Last 2 years have been a phenomenal turn-around for
Indian men’s cricket team for quite many reasons. From the retirement of
stalwarts like Yuvraj and Gambhir to the inclusion of young blood into the team
in the form of Bumrah and Rishabh Pant, it has been a memorable period for the
Indian cricket. Gone were the days where India relied totally upon only its
batsmen and in particular ‘Master Blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar or ‘Thala’ Dhoni to
bail the team out of the difficult situations.
Now, Indian bowlers and in particular JaspritBumrah
has put his hand and has shouldered a significant amount of responsibility to
spearhead Indian bowling attack in this World cup. What is more strange to see
is that Indian team is now stronger more in bowling department compared to
batting and that is quite astonishing and interesting for sure…
Under the able captaincy of ViratKohli, we have done
very well so far in this World cup, apart from the mishap that happened in the
match against England. That was also a match to have been won actually. It is
the slight misjudgment in setting the chasing pace that ended costing the
Indian team dearly in that particular match.
To everyone’s surprise, the minnows Afghanistan and
Bangladesh gave fierce competition to the Indian team and that too through
their quality spinning attack! Indian batting team, once known for its
effortless play against spin bowling is now struggling and that too in the
England soil! And, a very important concern is the form of KedarJadhav, Vijay
Shankar, Dinesh Karthik and other middle order batsmen. Though the inclusion of
Rishabh Pant has filled up the holes to an extent, there is still a lot of
scope for improvement.
Now, the Indian team has confirmed its spot in Semis
to possibly face England or New Zealand depending upon their final position in
their points table. The worrying factor is the form of Indian batting which has
particularly failed against England during the league match and to New Zealand
in the warm-up match.
Frequent shuffling of middle order by Indian captain
has not helped either. With Hardik Pandya and RishabhPant’s spots almost fixed,
the confusion mainly lies between the selection of KedarJadhav, Dinesh Karthik
and Vijay Shankar. However, the trio, even though have been presented with
several chances in this world cup have not performed up to the expectations.
So, now it is the responsibility of the captain to
take a call between the three and also to decide whether to go with 3 seamers
as in the match against Bangladesh leaving a spinner or continue with the
spin-duo of Kuldeep-Chahal, leaving behind Shami. Whatever be the selection, it
all depends on the form of the Indian middle-order batsmen and the success of
the spinners which will determine whether we will lift the cup or not. Let us
hope that we will give a fitting send-off to our legendary player M.S. Dhoni,
like the one our Indian team gave to Sachin way back in 2011.
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