India’s 15 for the T20 World Cup are ready and locked. Barring any late injuries and dip in form, it is hard to see any last-minute changes. Yet, there are still too many questions that need answers. Not just for the outside world, even from the team’s point of view, they are yet to put all the pieces together which will make for a perfect picture.
And starting with three T20Is against Australia, beginning at the IS Bindra PCA Stadium in Mohali on Tuesday, they have all but six matches to find which formula will work for them at the T20 World Cup in Australia. Going by what unfolded in the Asia Cup in the UAE, playing only two outright pacers to go with all-rounder Hardik Pandya is all but ruled out. That, by the way, is probably the only equation out of the way.
Of course, there are still talks and concerns about the strike rate of their top three, especially that of KL Rahul. The team management is yet to decide, if being a left-hander alone, is enough for Rishabh Pant to get a place in the XI.
There are still questions over whether Dinesh Karthik, a player who is accustomed to playing a certain role in T20s and has been picked specifically for the finisher’s role when they could have easily accommodated another specialist batter should be a sure starter in all the matches.
They are yet to decide on what kind of balance they need without compromising on batting depth and six bowling options. And the latter especially is the puzzle inside a puzzle, which is bound to eat a lot of their time and possibly worth losing their sleep on. In this context, Axar Patel and Deepak Hooda who at the moment seem to be outsiders in the XI could play a pivotal role in finding the balance.
While India is yet to solve the puzzle, they would know much of their headache will heal the moment the top three play their role to perfection. With Virat Kohli’s return to form, there is one less thing to worry about, skipper Rohit Sharma’s message that they would treat the former as a third-choice opener has put the lens on KL Rahul.
Owing to injuries and rest, Rahul missed a major chunk of matches since the last T20 World Cup, a period where India has changed their batting approach. At the Asia Cup, Rahul still appeared far from being free-flowing and on the eve of the first T20I, admitted that he is working on improving his strike rate.
“Look, it’s obviously something that every player works towards. The roles that have been defined for each player in the last 10-12 months have been very clear. And the player understands what is expected of him, and the player is working towards it. Obviously, I am just working towards how I can better myself as an opening batter, and see how I can have the most impact for my team whenever I go out to play in the middle,” Rahul said.
While there hasn’t been an issue around it when chasing, India’s issues with strike-rate stem when they are batting first. For example in the Asia Cup, against Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super Four stage, when India batted first and posed a healthy total, it still appeared they left a few more runs in the middle.
“No one is perfect. No one in that dressing room is perfect. Obviously, strike rates are taken on an overall basis. You never see when that batsman has played at a certain strike rate, whether it was important for him to play at a 200 strike rate or if the team could have still won playing at a 100-120 strike rate. So these are the things that not everybody analyses. Or if you look at it, it looks slow,” Rahul said.