T20 World Cup | All bases covered, seasoned India are hot favorites to finally go all the way

The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai has witnessed two high profile World Cup matches for India in the past decade and while one produced an unforgettable memory when MS Dhoni hit a six to win an ODI World Cup in 2011, the other—the semi-final against West Indies in 2016 T20 World Cup produced a night that every Indian fans and player would have loved to forget.

Virat Kohli has been India’s trump card with the bat in the last three T20 World Cups and hence it was a poetic injustice that it was his bowling when Andre Russell hit a mighty six and brought up a deathly silence at the Wankhede.

India were the firm favourites to win that edition of the World Cup as they had earlier shed the trend of host countries not winning the big global tournament and had the arsenal up their sleeves to live the dream once again.

However, it was not to be and they fell short of firepower against an all cylinders firing West Indies side that went on to win the title and left the men in blue scratching their heads in frustration at what could have been.

Outlook

India, like the last three editions, are one of the firm favourites to lift the trophy for the second time after winning the inaugural edition in 2007.

However, the expectations and commentaries over their chances are far more established and loud this time around. Why? They were favourites and had the team to win the World Cup in those tournaments, but why they are considered as a serious contender in everyone’s eyes?

Well, the answer lies in one of the most important phenomena of the game: Form.

India, this time, are a bunch of batsmen in mid of astonishing purple patch and coming on the back of achieving remarkable results in the format. Their batsmen are confident as ever they have been in their career while their bowling attack exudes both experience and variety to surprise the batsmen.

Strengths

Indomitable top order

The skipper Virat Kohli had shown willingness to open the innings with Rohit Sharma in the home series against England, but has dropped the plan once again for the form factor.

KL Rahul has been in menacing touch with the bat and he is batting with supreme confidence and audacity, showing no real weakness against any sort of bowling, and Kohli has realised overlooking his form can be costly to India’s chances.

Rahul has shown proactiveness to launch attacks on opposition bowling attacks from the word go in the company of the other two batsmen such as the duo of Kohli and Rohit has been the world-beaters in the white-ball formats. Rahul, it appears, has been told clearly by the management to throw all his intent against the new ball and leave all the worries of batting collapses or pitch conditions to the senior pros.

For the senior pros, if they needed one stage to bring all their might together to produce something remarkable for the country, the stage does not get bigger than this. For all their prowess, they have missed as many as three chances of winning global tournaments after running as hot favourites. And they would be desperate for a global title to establish their legacy and stamp their authority in the history of Indian cricket.

Stronger and reliable middle, lower-order

If one aspect of India’s game was exposed in all three last failures in ICC knockouts, it was the over-reliance on the top order. Both in the Champions Trophy final in 2017 against Pakistan, and the 2019 ODI World Cup semi-final against New Zealand, they were cut down to size after their top order floundered.

The India of this tournament have that area of concern covered as well, at least on paper. No one can guarantee performances but having the trio of an ever so dependable Suryakumar Yadav, flamboyant Rishabh Pant and one or both Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja, whose stature as a batsman are on sky-high only speaks of the course correction India have done to challenge other sides.

Although India are still top-heavy with their best and most reputed batsmen bat at the top of the order, they are not walkover by any sort of imagination in the middle order as well. That will give the top order more freedom to go for the glory from the word go and could potentially be the difference maker for them in the tournament.

Variety in the bowling attack

They have the indispensable yorkers of Jasprit Bumrah while also having the pace, bounce and ability to extract whatever the pitch will offer in the hands of Mohammed Shami. 

The presence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar adds the swing quotient to the pace attack and while he has not been at his best, there is no guarantee a great player such as him will struggle forever to find his feet once again. Even if he finds it tough, the duo of Shami and Bumrah, if they produce their best, will suffice the need for pace bowling for Virat Kohli.

In the spin department, they have taken some bold calls and the inclusion of Rahul Chahar, for his natural pace of delivery and ability to rip the ball off the surface is certainly one of them.

They have also included Ravichandran Ashwin to counter the left hander-heavy batting order of opponents and there will be a toss-up between him and Chahar based on conditions and opponents in terms of having a place in the side.

