It is hardly believable that in the 12 months of 2021, India’s men played only six One Day Internationals and 16 Twenty20 Internationals, which included five matches in the T20 World Cup. What is even more shocking is that the other team, led by Shikhar Dhawan, traveled to Sri Lanka in July for three ODIs and played the same number of T20Is, while Virat Kohli’s men engaged in a blistering Test series in England. Were. Obviously, the focus was on Test cricket in the past year; India played 14 longer format matches, with the 15th till 2022, after the Covid scare forced the postponement of the final Test in Manchester in September.
This year, however, the focus will return to white-ball cricket. India will play a maximum of seven Tests against 15 ODIs and 22 bilateral T20Is, including the ongoing series in South Africa. There is also a small case of the Asia Cup being played in Australia in October-November in the 20-over format and leading up to the T20 World Cup. This year will be more for limited overs captain Rohit Sharma than Test captain Kohli.
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Some might argue that Rohit’s stint as the white-ball captain is off to the most inauspicious start, with the Mumbaikar ruled out of ODIs in South Africa later this month, hamstringing his first 50-over stint. with injury. Rudder in itself. The nature of competitive play is such that an injury, an injury, is just an incident, an act, sometimes a second away. As unfortunate as Rohit’s absence is, it will give the selection panel of head coaches Rahul Dravid and Chetan Sharma a chance to look at another option, as the immediate attraction is the T20 World Cup later in the year, it is worth remembering that India will host Will do 50 over World Cup next year.
It is too early to talk about the qualification prospects for the final of the World Test Championship. India are in this early stage and have but they have three-and-a-half series to go and a clear picture will emerge at the conclusion of the two-match home series against Sri Lanka in February-March. India will be more mindful of the T20 World Cup without losing sight of the WTC ball. The previous edition in UAE would have come as a harsh blow to the senior team ecosystem; His inability to progress beyond the Super 12 extended India’s drought in ICC competitions to eight years, and this is too long for a side that has acquitted itself exceptionally well in bilateral performances.
One does not need the advantage of foresight to understand that India was cleverly found wanting in the United Arab Emirates bash. Agreed, the postponement of the second half of the IPL, which ended just a week before India began their World Cup campaign against Pakistan, left the entire team restless and exhausted. But even then, there was a distinct lack of balance and all-rounder options at Kohli’s disposal, were Hardik Pandya unable to bowl in the opening round and the team was full of batsmen who could not bowl and bowlers who were relied upon. could not be done. To throw his bat around with modest effectiveness when needed.
India relied heavily on their top three, and once Rohit, KL Rahul and Kohli – the now established sport-leadership group – didn’t set the stands, they found it impossible to go up against excellent bowling attacks like Pakistan and the new found it difficult Near Zeeland. Dravid has already identified the need for greater dissemination of resources, and to make alternatives if they do not exist. The first sign that change is about to come is when Venkatesh Iyer walks down the order from his starting position for Madhya Pradesh in a home white-ball game and always sends down a few overs of medium tempo. It is fine to pay attention to detail, leaving nothing to chance and refusing to blame the ready unavailability of finished products for which Dravid is famous. Having identified possible solutions to a perennial problem area early in his tenure as head coach, the former captain reaffirmed his belief that the senior team was in safe hands.
Dravid’s role becomes even more important given the sharing of captaincy responsibilities between Kohli and Rohit. Both the men are definite in all three formats, giving a dimension so far missing from Indian cricket. When India had split captains in the past – Anil Kumble and Mahendra Singh Dhoni between 2007 and 2008, and Dhoni and Kohli between 2015 and 2017 – one of the two captains was not available for the second edition. This time, the lines are not so clear in black and white. How this gray area is handled will test Dravid’s acclaimed human-management skills.
Fortunately, despite the white noise from outside, neither Kohli nor Rohit is predisposed to act at cross-objectives. One of the great myths of international sport is that all teammates need to be friends and best of friends for a side to be successful. History is replete with instances in which teams have dominated despite the key figures being face-to-face. It is clear that if Kohli and Rohit are anything but face-to-face, then simply put, there is one less headache that Dravid will have to deal with.
The biggest headache for Dravid will be how to improve the performance of the player. For example, how to handle Pandya, who is still one of the most destructive finishers in world cricket, but with constant question marks whether he is relied upon for a few overs of fast medium pace in every white-ball competition can go. How to manage the workload of fast bowlers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Mohammad Siraj, the Test team’s strong but also amazing limited-overs exponents. How to integrate persistent and influential people into the national set-up in domestic competitions and IPL without compromising on the qualities of regular people already at the international level. And, perhaps no less important, how to get the batsmen playing in the top-order to bat efficiently in a different position to the Indian team for their state teams/franchisees, given that the top-heavy and How the top is packed – three is now.
R Ashwin’s return to the 50-over scheme completes the most astonishing change in fortunes for someone who believed his career in international white-ball cricket was history. Ashwin fell out of favor in August 2017 when Kohli and previous head coach Ravi Shastri put their eggs in the wrist-spin basket of Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav. Ashwin’s victorious return in T20Is at the World Cup and his inclusion in the ODI squad for South Africa is perhaps a silent acknowledgment that a mistake was made four-and-a-half years ago, but it also sparks debate as to which direction India is headed. moving forward. Spin force if they want to turn to the slow-moving 35-year-old to shore up their spinning department.
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Since the limited-overs editions will occupy the majority of Dravid’s mind, he and Kohli will have to consider the Test futures of Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and Ishant Sharma – soon, there is a hope. All three have excelled, acknowledged stalwarts are acknowledged great servants of Indian cricket, but nostalgia and sentiment have no place in the dog-eat-dog world of competitive sport. Both the batsmen have failed too often, failing to achieve the long ropes, especially with ambitious and in-form young men volunteering their side. Ishant, the only Indian fast bowler to have more than 300 Test wickets apart from the greats Kapil Dev and Zaheer Khan, is no longer an automatic thought and would be better suited to the experience of sharing a dressing room among many other young players. I love Bumrah and Shami. These are tough decisions, no matter which way you look at it, but Dravid has often shown in the past that he is unwilling to make those tough calls.
Dravid’s appointment, Rohit’s rise and some less obvious but equally important developments have given optimism that 2022 will be another prosperous, rewarding year for the Indian side. It may be so, but for whatever success they have in the first 10 months, how they go into the T20 World Cup in Australia will be the determinant of how this year goes down in the history of Indian cricket.
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