India started this new year with a string of losses in South Africa, leading fans to question new team management, particularly Rahul Dravid.
Decisions like continuing to play failing batters and adopting a conservative approach in white-ball cricket seemed too old-fashioned.
After the highs of 2021, 2022 looked destined to be an annus horribilis for Indian cricket.
However, Rohit Sharma came back after the injury and joined hands with Rahul Dravid. Their approach towards limited-overs cricket seemed to have taken a different turn, one in the right direction.
Teams have to bat aggressively from start to finish, which requires plenty of batting options throughout the playing XI.
To counter this kind of aggressive batting from the opponents, teams need multiple bowling options in their ranks. When you cannot increase the team size, the only way to make this possible is to load the team with multi-skilled players.
The current wisdom is to have at least eight batting options and six bowling options, however India under Virat Kohli had been following the specialists-based approach, resulting in the team being top-heavy in batting and without options to cover for a bowler having an injury or a bad day.
Despite this flawed approach, India won plenty of white-ball games through the sheer class of their top order and the genius of Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav with the ball. However, India’s opponents found ways to expose these fault lines in big matches, like the ICC tournament knockout games.
Mohammad Amir, Trent Boult and Matt Henry took out the Indian top order cheaply and India lost those matches. The specialist-based approach did not measure up during the business end of ICC tournaments.
The change in approach was quite apparent once Sharma came back from injury in 2022 and took the reins. The last few T20s against Sri Lanka saw India play teams with seven bowling options and eight batting options. If not this lopsided, we saw similarly styled teams during the white-ball series against the West Indies. India duly won all their matches against West Indies and Sri Lanka.
Under Virat, there were similar results in the bilateral series. However, there was a nagging worry on the over-dependence on the specialists in the team. That team could not afford any slack that others could pick up.
Rohit’s team has enough multi-skilled players to cover for failures in the specialist ranks – Rohit fared poorly in the last few matches, and Kohli did not play a game. Still, India won
With the T20 World Cup to be played this year, Indian fans are eager for their team to end their long title drought.
My Indian team for the T20 World Cup
Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Venkatesh Iyer, Ravindra Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Yuzuvendra Chahal
Reserves: Shreyas Iyer, Harshal Patel, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Ravi Bishnoi, Ishan Kishan
CricDude
Guest
The last couple of series under Rohit, I am liking it. I don't think Rohit and Rahul (Dravid) are looking at a particular 11 now. It looks like they are planning for a bunch of 15-20 players where anyone who takes the field on a particular day has to be ready for it. And that is how it should be done. Under Kohli-Shastri in limited overs, they were trying to find a 11 going towards a major tournament. What happened was either the backups were not ready in case of injuries/form or the captain-coach had to go with the 11 that they believed whether it was right or wrong. Virat never had the technical acumen for limited overs formats; his energy was enough for the test format though. His biggest blunder was taking out Anil Kumble, one of the best readers of the game that I have seen. Yes both are hot headed individuals but Virat should have kept his ego aside for team's sake. I still remember the day Anil was appointed, it felt like one of the best things that happened for Indian cricket. Anil's tactical brain and Virat's spirits - the success India has seen in the last few years would have been made to look mediocre. Anyway past is past, this is a different looking management. Rohit is the tactical brain and Rahul Dravid is more about keeping players level-headed. This should work too according to me. Coming to the topic, I feel its not about a particular 11. So I will give my squad instead. Rohit (C), Rahul (wk), Shreyas, SKY, Pant (wk), Venkatesh Iyer, Jadeja, Deepak Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Bumrah, Yuzi Chahal, Ravi Bishnoi, Virat Kohli, Avesh Khan, Harshal Patel, Ishan (wk), Deepak Hooda, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Bhuvi is my 20 as of now. Players to be looked at during IPL include Sanju Samson (wk), Natarajan, Mayank, Prithvi, Siraj, Ruturaj, Prasidh, Ashwin, Hardik. And again, IPL can throw in many surprises. New talents can come out and some of the big names may go down. Being an Indian selector is tough indeed.
Rohit Agrawal
Guest
Shreyas has evolved as an all format player almost like Rohit, Rahul, Surya. Can't afford to ignore him now.. Venkatesh aiyer looks like a shaky option just like we had Vijay shankars and injured Pandya. He would need to prove his mettle in outside conditions n not just IPL... We should consider Washington Sundar, Axar, Shardul (even though his line length goes haywire many times n he should improve soon on it, but he has batting talent..) kind of players for the team. My two cents :)