RevSportz Comment
If you go by the irate reaction to India’s squad selection for the upcoming Champions Trophy, you’d think Ajit Agarkar and his panel had chosen a couple of goatherds from Jhumri Telaiya and not some of the best cricketers to have ever played the 50-over format. Some of the abuse directed at individual cricketers and the selectors is a reminder of the immaturity and illogical nature of big sections of India’s cricket fan base.
Just consider this. Only six Indian batters have averaged over 45 in ODI cricket while scoring at least 2000 runs. Sachin Tendulkar, the greatest of them all, isn’t on the list, having finished his career with an average of 44.83. MS Dhoni (50.23) last played more than half a decade ago. The other five are all part of this team.
Shubman Gill, now bizarrely being cited in some quarters as an example of nepotism, leads the way with an average of 58.20. Both he and Shreyas Iyer have strike-rates over 100. Virat Kohli (average 58.18, SR 93.54) and Rohit Sharma (average 49.16, SR 92.43) have astonishing numbers for men who have played so long, while KL Rahul’s average and strike-rate are both similar to Dhoni’s.
So, why this hate, especially when this core group put together the best World Cup campaign India have ever had, even if it ended in heartbreak in Ahmedabad? Other than the immortal Australian sides captained by Ricky Ponting, no team had ever dominated a World Cup like India did on home soil. The batting was sublime, the bowling incisive and the fielding often top-notch.
Since then, India have played just six ODIs. For the three in South Africa soon after the 2023 World Cup, the heavy hitters stayed away, with only Rahul in the fray. Then, at the start of Gautam Gambhir’s tenure as coach, the full star cast was there in Sri Lanka as the hosts turned the tables on India with typically ragged Premadasa Stadium pitches. In each game, the toss was decisive, and the ball turned and jumped at crazy angles even before the lacquer was off the white ball.
You can rest assured that an ICC tournament will not have such pitches, and India’s worrying frailty against spin won’t be tested in such a way. Nor will the batters have to endure the sort of forensic examination by pace that they did at the hands of Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland in Australia. The edges that flew to the slip cordon will now, mostly, become singles to third man.
Much of the selection uproar is rooted in the angst over that Australia result. But mixing formats is never a good idea, just as it’s foolish to extrapolate great run-scoring feats in domestic cricket to the international arena. Yes, Karun Nair had a superb Vijay Hazare Trophy – as did his teammate, Dhruv Shorey, who finished off with three straight hundreds – but are we seriously comparing that to players with stellar international records?
Can this Indian team then replicate those World Cup performances and add to the T20 World Cup crown won in such dramatic circumstances in Barbados last June? At first glance, there’s no reason why not. If, and that is admittedly a big concern, Jasprit Bumrah is fully fit, the sky is the limit. Though Mohammed Siraj has dropped off a little and missed out on selection, Mohammed Shami’s return is a huge boost.
Arshdeep Singh has already shown that he has the intelligence and variations to switch to a longer format after his exploits in the T20 arena, while Hardik Pandya gives India the balance they so sorely missed in the World Cup final 14 months ago. The spin larder is very well stocked, especially if Kuldeep Yadav is back to peak fitness.
There are understandable murmurs about the selection of Rishabh Pant ahead of Sanju Samson, especially given Pant’s relatively modest ODI average of 33.50. But we saw in the Australia Tests just how devastating Pant can be on his day, and there isn’t a team in the world that would ignore that sort of X-factor. Australia kept faith in the late Andrew Symonds for years, and when he finally turned it on in the 2003 World Cup, he went on to be part of two unbeaten Cup-winning teams.
A little less whining and a lot more support would go a long way. This group of players have almost never let India down in white-ball cricket, and there’s no reason to think they’ll fall away now. If the dressing room can shut the door on negativity and pull together, another sustained title tilt is very much in the offing.