In less than a year, cricket teams from across the globe will land in Australia to play the World Cup T20.
Despite the many successful T20 leagues like the IPL, BBL and the CPL, the T20 World Cup has retained its relevance as the pinnacle of the sport in its shortest format.
The tournament has been the most open with five different teams having won the title in the past six editions. Only the West Indies have won it twice.
Australia, who have won five of the 12 ODI World Cups, are yet to win the tournament. This closeness of competition has ensured that the World T20 retains its suspense and interest among audiences.
For Indian fans, the team’s record in this tournament has been one of disappointment since that glorious win in South Africa in 2007. Since 2007, India have hosted the most successful league in T20, the Indian Premier League. However, India is yet to win the T20 World Cup since its inception.
India had their best chance to win in the 2014 World T20, only to be thwarted by a rare failure from Yuvraj Singh in a big game and the determination of Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene to be part of a World Cup-winning team.
So the Indian cricket public is keenly looking at the current crop to end this 12-year title drought. Will the team fulfill this expectation? What is the line-up of players most likely to participate in this event?
(Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
Captain Virat Kohli started his international career in the IPL era. You would expect a team led by him to be deeply influenced by T20 cricket and be masters of it.
However, Kohli has gone on to build India’s finest ever Test team and has slipped a bit in creating a similarly dominant limited-overs international team.
Kohli’s failure to build a solid middle-order batting line-up since Yuvraj and MS Dhoni lost their touch remains a sore point. Plus, his panic to change the successful bowling combination after the loss to England in the World Cup group match revealed a certain amount of weakness in the thought process.
Kohli has built his Test success on the foundation of an all-weather, attacking bowling line-up. Kohli has shown the resolve not to shake this foundation, whatever be the result of a match or a Test series. Kohli seemed to believe in the same mantra for limited-overs internationals as well until the rampaging English batsmen tore his bowling line-up apart at Edgbaston.
Indian fans hope that Kohli would return to his basic thought process and build his limited-overs team on the back of a wicket-taking bowling line-up. T20 is a batting-dominated format, often played on batsman-friendly surfaces. On batting-friendly surfaces, it is all the more important to have highly skilled bowlers to take wickets and win matches.
The fact that a batsman gets only one chance to fail remains the same whether it is a Test match innings or a T20. It will pay off for Kohli to play four wicket-taking bowlers plus a wicket-taking all-rounder in every T20 game.
India’s long tail was criticised for its lack of scoring capability during the World Cup in 2019. However, India did not lose to NZ in the semi-finals because of a long tail. India lost because of the poor top and middle-order batting. The onus has to be placed on the batsmen to come good rather than weakening the bowling line-up to cover for a failure.
If Kohli can back five pure batsmen in the Tests and expect them to deliver in bowling-friendly Test pitches, the same logic applies in T20 on more batting-friendly surfaces, too.
Indian fans hope that Virat plays Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Deepak Chahar, Yuzi Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja, and Hardik Pandya as the first-choice bowling line-up in the World T20. All those bowlers can take wickets and will remain a threat in all conditions. The bigger grounds in Australia will help the bowlers’ cause as well.
The two all-rounders in Jadeja and Pandya will provide enough lower-order depth to the batting. However, their primary job would be to look for wickets.
The selectors can pick four pure batsmen from the list of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Manish Pandey and Mayank Agarwal.
The last name is a surprise as Mayank is not in the T20 mix yet. But considering his rollicking success at the top of the Test team, it is only a question of time before the think tank play him in the T20s.
My first-choice line-up is Rohit, Mayank, Virat, Rahul, Shreyas, Dhoni/Samson/Pant, Hardik/Jadeja, Chahal, Chahar, Bumrah, and Shami.
If Hardik is in good batting form, I would play him in place of Shreyas or Rahul and have six bowling options to play around with.
Indian cricket is in the midst of a bumper bowling harvest and they’ll win matches off the back of this crop.
dat
Roar Rookie
Not really ,he was the top scorer in the ct 2013 final india won on a sluggish wicket (which was shortened to a 20 over game),man of the match in the a virtual knockout against Australia at 2016 t20i wc,scored a 89(47) vs windies in the semis . Man of the match against sa in the semis and 77 against lanka in 2014 final. Been very consistent in both t20i knockouts and knockouts reduced to 20 over games. India's major issue in t20is( for quite a while) is when it comes to setting a total,which is an issue they haven't solved even now. Virat is in fine form in chasing them,but when it comes to setting them are a lot of issues surrounding the team. Mainly -Dhawan being the 1st choice opener based on odi form despite being avg in this format,Trying to promote unsuccessful sloggers or the back up opener to 3-4 spots and dropping virat down the order, Going with a long batting order with bits and piece cricketers rather than picking your 4 best bowlers ,only to collapse to below par scores, and recently (though, just in the last 2 games) some atrocious fielding (particularly by the newbies) reminiscent of the Indian team in 90's. Unless bumrah and kuldeep(if he makes the 11) takes 4 or 5 quick wickets, the current lineup will struggle to stop the better teams from chasing down totals which are usually below par or just par on those grounds. Only plus side for India is having a fair number of t20i matches to try and get their combination right ,before the wc starts.If they aren't willing to put friendships aside and pick players solely on merit by then, it's guaranteed a semifinal exit will be the best possible result .
Tsat
Roar Guru
Hi, You may want to check out his scores in Indian win in Champions trophy 2013 finals, WT20 2014 semi finals and finals, WT20 2016 virtual QF vs Aus..he has failed in the last few years, that is true
Bobbo7
Guest
Hard to win in Australia. Australia, England, NZ and WI will be very strong as well. The big issue for India too is how Kohli goes in knock out games - he has been poor to date. He is a superstar but his record in must-win limited overs games is surprisingly average for someone of his undoubted ability.
Paul
Roar Guru
hi Tsat, you've made some interesting statements in your piece "Since 2007, India have hosted the most successful league in T20". What's the measure of success, bearing in mind some of the betting scandals that have been attached to the IPL? You also said "Kohli has gone on to build India’s finest ever Test team". How has Kohli been responsible for that? The West Indies and Australia were dominant forces in world cricket because of the talent pool, which had nothing to do with Clive Lloyd or Mark Taylor's captaincy. The issue India has to address is 11 man cricket, which is what T20 is about. Travis Head showed what's possible in the last Test against Pakistan where he didn't bat, bowl, or take a catch in 4 days, yet still ended up on the winning side. In longer forms, India can get away with having a brilliant top 4 batting unit and 4 great bowlers, but the shorter the format, the more reliance there is on ALL team members. These guys need to do their jobs but, more importantly, be given opportunities to do that. What's the point of India cruising into the T20 finals if guys from 5 or 6 down haven't had a hit or been put under pressure? If India gets that right, they should be a strong chance to win the WC next year.
La grandeur d'Athéna
Roar Rookie
I can not say I am very hopeful. Just finished watching second t20I vs WI. If anything we needed to learn from our failure in ODI world cup, is that we ain't performing as a whole team. We are still far too dependent on individual performances. When we face peer adversaries who can perform both roles, as individuals and as a team, we get brushed off aside. Australia showed us that in last t20 series. Then we drew against South Africa & today this. Call me a pessimist, but things aren't looking exactly shiny I would say. It is more & more looking like the situation of our economy now :unhappy: