It was an year of missed opportunities for Team India in 2018. The three challenging tours of South Africa, England and the ongoing one against Australia have underlined the fact that when it comes to Test cricket the team led by Virat Kohli is still a work in progress despite its No. 1 rank.
The real test of a quality side is to win Test series in alien conditions and India fell short in both South Africa and England. Kohli’s men certainly had their chances, but they failed to seize the big moments. The bowlers, especially the pace trio of Jasprit Bumrah, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, did their job by picking up wickets consistently. But the age-old frailty to blow away the tail coupled with poor form of the batsmen meant India let their opponents off the hook.
Selection blunders
Poor selection by the think tank consisting of Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri meant the team never really had the right balance needed to win hard-fought Tests on a consistent basis. The trend continued Down Under too. After winning a closely-fought opening Test in Adelaide, India paid dearly for the folly of going with an all-pace attack in the second match at the new Perth stadium. India still have a great chance to win a maiden Test series on Australian soil against a depleted home side without the suspended duo of Steve Smith and David Warner. The Boxing Day Test and the final one at Sydney will provide an answer to it.
Once the battle for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy ends, India's focus will shift to white ball cricket. Starting with the three-match One-Day International (ODI) series against Australia, Team India will hope to get their act together ahead of the ICC World Cup which begins in England and Wales on May 30. India’s stunning triumph in the 1983 World Cup in the Old Blighty sparked a cricket revolution in the country and the Men in Blue are expected to put up a fine show in the showpiece event.
But India, and for that matter the rest of the nine teams, have their task cut out. A return to the format, which was used in the 1992 edition held in Australia, wherein all the teams play each other and the top four progress to the semifinals means it will be a real grind. India have consistently done well in ICC events of late and it will gladden the heart of the Indians players and the fans. The key for India will be to start well as they will be up against South Africa in their opening game on June 5. It will be followed by matches against Australia (June 9) and New Zealand (June 13). A poor start could mount pressure on the Indians in the remaining fixtures.
Key player
The conditions in England will have a bearing on how effective the spin duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal will be in the middle overs. Bumrah will be the most important player for India in the marquee event for the entire bowling unit revolves around him. The unorthodox pacer invariably provides the early breakthrough and makes life easy for his new-ball partner Bhuvneshwar Kumar. His early strikes mean the pressure is on the batters by the time the spinners come into play, and Bumrah is pure gold at the death.
How well the Indian team management takes care of Bumrah’s workload going into the World Cup will have a huge impact on India’s campaign. Kohli has already expressed his desire to reduce the burden on the Indian pacers in the upcoming Indian Premier League season. But it remains to be seen how the franchises and official broadcaster react to it and in the money-driven world of Indian cricket it will be too much to expect that national interests are given priority over personal gains.
Batting worries
The No. 4 slot in the Indian ODI team is still up for grabs despite the claims of both Kohli and Shastri that Ambati Rayudu has more or less sealed his place. The matches in Australia and New Zealand will give a fair idea as to how good Rayudu is. Indian batting clearly lacks firepower in the middle order with only all-rounder Hardik Pandya capable of playing the big shots at will. The World Cup is expected to be M S Dhoni’s swansong and the wicketkeeper-batsman needs to fire in the upcoming matches to earn a place in the World Cup squad.
Finally, the World Cup will be a litmus test of Kohli’s captaincy. Even as he continues to be the leading batsman in the world in all three formats of the game, there has been question marks over his captaincy. A disastrous World Cup could well see a change at the helm and it's also fair to assume that Shastri’s services will be unwanted unless India go on to win the biggest prize in ODI cricket for a third time.
