Rohit Sharma has now scored. Shubman Gill has scored in both games. Virat Kohli hasn’t looked out of touch in white-ball cricket, and will surely score sooner rather than later. Shreyas Iyer is in sublime form, and the Axar Patel experiment has been successful. With Hardik Pandya also in good touch, all of a sudden, India’s batting looks extremely formidable. I haven’t even mentioned Ravindra Jadeja here, as good a No. 8 as you will get anywhere. Perhaps, it is time to say that India are Champions Trophy-ready.
An easy series win against a decent English side is good preparation, and almost all of the batters except KL Rahul are starting to look the part. It will be interesting to see if India try out Rishabh Pant in the last game, and with such quality on the bench, it is surely a team that will go into the ICC tournament as one of the contenders.
Bowling-wise too, India look decent. Arshdeep Singh hasn’t played yet in this series but based on what we have seen in the T20Is, he is in excellent shape. While Mohammed Shami has conceded a few, all we were looking to check was his fitness. With more game time, he will keep getting better. Harshit Rana too has shaped up well enough and is ready to fill in for Jasprit Bumrah if need be.
The spin department, much needed in Dubai, looks excellent. Jadeja is the master of conditions which help a little, and his six wickets in two matches is evidence of his potency. Varun Chakravarthy too bowled well on debut, and with Kuldeep Yadav, India has the left-arm wrist-spin option as well. Axar is fast becoming the batting all-rounder, but always offers his skipper the second left-arm option alongside Jadeja. Finally, in Pandya, India’s has its best white-ball all-rounder. In sum, the team looks well balanced.
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What Sunday night’s game has also done is put all murmurs about Rohit to rest. Day before yesterday, there was much talk in social-media circles about Rohit opting out of the Champions Trophy. I got multiple calls to this effect, saying this could just happen. All of that was plain rubbish, and Rohit has given himself a new lease of life. As skipper, he will now have more comfort in the change room as he takes the calls. With runs behind him, the chances of the dressing room getting divided again have been minimised.
For Gautam Gambhir and the support staff, the hundred couldn’t have come at a better time. Had he not scored, they would have faced the pressure of asking the tough questions, and it would only have been fair with the Champions Trophy just ten days away. Now Gambhir can focus on the competition and not have to worry about Rohit and the change room.
While we have most answers, two questions remain. Will India ring the changes and call up Varun and Harshit ijn place of Bumrah and Washington Sundar? Or will Bumrah be risked, with the injury more under control? Except these two questions, all boxes look ticked and, either way, India are Champions Trophy-ready.
Lord Jagannath has blessed Rohit and India will leave Cuttack with answers to almost all the questions that were being asked. In fact, Rohit saved the Barabati the blushes, because a 35-minute power cut isn’t the headline you want. By stealing the show, Rohit made it his night and, may I say, one of relief for every Indian cricket fan.
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