more hamstrung by decisions that have led them nowhere. Like continuing with Shikhar Dhawan till last December when the coach and captain apparently had pencilled in their probable World Cup squad from as early as the start of 2022 with Sharma, Gill and Kishan as the three openers.
The same lack of logic applies in extension to Yuzvendra Chahal who, six years ago, had given India a new sense of direction by successfully pairing with Kuldeep Yadav. First, Kuldeep was allowed to slip through the cracks. And now Chahal.
More astonishing is the idea of going in without an off spinner, thereby sacrificing a promising matchup with left-handed batters at the altar of notional batting depth. Even if for argument’s sake Ravichandran Ashwin is considered more of a specialist spinner than an allrounder (even though numbers suggest he is India’s best Test allrounder), that India overlooked even Washington Sundar—who can open the bowling and can bat high if needed—suggests muddled thinking.
This India is more focused on X factors rather than a core. And they are bent on resorting to failsafes instead of thinking specialists for specialist jobs. Like Sharma mentioned at the press conference: “We have three all-rounders in the team, four bowlers and six batters.”
Read that as 11 batters and only four specialist bowlers—Bumrah, Kuldeep, Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj. The cohesion needed to rise over and above England, Australia, New Zealand and even Pakistan is still missing, simply because India haven’t played as a team long enough. Some names still evoke awe. And they are still world beaters, but only on paper. To translate that potential to real time success will require motivation, sacrifice and unity on a scale rarely witnessed since the 2011 World Cup win.
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