NEW DELHI: Within the rapidly expanding Twenty20 cricket scene, India has the world’s richest and most popular league. But, despite all of that effort and focus, the Indian national team hasn’t achieved success abroad.
To break a protracted drought, Rohit Sharma‘s India team is headed to the T20 World Cup in the United States and the Caribbean.
Without a doubt, the Indian Premier League attracts the top cricket players in the world since it is well-funded and talented.
However, India hasn’t won the World Cup since the IPL began.
India has only advanced to one more final after winning the 2007 T20 World Cup in South Africa, where they were defeated by Sri Lanka in 2014.
Additionally, the title drought is cross-format. The Champions Trophy in England was the last International Cricket Council championship that India won in 2013. In the 50-over format, it last won the Cricket World Cup in 2011.
In that regard, last year was unique since India lost to Australia in the World Test Championship final played in England then, a few months later, to the same team in the 50-over World Cup final played at home.
That created great distress in a nation of 1.4 billion cricket enthusiasts, since India entered the final as a strong favorite and was riding a 10-0 winning streak.
After a span of seven months, Sharma and his star batsman Virat Kohli are guiding the team in what is likely to be their final Twenty20 competition in India’s blue.
At the T20 World Cup, Sharma has been a member of every Indian squad. This is Kohli’s sixth try at winning the championship; he made his debut in the 2012 tournament.
In his 27 games during the competition, Kohli has amassed 1,141 runs at an average of 81.50 and a strike rate of 131.30. Sharma has a strike rate of 127.88 and 963 runs scored in 39 games.
Between the 2022 World Cup semifinal loss in Australia and January of this year, both players missed all of India’s Twenty20 international matches, which raised some doubts about whether they would play in the 2024 World Cup, which begins on June 1.
Chief selector Ajit Agarkar and BCCI secretary Jay Shah both refuted such. Now, their contributions-in terms of runs and strikeout rate-will be heavily scrutinized.
Sharma’s 2024 Mumbai Indians IPL season ended in failure as he only scored 417 runs for the team. In contrast, Kohli led the Royal Challengers Bengaluru run charts with 741 runs at an average of 61.75 across 15 games. However, some TV broadcast analysts critiqued his strike-rate earlier in the season.
During a press conference confirming the India team, Agarkar dismissed any doubts about Kohli’s strike rate.
“There’s a difference between IPL and international cricket,” Agarkar said. “You need experience as the pressure of a World Cup game is different. You (only) try to take positives from what is happening in the IPL.”
In the IPL, Kohli bats first for his team, but in the Twenty20s, he bats third for India. Because it is crucial to India’s XI, it has sparked a heated debate about his World Cup batting position.
Sharma will open the innings with Yashasvi Jaiswal if Kohli sticks to batting at number three. After that, India will only have four specialist batters available for play, including top T20 batter in the world Suryakumar Yadav.
Bowling all-rounders would come after all-rounder Hardik Pandya and first-choice wicketkeeper-batter Rishabh Pant.
If Kohli opens with Sharma, that frees up a spot for a middle-order batter and probably makes way for Shivam Dube, whose 162.2 strike rate and powerful hitting in the IPL have impressed selectors.
If necessary, Dube can also bowl at a useful medium pace, supporting Pandya.
Pace leader Jasprit Bumrah will be in charge of a bowling arsenal that includes four spinners, including Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, both left-arm all-rounders. Yuzendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav, two wrist spinners, round up the line-up.
“I asked for four spinners,” Sharma explained. “Most of our matches will start at 10-11 a.m. (and) we expect all-rounders to do a job for us. It gives us a variety of combinations to explore depending on the opposition.”
India’s World Cup campaign kicks out on June 5 against Ireland. Then, on June 9, they take on bitter rival Pakistan in New York, which might be the highlight of the group stage. India’s June 12 matchup with the US and June 15 matchup with Canada.
Although India’s path in the first round appears to be straightforward, the pressure to overcome a protracted title drought will increase once it gets to the West Indies for the Super Eight round.
(With AP inputs)