Call it a quirk of the contemporary cricket calendar, but India is already gearing up for another World Cup campaign less than six months after the events of November 19, 2023. India will be hoping to win an event in a little more than a month that they won on their first attempt and have never won again. Interestingly, despite their quick start and the introduction of the IPL, India has performed the worst in the T20 format. This is primarily due to the way they have structured their team both tactically and structurally to deal with the unpredictable nature of the shorter format.
The selection panel headed by Ajit Agarkar announced the 15-member Rohit Sharma-led team on Tuesday, April 30, in the USA and the West Indies, with the goal of ending the team’s ICC trophy drought. This team is dissected by Cricket sport , along with a list of important things to remember from the announcement.
Squad: Hardik Pandya (vc), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Arshdeep Singh, Suryakumar Yadav, Shivam Dube, Sanju Samson (wk), and Rohit Sharma (c).
Shubman Gill, Rinku Singh, Avesh Khan, and Khaleel Ahmed are the reserves.
Top-order: Should Virat Kohli start at the top?
It’s convenient to constantly have choices at your disposal. In a competition such as the World Cup, it is paramount. You desire the adaptability. It truly implies this, even though we just discuss it.”
Ahead of the most recent T20 World Cup in Australia, Rohit Sharma discussed the possibility of starting Virat Kohli. Rewind to March 20, 2021, when the two most seasoned cricketers in India opened a Twenty20 International together for the first time and combined to score 94 runs in 9 overs while batting first. The captain at the time, Kohli, was excited about the idea of starting with Rohit in the World Cup that would come later. In fact, in the last two World Cups, KL Rahul and Rohit opened, with Kohli coming in at number three.
For the third World Cup in a row, India’s brain trust will have to decide whether to start with Kohli or not. Because it offers two quite different scenarios.
A: Let me start with Rohit-Kohli.
Possible Top 6: Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube/Sanju Samson, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, and Rishabh Pant…
In recent IPL seasons, Kohli, the T20 batsman, has been at the top of his game, making excellent use of the fielding constraints when he opens the batting. He has now scored 243 runs with a strike average of 154.43 in the current season. His ability to bat against spin when the field stretches out has been criticised, and he has recently lashed out against criticism of his T20 hitting.
But an opening combination of Rohit and Kohli also presents a disadvantage when it comes to left-arm pace and left-arm spin. The following pairings, which the opposition is typically prepared to utilise in the PowerPlay starting in the opening games: Imad Wasim – Shaheen Afridi, George Dockrell – Josh Little, and Nosthush Kenjige – Saurabh Netravalkar. It’s interesting to note that the top T20 batter, Suryakumar Yadav, also struggles to produce good returns against left-arm spin. Sanju Samson, a dynamic right-hander with outstanding stats against pace and left-arm spin, is still a decoy that India may use at No. 3. India will be left with just one left-hander in the top six as a result of having to decide between Rishabh Pant and serial six-hitter Shivam Dube.
Since the IPL 2021, Sanju Samson: speed vs. spin
| Bowling style | Runs | Balls | Avg | SR | Bou % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs pace | 992 | 676 | 32 | 146.75 | 21.90% |
| vs spin | 697 | 465 | 58.08 | 149.89 | 18.70% |
Samson, the top-order decoy RHB
| Bowling style | Runs | Balls | Avg | SR | Bou % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs LA orthodox | 177 | 119 | 44.25 | 148.74 | 19.30% |
| vs leg spin | 376 | 241 | 94 | 156.02 | 19.50% |
| Combined | 553 | 360 | 69.13 | 153.61 | 19.40% |
B: Yashasvi Jaiswal to open.
Potential Top 6: Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rohit Sharma, and Rishabh Pant…
The match-up choice at the top is resolved by starting Jaiswal, but doing so would compel India to employ Kohli less effectively at No. 3 during the post-PowerPlay phase. They will have to give up Dube for Pant in such a scenario, unless they are prepared to take the unusual and unpopular option to bench Kohli in favour of Samson.
In either case, India’s top order will be slightly different from that of the teams that played in the last two T20 World Cups, but Rohit and Rahul Dravid will need to work fast to figure out the ideal combination.
Middle-Order: Flexibility, Rinku, and Dube
With the top-order, India’s long-standing structural problem of the chosen personnel’s one-dimensionality will not change. When India selects squads, this is what separates Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, and it’s an issue that India won’t have in the middle order. Despite not bowling as much or as frequently as India would have liked in the IPL, Pandya’s versatility as a seam-bowling all-rounder has garnered significant column inches. Axar Patel’s performance has only slightly improved, as neither Pandya nor Jadeja have been hitting their best.
