Could India’s problem of plenty hurt them in another T20 World Cup year?

With the T20 World Cup 2022 exactly four months away, India have a plethora of options to choose from as usual. However, an unsettled, muddled core could potentially dent their chances once again.
 By Roshan Gede Jun 16, 2022, 13:07 IST
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India have tried out 39 players since the start of 2021, 24 in 2022 alone.

As usual, there’s the recency effect, igniting hopes of utopia in the long run. There are bright signs for the future with the conclusion of another IPL. KL Rahul, Sanju Samson, Prithvi Shaw, Rahul Tripathi, and the rest have showcased brilliance -  a pleasant distraction from Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma’s underwhelming returns (perhaps rightly so?). There’s a word going around that Umran Malik could breach Shoaib Akhtar’s all-time high on the speed gun, and there’s no reason why that can’t be achieved. 

Mohsin Khan and Arshdeep Singh add to the spark in a steadily growing fast-bowling depth, led by the Bumrahs, Shamis, and Bhuvneshwars, not to forget Harshal Patel, Deepak Chahar, Avesh Khan, and T Natarajan among others.

But is too much focus on the future denting India’s short-term plans. How well are they placed in terms of building a solid core ahead of the T20 World Cup 2022 in Australia later this year? As things stand, they have more questions than solutions.

24 T20I players in six months and more to come - What exactly are India eyeing?

97 players have represented India in T20Is since their first-ever game in 2006. 15 of those have been handed their debut cap since the 2020/21 Australia tour. Overall, 39 players have taken the field since the start of 2021, 24 in 2022 alone. Expect that number to exceed further with Umran Malik, Arshdeep Singh, and Rahul Tripathi having earned a maiden international call-up after their fine run in the IPL.

Have the selectors and the team management already added more to the complications in the challenge of filtering the core ahead of another mega event?

Is the Rahul Dravid era defined by fair chances for every player?

He might’ve had a mixed captaincy stint back during the mid-2000s, but Rahul Dravid deserves to be credited for the emergence of Suresh Raina, RP Singh, Munaf Patel, and S Sreesanth among others during his captaincy tenure. A decade-and-a-half later, as he dons the head coach hat, there have already been numerous young guns making debuts for India - a trend that had (inevitably) begun during his interim stint when a second-string side under Shikhar Dhawan had toured Sri Lanka last year.

There would be a temptation for a lot of that in the future, specifically more so, for he has seen a lot of these modern-day young guns from extremely close quarters while working with the India A and U19 teams. There’s little doubt about his wisdom, given the experience and the trait of always putting the team first come what may, as was the case with that infamous declaration 18 years ago, and as stressed upon the main motive of winning, while also managing the players' workload, in the pre-series press conference last week.

The sense of calm offers enough assurance as ever, but handling a large and varied set of personnel might just hinder the short-term planning.

Four wicket-keepers and a backup keeper to choose from - How many fit into one squad?

Rishabh Pant, Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, Dinesh Karthik and a backup in KL Rahul - India have as many as five wicketkeeping options to choose from, of which Rahul and Pant seem to be a certainty as of now. Dinesh Karthik lends experience, and was part of the setup that had lifted the trophy in the inaugural T20 WC in 2007, and is a tough candidate to look past given the IPL 2022 exploits. Ishan Kishan’s recent upsurge might just have dented Sanju Samson’s chances, but the latter could be extremely resourceful  on pacy, bouncy Australian wickets.

As Ravi Shastri would reflect on the 2019 WC after his coaching had stint ended, “picking three wicketkeepers (MS Dhoni, Pant, Karthik) wasn’t logical” then, with KL Rahul too, included. Hopefully, there’s a lesson learnt.

Is Rohit Sharma's T20 World Cup place set in stone? Three captains close on his heels

India registered three home series clean sweeps under Rohit Sharma since the completion of T20 WC 2021, but those came against fairly undercooked sides, and the skipper’s own form with the bat hasn’t been inspiring. He has three potential captaincy candidates - Rahul, Pant and Hardik Pandya, not to forget Shreyas Iyer - close on his heels. 

Does that mean there’ll be a shift soon, perhaps after the T20 WC if not earlier?

India have been one of the rare teams to have stuck on an all-format theory for long, with Dhoni and Kohli having shown great longevity before Rohit. However, more of that possibly might well not be seen in international cricket in future, considering the ever packed calendar.

Recently, Simon Doull opined that Kane Williamson, one of the only two all-format captains currently among leading Test playing nations (other than Babar Azam), should be replaced by Tom Latham as the New Zealand Test captain, for the former to primarily focus on his batting.

As for India, Rohit, now 35, already has daunting challenges ahead of him, with the ODI World Cup and a race to the World Test Championship final over the course of the coming year. Perhaps, it could be better off if he’s relieved from a format, wherein India already have able candidates to take over.

Has the multiple-options theory worked for India in the recent past?

The outright answer is “No”!

MS Dhoni, the man who lifted India to three World titles during his highly accomplished captaincy tenure, was known to back his players to the extent that they become the best version of themselves, lending a solid balance to the team - no better examples than Rohit and Ravindra Jadeja.

However, that changed thereafter under Kohli, and has continued till date. India had Ambati Rayudu in prime form in the build-up seasons to the 2019 World Cup, with him primed to take the No.4 position as Kohli would reinstate himself less than a year away from the competition. However, that wasn’t to be, and ironically, India’s exit from the tournament was brought about by a chaotic batting collapse in the semi-final then. It’s noteworthy that Karthik and Pant had batted in just one and three innings previously in the competition, while Jadeja’s breathtaking 77 had come in his very first.

For the T20 WC 2021, India rather surprisingly dropped Yuzvendra Chahal - still their top-ranked T20I spinner and the leading wicket-taker currently - from the squad. There’s not much to argue if that could’ve possibly helped India, given the batting failures in the first two games, but Varun Chakravarthy and Rahul Chahar disappearing from the scheme of things (primarily down to their own form) does leave us scratching our heads.

For now, India are arguably unsettled top to toe - the openers, finishers, seam attack (maybe balanced somewhat already) and the spinners. The have a plethora of options as ever, it’s just a matter of assembling the parts together with a fine blend of skills, expertise, roles and the experience to form an all-conquering force.


 

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