Building Up to the World Cup

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 Building up to World Cup





 

Post 2021 T20WC there has been lots of things happening to Indian team. As team India’s former Captain, Virat Kohli had already declared before the WC last year that he will be no longer captaining the team after WC, and team’s another senior opener Rohit Sharma was front runner for the captaincy role. And that change happened from the home series against New Zealand in November, 2021. But in next 5 months everything changed as Virat was sacked as Odi captain and later he himself steps down as India’s Test Captain. This incident has created so much of controversies around the team. Rohit was appointed as full time captain in all format for team India.

But by the time now things were settled down quite as we are heading towards another big event, ICC T20WC, 2022, Australia. Team has performed immensely well under the leadership of Rohit Sharma and team’s new head coach, Rahul Dravid, who started his coaching tenure post WC. However he has done some very tough task, due to constant injury to senior players, unavailability and captaincy changes. About 7 or 8 changes have been made to captaincy across different format. And also team has emphasized on creating strong bench strength particularly in limited overs by giving young players opportunity in absence of senior players. Senior players had given rest to manage their workload.

As far as talking about young players, like Sky, Ishan, Rutu, Sanju, Hooda, Pant, Shreyas, Bishnoi, Harshal, Arshdeep etc. were constantly given opportunity and they have done well. Dinesh karthik has been recalled to the side after a fabulous IPL Season with RCB, playing as a finisher and striking at about 180. But the thing that providing a booster to team’s confidence is Hardik Pandya the all-rounder’s epic come back. He made a strong comeback by making Gujrat Titans IPL Champions in their debut season. Not just with captaincy but with his all-round skill with ball and bat he has been a valuable asset to his franchises and now for team India.

 

Performances:-

If we look at performances since November, 2021 particularly in T20Is, India has an excellent record, having won 26 matches out of 35 till date, losing 8 and 1 draw. India have won home series against New Zealand, West Indies, and Sri Lanka (3-0) each, against Australia and South Africa (2-1) each and drawing (2-2) against South Africa(5 Match Series in June). In away series we won (2-1) against England and won 5 match series 4-1 against West Indies. Team’s performance has been outstanding in the bilateral matches, and given that positive vibes for WC but individual player’s performances and injuries scared a bit to fans and team also. And adding to that, team’s failure in the recently concluded Asia Cup also a bit of worry sign. India couldn’t even made to the finals since having a strong squad. The major talking point in recent time was Virat Kohli’s form who hasn’t played regularly since WC. But his outstanding comeback was only the positive sign for team in the Asia Cup. But there were still some questions left whose answers, team tried to found in the home series against Australia and South Africa. In terms of batting, we got all the clarity and ideas that what will be the batting line-up. But injury to Bumrah and bad performance from the ball in multiple times created doubt over the bowling unit. Especially the death bowling. However our bench strength is performing excellently, and India will hoping their big guns to come back to full potential and form before the mega event.  

                               

 

    

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