Is the World Cup really here?

With less than 3 months remaining for the World Cup, you would assume that the teams would be getting their best players on the field to play whatever games remain before the 1st match begins on 5th Oct. But as we all witnessed, Indian team was busy trying and experimenting players and combinations. I haven’t seen a team waste a series as well as India did in the recently concluded ODI series against West Indies.

It is beyond my understanding as to how and why the captain and the management are not sure about the 15 or let’s say 18 players that are more than likely to be playing the World Cup. I agree that injuries have plagued the plans of the national side with players like Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul not being available for selection for a pretty long time now. Especially since these players are vital cogs in the whole combination. They have prepared that way since the conclusion of the previous World Cup 4 years ago.

The talk around the No 4 problem has been around since the exit of Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina from the set-up. Although their exclusion was justified at that time, somehow, we haven’t yet found a stable replacement. We did find Ambati Rayudu, but that solution was trashed unnecessarily in search of a ‘3D’ solution. That decision was the epitome of experimentation at the wrong time. Since then, we have pretty much finalized Shreyas Iyer at that spot and deservedly so. But he has been hit with injuries way too often. And there is no backup to him. As good as Surya is in the T20s, he is a pale shadow of himself in the 50-over format.

Coming back to the West Indies Series, I am still unable to understand what exactly was gained from the 3 matches that would help us in the World Cup preparations. In the first match Rohit and Kohli did not come out to bat at their regular positions. Chasing a target of 115, everyone was given a chance. Even Shardul Thakur came out to bat. I feel this whole stunt was unnecessary but it is even more shameful that Rohit still had to come out at the fall of 5th wicket. It goes on to emphasize the importance of Rohit and Virat. As it turns out, Virat and Rohit chose to skip the next 2 matches as if game time is of least importance and they have a lot of matches to get into rhythm.

Another decision that baffles me is opening with Ishan Kishan. What is the point of opening the batting with him if when the World Cup comes, you are going to play with Rohit and Gill. I hope they aren’t thinking about breaking this combination. If Rahul isn’t ready to play in the World Cup, then the person replacing him should be well versed with playing in the middle order as Rahul is the No.5 batsman. Even if you want to play Kishan then play him at that spot where he might find himself on 8th Oct when India plays their first match of the Marquee Event. Amidst all other issues, Hardik Pandya seems to have lost his touch completely. He is a very vital cog in this team. Thankfully he will still contribute with the ball.

In conclusion, I would like to be optimistic but even the optimist in me feels it is unlikely that India will win the World Cup. It has started to feel like the horrors of 2007 might return. I wish this scary thought doesn’t turn into a reality and I pray that the 10-year long wait to lift an ICC trophy is finally over. The Asia Cup is around the corner and I hope that the seriousness finally kicks in and it starts to feel like the preparations have finally begun for THE WORLD CUP!!!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

India's Batting Problems

Image
  After the successive series losses against NZ at home and in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, I feel it is time to introspect into the constant failures of the Indian batting line up. It is not like one or two players have faltered but everyone has been guilty of complacency and an almost careless attitude. If we look at the ongoing WTC cycle, apart from the away series in WI in 2023 and the home series against England in 2024, the batting has been very poor. Series against SA and Bangladesh are not great to look at since they were low scoring encounters due to the pitch and the conditions. In the last 2 series though, out of the 15 completed innings, India has crossed the 200-run mark on only 6 occasions. Of which 300 was crossed thrice. The only exception has been Yashasvi Jaiswal. He was phenomenal in 2024 at home as well as away. Home performances might be slightly better than the away ones but those are equally important since everyone around him was finding it very difficult t...
Read more

Ind vs Eng Series Preview

The past few months had been captured by IPL followed by a string of mishaps in India as well as across the globe. Even the IPL had to pause owing to a War like situation between India and Pakistan. But a pause is the most that a sport like Cricket can afford. It paused, but in a weeks time it was up and running. So much that 10 days ago there were close to 12-14 different teams in England simultaneously to play cricket all at once! We had an excellent contest between bat and ball a week ago in the World Test Championship Final where South Africa emerged victorious. It was a final but it also served as a warm-up to the Test Cricket season which lies ahead of us. And now it's almost time for the 1st Test between England and India to begin. Maybe this is a bit late for a preview but nonetheless I have some views about this series which I would like to share with you all. Indian Test team is going through a transition and two big names have hung up their boots from the longest format....
Read more

The Curious Case of RoKo

I had ended my last blog on the note that there are 2 pairs of legends whom I hadn’t touched and both these pairs deserved a separate blog. So here we are with 1 st of those blogs on the Batting legend pair. The past few months have been poor for Rohit Sharma as well as Virat Kohli in the longer format. Both had retired from T20Is after lifting the T20 World Cup in June 2024. With focus shifting to Tests and the World Test Championship, India should have had an easy entry into the final with 2 home series and one away series pending. But as fate would have it, in a dramatic turn of events, India was whitewashed at home by New Zealand. And with that India’s hopes of reaching the final were also quashed. From there on India needed something more than extra ordinary in Australia but with poor batting and bowling after the 1 st test, except Bumrah of-course, it was never going to happen. India’s batting failures as a group have been the primary cause for the losses at home and away as ...
Read more