Rest the best before big test, India need them
The Indian Premier League is at its full glow. The screaming fans with an amazing capacity to create gravity defying, deafening sounds as an expression of their primeval instincts, are filling the grounds. Fours and sixes are flowing, the ball is travelling with venomous velocity in all directions of the stadium.
Bats are acquiring more and more muscle, boundaries are getting shorter, and even the crowds are not safe from these big-hitting hulks, as the ball lands in their arena with frequent regularity.
The financial health and popularity of cricket’s latest avatar in the land of its adoption seems to be at its prime. The country may be in election mode, but the shortest version is matching the noise and buzz politicians are making. Indians are consuming the T20 format with a passion and energy that few can match across the world.
In this world of instant gratification, even the fact that in a month from now the World Cup is to be held is of little consequence. Judging from their recent record, it is already being assumed that India are the favourites. In a team that includes strikers like MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli, can anyone dare to visualise any other result other than an Indian win?
Surprisingly, yes, some can.
India has had enough time to build its team, work on its strengths and weaknesses while experimenting with the slots in the past one year. And yet they seem to have failed to finally create a balance in batting and bowling that would give the team an edge over others. If the top order is formidable, the middle is brittle and inexperienced while the bottom cannot hold. If the top four fail in a game, India exposes itself to inexperience and even inability, that could undermine their prospects in the 10-team tournament.
It is quite a puzzle that a land where T20 is now religion and big hitting the staple diet, India does not have a glut of strikers and none of the calibre of an Andre Russell, who can make even unmanageable asking rates appear ridiculously easy. It is even more difficult to figure out why most of our bowlers are innocent in the art of smashing the ball. Can a team which goes into a battle with old fashioned tail-enders expect to win cricket’s premier one-day trophy?
It is this all-round strength that makes England the favourites and judging by the way Australia is faring of late, they may not be far behind. India to my mind were right up there but somehow, looking at this team, one is not that confident any more. What definitely gives India a menacing look is bowling, with Jasprit Bumrah being the key. He is India’s trump card and it won’t be a bad idea to withdraw him from the later stages of the IPL. In fact, it won’t be a bad idea if all the key Indian players, who have been playing uninterrupted for more than a year now, are given some rest before the World Cup grind, and that should include Kohli and Dhoni as well.
What a waste of talent and resources it would be, if an Indian team lands in England for jaded, tired, nursing niggles with little appetite for a battle of skills with the best talents of the world. That should worry the Indian administrators (BCCI and CoA) as the players, including skipper Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri had already warned of that possibility before the IPL began. Will the board do some rethinking and take wise decisions, even if they may be harsh on the IPL franchises, in the best interest of the Indian team?