Cricket lovers all over the world are eagerly awaiting the T20 World cup in Australia this year, from October 16th to November 13th. The Indian squad has recently been announced, but many ask, have they got the perfect mix? A question asked every series. However, you can’t ever get the perfect mix, but you have to try and get as close as possible. That’s the science of the sport.
Looking at the squad this year, India has Virat Kohli, who seems to have redeemed himself with that century, albeit against Afghanistan which had no consequence, so he has to stay. The difficult areas are tricky. Firstly, Rohit Sharma’s patchy form, in and out. Secondly, K.L. Rahul has no form. Thirdly, Kohli in fact, has the best of the three, so he has to at least stay for the T20 world cup.
So if you can’t fiddle with the top I guess you have to fiddle with the middle order, which is what they did during the Asia cup, causing them all kinds of trouble. However, the elephant in the room is Rishab Pant, do we have to bat him? Is there a place for him to bat? Why is Dinesh Karthik taken, especially if he is 38 years old and not played? What is the point of having him on the bench, if he is a designated finisher, why isn’t he finishing? Another player, Hardik Pandya has just done too much, he hasn’t had a great Asia cup but has done too much IPL onwards, there’s no way to touch him. On the other hand, Suryakumar Yadav is in the form of his life and is arguably the best bat of the lot. That settles the middle order as well.
This brings us to the question of Jadeja, who unfortunately injured himself while taking part in an adventure sport, which probably wasn’t the best idea, especially when in the middle of the Asia cup. So, he is not available. Axar Patel is now Jadeja’s cover, left-arm spinner as well as a hard-hitting batsman, yet he just isn’t Jadeja. This is the T20 world cup, the best teams are going at it, head to head, so you want to make sure you have the best combination available. Unfortunately, possible injuries and lack of any form will always be a problem when you put the final 11 on the pitch.
Next, we come to the bowlers, we have R. Ashwin, again like Karthik, taking Ashwin at this stage in his career, at 35 years old and not playing that much white ball cricket outside of the IPL, we have to play him since India picked him. Even though, he did not play enough in the Asia cup, he seems to be a favourite of Rahul Dravid, the present coach, so let’s hope that they do play him as there is no point in saying that they will only play him if there is a left-handed batsman on the line.
Then we look at the fast bowlers, India has never been this rich in fast bowling resources. For some reason Mohammed Shami isn’t in the main bowling squad, he is in the standbys but he’s arguably the bowler with the most variety they have, and yet he doesn’t make the cut in Australia, who are going to play the best batting line ups in the world. Jasprit Bumrah is a talisman and arguably the best bowler in the world in all conditions, my worry for him is always whether he is going to be fit to play. Is he going to last the tournament? Then there is Bhuvneshwar Kumar who is the one with the most form in terms of white ball cricket, so if he gets his swing, he is always a handful. Hence he stays.
Now we come to the last two places in the squad, and that are Arshdeep Singh and Harshal Patel. They will feature in the matches as well since India will rotate the bowlers, especially the fast bowlers, who break down left, right and centre. Arshdeep had a mediocre tournament, but he’s still in his early days and holds a lot of potential. I’m worried about Harshal Patel who started off with such aplomb and the first few matches he played while representing India. However, the hard wickets of Australia may not suit him so much as he is used to using slower pace and the back of the hand, which possibly will not come into effect that much in Australian conditions, so we will have to wait and watch to see how that pans out.
What came as a shock to some cricket fans, is that Sanju Samson dropped. Even though they already have two wicketkeepers in the squad as it is, he did enough in the little chances he got in 2022 and maybe got a bit of a raw deal. But as you know you can only take so many players in the squad.
Therefore, let us all just hope for the best and wish our own teams well, and remember that for Kohli, this could possibly be the last time we see him in T20 colours for India.
