As the dust settles on the ODI series and Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli settle back in to more sedate lives away from the media glare, it is time to turn our attention to the T20 series, which starts on Wednesday in Canberra. With the T20 World Cup exactly three months away, this is India’s best chance to fine-tune and try out new things. Unlike competitions like the Asia Cup, where the pressure was high for off-field reasons, this is the best chance for Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir to take some bold calls.
Take the case of Rinku Singh. He played just one ball in the Asia Cup and hit a boundary to seal the deal for India. A gun fielder, does Rinku merit a spot in the middle order? With Shivam Dube doing well in the Asia Cup, should India give him some more games or should Rinku be tried out? Also, in the absence of Hardik Pandya, Nitish Kumar Reddy can be tried out as a like-for-like replacement. But then, does Surya have as much faith in his bowling? Hardik started for India in the Asia Cup and it will be interesting to see how the head coach and the captain decide to use Nitish.
Coming to the skipper, Surya, and his deputy, Shubman Gill, and both need to score runs to give themselves confidence. While Gill looked good in the third and final ODI, he hasn’t really scored big in white-ball cricket for a while now. As India’s all-format captain going forward, it is essential that Gill leads by example and scores. With Yashasvi Jaiswal waiting in the wings, a few more failures and the clamour will grow. Remember that a talent like Vaibhav Suryavanshi will also be making a case soon enough, and with such reserves available, every member of the team will have to stay consistent and perform.
Surya too had a quiet Asia Cup. While his captaincy was excellent, India also need runs from the captain. Surya, who bats at the pivotal No. 3 position, will know that he needs to keep up the tempo and score big to stay in control. India’s white-ball talent is such that a few failures and the murmurs will start to get really loud.
When it comes to bowling, it will be interesting to see if India opt for Washington Sundar as an all-round option ahead of Nitish. With the World Cup at home, Washington could be an option. He can bowl in the powerplay and hit a few, and could be a foil for Axar Patel, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy. With Jasprit Bumrah back, the fast bowling responsibility will be with him and Arshdeep Singh, to start with. Having said that, Harshit Rana did well in the third ODI and his ability with the bat makes him a good option to look at lower down the order. Whether India experiment with him in place of either Bumrah or Arshdeep later in the series will be a subject of interest.
This is the more important of the two white-ball series, for the World Cup blueprint is expected to emerge soon. So even without Ro-Ko, there won’t be any lack of interest.
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