Death overs (16–20) statistics for possible T20I/IPL finishers
| Player | Inngs | Runs | Avg | SR | Bou % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| H Pandya | 20 | 225 | 16.07 | 153.06 | 17.00% |
| R Jadeja | 18 | 257 | 23.36 | 146.86 | 16.00% |
| A Patel | 24 | 357 | 22.31 | 153.88 | 16.80% |
| S Dube | 18 | 355 | 39.44 | 182.05 | 24.60% |
IPL’s Impact Player rule may have hurt India in two ways here. First, it has rendered Dube’s bowling surplus to requirements at CSK and therefore despite his great hitting numbers, he goes to the World Cup without any overs under his belt. Secondly, it has left Rinku Singh with very few opportunities to bat with KKR succeeding with their Sunil Narine as an opener move and cost India’s most potent finisher a place in the squad. Even so, having to pick just one between Dube and Rinku will not have been easy. For all of Rinku’s achievements for KKR and in the 15 games he played for India, it’s the promise of the aforementioned flexibility that could have tilted the scales in Dube’s favour. The Mumbai batter has been devastating against spin, a skill-set very useful in the Caribbean where grounds have short square boundaries. He has also improved substantially against pace-bowling with teams depriving him of facing spin this season. 45% of the balls he faced last season were from spin which has come down to 19% this season but that hasn’t resulted in a reduced effectiveness. That means, Dube offers the option of playing as a finisher or as a floater to take down spin in specific matchups whereas Rinku could have largely been seen as a pace hitter at the death. Then there is the option of Dube’s medium pace bowling – which though untested recently – offers a way out if they play only five bowlers including Hardik Pandya.
Shivam Dube for the 2024 IPL
| Bowling Style | Runs | Balls | Average | SR | 4s – 6s | Bou % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| vs Pace | 284 | 165 | 56.8 | 172.12 | 22 – 19 | 24.80% |
| vs Spin | 66 | 38 | 66 | 173.68 | 2 – 7 | 23.7& |
Bowling fast: Bumrah plus who?
India is the second-most active full member side among T20Is played, after New Zealand with 36, having played 28 since the last T20 World Cup. But six of the fifteen players chosen have only participated in four or fewer games throughout that time. Mohammed Siraj is one of them; he only appeared in four games, a statistic primarily attributable to his increasing prominence as an all-around cricket player. Two of India’s fast bowlers, Siraj and Arshdeep, have struggled recently, which is cause for concern.
This IPL season, Siraj has had difficulty finding success. As a result, RCB has had some of the lowest PowerPlay bowling figures this year. Arshdeep has played for India more frequently, but he has undoubtedly had ups and downs. Though India has long desired a left-arm alternative and the ability to play at both ends of an innings, his diminishing results in death overs beg the confusing question, “Bumrah and who?”
Sadly, India had few choices after their fast bowlers—Avesh Khan, Prasidh Krishna, Shivam Mavi, Umran Malik, and Mukesh Kumar—failed to make an impact in bilateral matches.
In the PowerPlay, Mohammed Siraj
| Season | Overs | Wkts | Avg | SR | ER |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 30 | 10 | 17.80 | 18.0 | 5.93 |
| 2024 | 17 | 2 | 85.50 | 51.0 | 10.05 |
The Death of Arshdeep Singh (16–20)
| Period | Wkts | Avg | SR | ER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021-22 | 28 | 19.93 | 13.6 | 8.79 |
| 2023-24 | 32 | 18.91 | 10.8 | 10.46 |
Spinners: KulCha’s comeback and the matchup with LHB
Given India’s ongoing investment in Ravi Bishnoi, another legspinner who is a more dominant googly bowler and hence not a match-up disadvantage against the left-handers, Yuzvendra Chahal seemed to have fallen off the selection radar. But a decline in his IPL output this year combined with another strong performance by Chahal, the competition’s all-time top wicket-taker, has made it more likely that Kuldeep and Chahal will play together. In fact, during the five Twenty20 Internationals that India played in the West Indies last year, they used two wrist-spinners in each game; Kuldeep and Chahal played four of those matches, and Bishnoi appeared in the fifth.
Chahal might lighten the pressure on Bumrah and the other designated death-overs bowlers as he has consistently bowled at least one over in the death overs (16–20) in the IPL. With no spinner to chip away at top-order left-handers and Kuldeep not quite up to speed in the PowerPlay, India could be caught off guard. While no squad of 15 can be expected to cover every base, this may seem like nit-picking. Before Axar Patel’s late injury made room for R. Ashwin, Rohit had given up a similar tactical advantage for the ODI World Cup of the previous year.
India’s spinning unit versus LHB
| Player | Wkts | Avg | SR | ER |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kuldeep | 14 | 25.57 | 20.6 | 7.46 |
| Chahal | 15 | 28.47 | 17.7 | 9.63 |
| Jadeja | 11 | 31.27 | 22.0 | 8.53 |
| Axar | 9 | 34.22 | 22.9 | 8.97 |
The issue, as always, with playing both Chahal and Kuldeep is that, should India’s batting collapse at No. 7, their top order may be forced to make cautious decisions, which have historically proved to be their undoing in this competition.
