September 24, 2007 – a day etched in the memory of every Indian cricket fan. Misbah-ul-Haq attempted the scoop and S Sreesanth pouched the all-important catch off Joginder Sharma’s bowling as the MS Dhoni-led side lifted the World T20 trophy. A little less than 17 years later, that remains the only time a bunch of Indian players hoisted that piece of silverware. That the inaugural edition of Indian Premier League hadn’t even taken place makes the triumph even more noteworthy.
Leaving aside all the nostalgia surrounding India’s golden run in that tournament, it was quite evident that a group of relatively inexperienced players, under a charismatic leader, played with an attitude that seemed to suggest that they had nothing to lose, and could just enjoy the game and play a fearless brand of cricket.
Just fast forward back to 2024 and India seem to have a similar conundrum. Whether to stick with a couple of lynchpins – Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma – or trust the younger lot to deliver. After all, despite being competitive, India haven’t won an ICC event over the last decade and more. In that period, India have played in four T20 World Cups without any success. Perhaps it is the right time to blood the likes of Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Rinku Singh and others.
For a moment, just take a glance through Rohit’s numbers in the shortest format in the recent past. Since the start of 2019, Rohit’s best strike rate over an IPL season is 132.8, which he achieved last year. However, he could only average 20.75. He has also been replaced as Mumbai Indians’ captain, with Hardik Pandya taking over the reins. Meanwhile, there is a school of thought that Kohli has an issue or two against spinners who take the ball away from him in limited-overs cricket.
The counterargument to it would be Rohit showed a lot of intent in the recently concluded 50-over World Cup. Granted that he was playing in a different format, but the way he went after Matt Henry and Trent Boult on a Dharamsala deck that helped the seamers indicated that he was looking to tweak his approach at the top of the order. At the end of India’s World Cup campaign, Rohit finished with an eye-popping strike rate of 125.94. With injury concerns surrounding Suryakumar Yadav and Hardik, the Indian selectors also didn’t have much of a choice but to name Rohit as the captain for the upcoming T20I series against Afghanistan.
It was purely on the basis of current form and performance that we had claimed on 28 November 2023 that it was impossible to see a world T20 team without Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
With Rohit back as skipper and Virat back as well, it seems they will indeed get a final… pic.twitter.com/21LPMStf8T
— RevSportz (@RevSportz) January 7, 2024
Meanwhile, Kohli, his long-time teammate, might address his problems against spinners by playing at the top of the order, in the Power play. In the 2023 World Cup, he also seemed to pick the length well while facing the spinners and exploring different parts of the ground. At crucial junctures, Kohli has also been a game-breaker on the biggest stage. He also batted with a sense of fluency and sure-footed security in the other two formats last year.
But despite all the encouraging signs, India look all set to continue with a similar template at the top that didn’t work in either the 2021 and 2022 editions of the T20 World Cup. The only missing link is KL Rahul, who has been left out for the Afghanistan series. Who knows? The missing jigsaws could fall into place at the right time during the World Cup, but somewhere you wonder whether India would be better served by taking a punt on the younger lot. For now, in the prevailing circumstances, those five wise men have decided to trust the old order.
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