For all the talk about a different approach under captain Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid, India’s batting line-up for the 2022 T20 World Cup in Australia will be almost identical to the one that had seemed to sleepwalk through the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE.
It is in the bowling personnel mainly that the difference lies from last year, amplified by the scramble to make up for the absence of the formidable all-round skills of the injured Ravindra Jadeja.
We take a look at some of the talking points after India announced a largely conservative squad on Monday.
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Rohit, Rahul and Virat again
Should he? Shouldn’t he? Will he? Won’t he? Even as speculation swirled around him, in the end, there was never really a chance that India would head to Australia without the second-highest T20I run-getter of all time.
He may no longer be captain, and this will never be his strongest format, but he is still, and always will be, Virat Kohli. Even if he had scored a duck against Afghanistan in India’s last match of the Asia Cup, and not his 71st international century instead, he would still have been on the plane to Melbourne. We shouldn’t be surprised really, that is just how India operate.
In the Asia Cup, it was Rohit who seemed to be taking the most risks against the new ball. Will that continue to be India’s approach in Australia? Kohli has said he had become too desperate to hit the big shots early, but has now reverted to his preferred method of finding the gaps. If Kohli were to be the innings builder at No 3, it means Rahul will have to get busier. He has only recently returned after surgery and illness, but has six more games against Australia and South Africa before the T20 World Cup to build more rhythm.
Even if the top order remains the same, to the team management’s credit, India’s top three have the highest strike-rate as well as average among the 12 Test nations in T20Is since the 2021 World Cup. It won’t matter, though, if they can’t translate that into some success in Australia, for public opinion has been in favour of a personnel change in the top three.
SKY out of position?
Suryakumar Yadav’s game, even in first-class cricket, is based on taking certain risks that may seem foolhardy to those of us watching, but are perfectly reasonable chances for him. Such a batter – and not a finisher – is best utilised in T20 when there are more overs left than less, and when he also has the cushion of more wickets to follow if he falls early, which is always around the corner given how he bats.
But with the Indian top order already packed, Suryakumar will not come in before two-down, one position lower than where he has had sustained success for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League. If that were to temper this genius T20 batter’s tempo, it will be a massive wasted opportunity, but that is perhaps the price to be paid for India’s refusal to leave out any of their big names.
Pant’s narrowing window
The three big batters locked-in at the top have also all but shut Rishabh Pant out of the opener’s slot, unless India spring a last-minute surprise, like they did with Ishan Kishan in the 2021 edition. In the middle order, the ageless Dinesh Karthik is breathing down Pant’s neck. As Rohit prefers to play with three specialist seamers, a spinner and two all-round options, there might even be room for only one wicketkeeper, and Pant’s recent batting form hasn’t been encouraging at all. A scratchy, under-pressure Pant is not what India would like on the world stage.
Filling the Jadeja-sized hole
How many players does it take to replace Ravindra Jadeja? Two? Three? India have brought in Axar Patel as ostensibly a like-for-like replacement, but there is no way he is going to bat as high up the order as Jadeja often does. India have tried to shore up the all-round presence with the inclusion of Deepak Hooda but his off-spin is strictly part-time, and he has played only 12 T20Is yet. Is Jadeja’s absence also a reason why India have chosen R Ashwin over Ravi Bishnoi, to have more experience and more batting options?
Again, Rohit and Dravid have erred on the side of experience when it comes to the spin bowlers; the disaster of UAE 2021 hasn’t been forgotten - Rahul Chahar and Varun Chakaravarthy haven’t played for India since. Yuzvendra Chahal has taken his rightful spot as the lead spinner after shockingly missing out in 2021.
Bumrah, and the rest
Bhuvneshwar Kumar has had a spectacular revival and Deepak Chahar’s long injury break has forced him into the reserves. Harshal Patel debuted for India right after the 2021 T20 World Cup, and has come along nicely since. Arshdeep Singh’s death-bowling control and left-arm angle have catapulted him into the squad after he debuted as late as July.
With Jasprit Bumrah around, India seem to have the slog overs covered, but in the Powerplay, they are heavily reliant on Bhuvneshwar getting the new ball to swing. And barring Bumrah, they do not have anyone capable of hurrying batters into mistakes; the exciting Kashmiri tearaway Umran Malik was tried and deemed to be too raw for now. Pakistan have once more shown the importance of serious pace in this format in the Asia Cup. And on Australian wickets truer than UAE surfaces, India’s medium-pacers could become a liability.
Moreover, the fitness of almost the entire pace attack is under doubt. Bumrah and Harshal are coming back after injuries, and Arshdeep and Bhuvneshwar have been asked to report to the National Cricket academy in Bengaluru for “conditioning-related work.” Which makes it likely that a replacement might be required sometime in the tournament, and again, India have gone for Mohammed Shami’s experience as back-up. Bear in mind that Shami hasn’t played a single T20I since the 2021 World Cup, and no cricket at all in the past two months. On the brighter side, if Shami were to be drafted in, they’ll at least have some extra zip off the pitch.
Conservatism all through
Even the choice of Shreyas Iyer as reserve batter reflects the conservatism in India’s thinking. He’s long been overtaken by Suryakumar Yadav, has limited scoring areas, a clear short-ball issue and is anyway unlikely to top the strike-rate charts. Someone who takes more risks and can score quicker, such as Sanju Samson or Rahul Tripathi, could have been picked. But the guiding principle seems to have been the number of games someone has under his belt, not how explosive he can be.
India squad for 2022 ICC T20 World Cup
Rohit Sharma (captain), KL Rahul (vice-captain), Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Deepak Hooda, Rishabh Pant (wk), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Yuzvendra Chahal, Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Harshal Patel, Arshdeep Singh
Standby players: Mohammed Shami, Shreyas Iyer, Ravi Bishnoi, Deepak Chahar
