New Delhi: Master striker and holder of many fortunes for Team India this season, the young and dapper Shubman Gill, has reported sick with fever right at the mouth of India’s first ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match against Australia in Chennai. Though the management has not completely ruled him out for now and a health bulletin would be making matters around his presence clearer tomorrow, it is situations like these that bring the hype around India’s bench strength into focus.
Gill who has been in superb form with his bat for most part of this year, may still make the cut into the team if the viral subsides without denting his stamina and spirit. But if not, there is one Mr 360 degrees who is raring to go from the bench.
Surya Kumar Yadav, known as invincible till very recently, has been in the wings speaking about two things: One, his form has hit a borough and, two, there is such a problem of batting plenty in the Indian squad that fitting SKY at the mouth or at No 3 or in the middle order has been a sweet headache.
Gill’s possible absence may be a setback for Captain Rohit Sharma and his aggrandisement plans against the marauding Aussies, but such exigencies are well dealt with as replacements are no longer compromises but a soiree of differently enabled shining armour.
Really, on the face of it, the team is in a happy and secure place from where the chant for the Cup lifting ceremony for the hosts doesn’t sound all that passionate but feasible.
Number 1 in all formats. A team that’s anyone’s dream 11. Home advantage. Fearless young and dapper players. Asia Cup champions. Just won a series against Australia. Peaking veterans and a collective hunger that gives wings to aspirations of winning the World Cup yet again on desi soil.
Who would say Team India is on any kind of fault line? Indeed, it is one of the best teams to walk into a summit tournament in a long time. Youth, vigour and intent form this team’s backbone as well as limbs. Old gold is the guiding spirit in Pullman Rohit Sharma and centuries-hungry fitness and batting maestro Virat Kohli. Not to mention Ravindra Jadeja who has potential but needs petrol both for livewire batting and bowling for now.
But behind every bright object there lies a shadow. For India that is alarmingly stealthy. Team India’s hovering shadow becomes longest in the middle. The batting line-up is strong and happening up to No 7 but that makes the post-Jadeja tail in Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammad Shami and Mohammad Shiraj and Jasprit Bumrah longer than any line of comfort in this fast and furious age of the gentleman’s game.
But let’s first look at the strengths that are varied.
Batting line-up
Virat Kohli: Kohli may just have been derailed by Pakistan’s Babar Azam but his cuts and slashes are just waiting to explode all over the Cup. He has fitness and hunger both. Fitness is a personal goal and hunger is more didactic and he wants to conquer his own idol Sachin Tendulkar when it comes to the number of tons. He is two short of the master for now and only a truant destiny can keep him from reaching the 52 figure of Tendulkar, in this World Cup.
Rohit Sharma: Pull, cut, slash, lob and generally throw the fiercest of bowlers over the fence in the most effortless and casual manner. Sharma is the most stylish of batters in the world. He has a delightful irreverence to any kind of pace battery engineering his walk to the pavilion, but his masterful strokes have the ability to inject rocket fuel into the runs department.
Shubham Gill: Needs no introduction as he is the flavour of the World Cup and comes into the tournament with a lionised reputation of being young and fierce but also solid and grounded. He has been creating folklore through his bat and has risen to the top of the Mr Dependable blockchain of the Indian team. Whether he will play India's opening match would come to be known only after the health bulletin is published tomorrow.
Surya Kumar Yadav: On the bench for now but he is a colossus when it comes to hitting the ball around the stadium at all studied angles. His placements of sixes and boundaries are perfect to a fault and often seem unimaginable. He has pace, he has placement and he has soundness. Always waiting to explode as the fastest man first.
KL Rahul: Back after a long recuperative layover, Rahul who is a natural hitter of the ball, returned to form and crease in the Sri Lanka series and has been giving centuries and near-abouts to the team in a consistent manner. He, too, can build a factory of runs in a jiffy and his seamless return to form has botoxed the team’s dreams of a double Cup at home.
Shreyas Iyer: Not as sound and solid as Gill, Iyer has explosive potential and can be the middle-order backbone India has so fervently been looking for. However, youth and passion often come in his way of stable executions.
Ravindra Jadeja: A soldier of many battles, in all departments – bowling, batting and fielding – Jadeja has been the favoured player ever since he came under the legendary MS Dhoni’s wings. Often he as bowler and MSD from behind the wicket would engineer the fall of a wicket with deliberate intent and pre-planned posturing. Post Dhoni, he has continued to make a mark but lately has been seen as a little lax as a strike bowler, a band-aid batter and even as the lighting quick fielder. For all purposes, this will be his last World Cup so he will be striving to deliver his best.
Hardik Pandya: Has risen above injuries and in ranks in a vertical manner and has been the best all-rounder India has for now. A wicket-taking bowler who comes in and breaks worrying partnerships, Pandya is a lion with the bat and can lend pace to victory by swinging his bat with strength and elan. Looks like the next in command after Rohit Sharma walks into the sunset.
The Arms Department- It is a new dawn for India in the bowling department that has continued to gain both momentum and guile over the past few years. The wholesomeness, though, is at its peak now.
Jasprit Singh Bumrah: Boom boom Bumrah is back after a stress that lasted for over six months and he is the first over wicket-taker. Mostly, with his waddle-daddle arms action, has axed many a batsman and that too early in the inning.
Mohammed Shiraj: Following him is ICC No 1 pacemaker Mohammed Shiraj who showed his prowess with the ball in Sri Lanka just the other day. The muscular and tall Hyderabadi is all set to carry out his mission dismantle into the World Cup.
Mohammad Shami: Shami is an old warrior who tops his runs-giving weakness with his wicket-taking agility and is the go-to man in terms of changing the tide of the game. Shardul, too, is fearsome.
And then there are the spinners who will be put to work earnestly on Indian pitches and conditions that give turners their raison d'etre.
Ravindrachandra Ashwin: With Axar Patel out of the reckoning due to an injury, master horse R Ashwin will be taking the opportunity to sing his swan song by living up to his reputation of yore – of being a strike bowler. Though his wicket-taking abilities are now being speculated upon, there is no doubt that if he brings back fearlessness to his bowling, he will strike.
Kuldeep Yadav: And then there is Kuldeep Yadav, now the golden wrist with the golden freckles. He has been turning, befuddling and deranging batters and the furniture behind them with his stealthy and sneaky turners. What’s good about Kuldeep is that he is peaking at the right time and is feared by master batsmen across teams.
Niggles- All’s good and happening on the face of it but for a couple of niggles, one being the chinks in the fielding department in the series leading up to the World Cup, including the Asia Cup in the island nation.
Dropped catches, lazy pick-ups and hesitation for diving have been all quite evident in Rohit’s boys, sadly punctuating the young and happening segment of the team. Even Jadeja, the Jonty Rhodes of the Indian team, and Kohli the fitness mascot, have been a wee bit sluggish from their former self.
A sorted middle order and a revved-up fielding will take care of the campaign and mend the chinks in India’s journey to the imposing Narendra Modi Stadium on November 19, 2023. All guns are blazing for now: The youngsters in the team wish to get the trophy in their prime. The old ones like Rohit, Kohli and perhaps even Jadeja and Shami need it as a parting gift for their illustrious careers.
