Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar and Harshit Rana. This isn’t an attendance list of Indian cricketers, but those names narrate the strength and depth of the Indian bowling attack, ahead of the T20 World Cup. Logically, it would take a herculean effort from an opposition team to defeat a side with that kind of bowling firepower.
Recently, in the final T20I between India and South Africa, Varun and Bumrah put on a masterclass in batting-friendly conditions. In the second innings, with South Africa pursuing a massive target, the dew seemed to have taken full effect. Despite that, Varun and Bumrah helped the hosts defend the target.
That is in brief about the two spearheads of the Indian bowling arsenal. Now, if you have a glance through India’s support cast, it looks quite imposing too. Arshdeep, India’s highest wicket-taker in T20Is, brings left-arm variety to the fore. The left-arm pacer has also shown that he has the required reservoirs of willpower to make an impact in the slog overs with his wide yorkers, angles and skiddy short deliveries.
Lest we forget, on his day, Kuldeep can easily replace Varun in the playing XI and pick up a bunch of wickets. Granted that he is a different kind of spinner to Varun, but a wicket-taker nevertheless. Washington and, especially, Axar don’t just add some buffer to the batting unit, but they are useful defensive options with the ball in hand. With the passage of time, Hardik has learnt the tricks of the pace-bowling trade – variations, hit-the-deck offerings, alongside bowling smarts. Meanwhile, Harshit, the reserve pacer, is on an upward curve.
Of course, the bowlers also would want the batting department to put runs on the board. And in this case, too, India have a very good batting line-up. When the selectors announced the squad on Saturday (December 20), the major talking point was Shubman Gill not finding a place. Gill, who returned to the Indian side for the Asia Cup as the vice-captain, could only average a tad under 24.25 with a strike-rate of 137.26 over 15 games. Simply put, Gill has had his chances and it was time to move forward.
Abhishek Sharma will spearhead the Indian charge. The swashbuckling opener, with an eye-catching bat-swing, has a strike-rate of almost 190. More importantly, his batting prowess is such that his strike-rate doesn’t seem to take much of a downhill path after the Powerplay. Sanju Samson also can play impactful knocks at the top of the order.
Ishan Kishan, the reserve opener-cum-back-up wicketkeeper, is also known for his pyrotechnics at the top of the order. On the other hand, Tilak Varma can play the roles of both anchoring an innings and pressing the accelerator pedal as and when required.
At a macro-level, does India have a weakness on the batting side of things? As it turns out, Suryakumar Yadav is currently one of the weak links. The India skipper has been averaging a mere 17.26 in his last 14 innings. However, it was always going to be very difficult for the selectors to drop a winning captain just before the World Cup.
On his part, Suryakumar seems to be confident of regaining his form. “I’m sure everyone has seen this in their respective careers,” the skipper said. “I will also work on that. I know what to do. I know where things are going wrong. I’ve got some time to work on it. We have the New Zealand series coming up, and that’s an important phase for me to work on.”
There are also murmurs about whether India have enough depth lower down the order to turbocharge the engine. In this context, the onus will be on Hardik to do some heavy lifting.
To summarise, India are the clear favourites to defend their World Cup title. But as the good, old cliche goes – cricket (and sport in general) is a game of glorious uncertainties. In T20 cricket, on a given day, a couple of game-breaking performances could still take the game away from India’s grasp.