However, the biggest trump card of them all will be Varun Chakaravarthy, who has finally come onto the scene for India leaving behind all the doubts and misfortunes with respect to injuries. His variations have been lethal in IPL and there is no certainty that international sides will handle him better than the IPL sides and he will certainly be the go-to man for Kohli, especially against the hard-hitters of the oppositions.

He is likely to play most of the games and Kohli will rely on his fingers to do the dual job of picking crucial wickets and holding the fort in the face of counterattacks from the one end.

All in all, Virat Kohli’s men have all the bases covered and rightly deserves the title of firm favourites to win the title after a long gap of 14 years. But, does that mean they are devoid of any shortcomings and points to ponder? Certainly not.

Challenges

Uncertainty around Hardik Pandya

Hardik Pandya would have been the first name on India’s playing XI sheet if he would have been fit to bowl and could offer at least two-three overs to Kohli, but his back injury has derailed both his ambitions and India’s equations in the World Cup.

He is a good enough batter to bat in India’s top six and has the confidence of India’s team management as well with him playing the ODI series against Australia as a specialist batsman. However, his case is weakened on that point as well as he has gone horrible out of touch in the last few months and his struggle with the bat that started in the T20 series against England lingered on till the warm-up games of the World Cup.

India have a tough call to take on either choosing to see the firepower he could offer in the lower middle order sandwiched between Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja and overlooking the limitations of playing with just five bowling options or overlooking his potential and what he brings to the table while giving values to what he is up to and what he could not deliver in the tournament.

Going for either case will be a huge call for the team management and there may well be buyer’s remorse in whatever they decide with respect to the Hardik Pandya question.

Kohli-Rohit and the intent question

Virat Kohli has been famous for igniting the debate around strike rate and “intent” in Test cricket and ironically, it’s the T20 format where he struggles with the adoption of that approach.

He tried to tweak that part of his game by coming at the top of the order against England and continued in the IPL. However, the struggle began with the bat once balls went softer and bowlers started changing pace after powerplay, his misery was well exposed in the second leg of the IPL.

Rohit has a different cause of concern as he was on and off with the bat for the Mumbai Indians and like all the batsmen searching fluency in the format, he too went back to his old method of spending time at the crease before attempting to go for the big shot. The move did not work well for him in the IPL but it worked in the warm-up game against Australia.

However, he doesn’t have to look beyond the recent struggles of Virat Kohli to convince himself that waiting for the end phase of the game to be big is not a risk worth taking in today’s age of T20 cricket.

The long handle will matter

India put on 192 runs on the board in that semi-final against West Indies at the loss of just two wickets but failed to hit only four sixes compared to 11 sixes hit by the Windies batsmen. Windies were lucky to get bits of help from no balls but the ease with which they chased down the target established that at the end hitting more boundaries does matter. 

The idea was further cemented a few days later when Karlos Brathwaite’s four consecutive sixes off the final over made the difference between England and the West Indies on the night of the final.

West Indies had hit a six every 16.3 balls against the average of a six every 22.5 balls by the other top seven teams in the tournament and rightly so, they were the outliers and the champions of the tournament.

Since that World Cup, India have corrected their ways and have been hitting a six per 17.4 balls but they are still far behind the outliers Windies who hit one out of the ground every 13.5 deliveries.

The average number of balls taken to hit a six in the T20 format has also gone down considerably lower from 28 balls per six in the year 2009 to 20 in the year 2018, and Kohli and company will have to realise the need to go for the glory shots leaving behind the fear of getting out.

Recent form

Apart from the loss in the last series against Sri Lanka where India were trying their next-gen. players, India have been ruthless and dominant in the format, winning eight series on the trot. 

When they were near the full strength in Australia and at home against England, they won both the series to come in the tournament with confidence and a good record to show in the format.

They also have had phenomenal success in the format since their departure from the semi-final of the 2016 world cup as they have won 45 games out of 72 games in the period.

Probable XI

KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli (C), Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant(WK), Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Shardul Thakur, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami