A decade that saw many changes to the game has gone & the coming years promise to bring more tweaks. For India, the next challenge is T20 World Cup in November. Venkata Krishna B looks at how the team is shaping up
A decade has gone. One in which cricket took new dimensions, where Test cricket continued to face challenges even to exist but by the end of it, finally found meaning through the World Test Championship. ODIs, once the most followed format, appeared to lose its shine. Caught in between Test cricket and T20s, it struggled to get traction, especially with regards to the bilateral series that were played without any context. But the World Cups and Champions Trophy showed ODIs continued to remain relevant.
As we jog into a New Year and a new decade, there is another format that is going to be added to cricket – The Hundred. In a year where everyone is looking forward to the T20 Cricket World Cup, one country – England, just a year after winning their maiden 50-over world title – believes it needs to present its fans with a new format to keep them hooked. If ODIs and T20s increase the pace of the game, what sort of bearing The Hundred will have on cricket is a question that will be asked in the months to come. The concept of overs doesn’t exist. There are 100 balls per innings, a change of ends after every 10 balls, bowlers can deliver either five or 10 consecutive deliveries.
These innovations are beyond what one thought of in an era where more and more space was given to T20s. The indications that the game will get shorter and shorter going forward were visible in the 2000s with the advent of T20s. While the concept of ODIs thrived for nearly four decades before T20s came in, The Hundred comes exactly 17 years after the England Cricket Board added Twenty20 to its calendar. While this tinkering in itself has gained criticism from certain quarters, there are efforts being made to reduce the duration of Tests matches from five days to four. Closer home, for India, 2020 will be all about searching for that world title that has eluded them since 2011. Since lifting the 50-over World Cup at the Wankhede, they have ended up semifinalists in the two editions that followed. But stranger are their performances in WT20.
The first-ever title winners in 2007, hosts of the most glamorous and competitive T20 league, it is surprising that they have not been able to add more world titles. Apart from one final appearance in 2014, they have punched below their weight in T20s. As they set their focus on winning the title in Australia in November, they remain a work in progress. The reasons for India not developing a formidable T20 side are plenty. But key among them is that India, unlike other countries, is yet to see the concept of format-specialist players. While it is highly commendable that India’s domestic system, especially the age-groups, puts greater emphasis on learning the nuances of playing long format cricket, even 12 years after the arrival of IPL, there isn’t a T20-specific batsman like you find in other countries. David Warner, one of the best Test openers of the last decade, came into the Australia side on the back of his performances in T20s and even made his Test debut without first-class experience.
In T20s in England and Big Bash in Australia, it is very common to find such breed of players, coming out of obscurity and hogging the limelight. But strangely despite having no dearth of talent, India are yet to find such players. “Our players aren’t ambitious enough,” says an IPL scout on condition of anonymity. “We have seen the bowlers coming out of nowhere and getting big money, but how many such batsmen have come? Paul Valthaty is one, but beyond him, even the IPL has not been able to throw up a batsman like Warner or Chris Lynn. If you look at the bigger picture it is a good sign because importance is given to the long formats. But if one speaks exclusively about T20s, then it isn’t ideal.
All the big bucks go to established batsmen and barring Dhoni and (Hardik) Pandya, we have not been able to find the finishers,” he points out. While teams all over have started viewing 50 overs as an extended version of T20s, India have played it the other way around. In a format where boundaries make a huge difference, they have seldom played that intimidating sort of cricket, giving space to singles and twos, abandoning the risk factor. Of late, there are some encouraging signs that this team is trying its best to get rid of that tag, giving batsmen more freedom to play shots that suit requirements. They already have bowlers who can do the job for them, provided the batsmen put up a par total. With 10 months to go for the T20 World Cup, what India’s combination will be is anyone’s guess. But one man will play a big role in deciding that – Hardik Pandya.
“If Hardik is back, India’s combination has to be six batsmen and five bowlers,” says former India spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. “In T20s, you need the top six to take responsibility and bat the 20 overs. As a batting unit, they should look at splitting the 20 overs between them. Against West Indies they showed they can do it, posting over 200. That’s what they should be looking to do. If they can manage that kind of total, five bowlers can do the job even if one of them has an off-day. But, there should be specialist players to do the job,” he adds.
