Can the current Indian side under Virat become the most successful in all three formats?

Continued from the previous blog

ONE-DAY INTERNATIONALS:-

Strenghts: India’s top 3 comprising of Shikhar, Rohit and Virat have scored the bulk of the runs in this format and the team’s success relies heavily on their form.

Shikhar and Rohit make the perfect opening pair as the southpaw plays the role of an aggressor in the first 10 overs and the latter capitalizes by scoring big after a steady start.In case one of these batsmen get out early , there’s no respite for the opposition as Virat Kohli walks in at number three with 43 one-day international hundreds under his belt.The game against Australia at Jaipur in 2013 fits this description when India chased down 360 with 7 overs to spare and 9 wickets in hand.

Trivia: Rohit and Virat have 11 century partnerships in chases which is second to only the legendary pair of Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar.

Shikhar and Rohit are positioned at 4th in the all time Highest Opening partnership Runs list scoring 4802 runs in 107 innings and the three pairs of cricketers above them are all retired.

India’s spin bowling department, more often than not wins them matches out of adverse situations. The two leg-spinners in Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have been in the limelight since their arrival in 2017 and have proved to be wicket-takers whereas Jadeja gives away little, bowling a stump-to-stump line which makes it very difficult for the batsman to adopt an attacking approach.

Jadeja bowled with an economy of 3.70 in the 2019 world cup making him the third most economical bowler in the tournament.

Weaknesses: This team may not have as many weak areas in this format but to be fair, India have not found convincing replacements of middle order players like Yuvraj and Raina.The players that were tried out could not rotate strike to spinners while batting first and were unable to chase down targets when the top order failed.Again, losing important matches in major tournaments becomes victim to this weakness.

However batting at numbers 4, 5 and 6 is not easy as the batsman’s role is never specific.One day you get 30 overs to play out and on another day you get a mere 20 odd balls to prove your selection.

Trivia: As many as 12 players were experimented at number 4 for two years untill the 2019 world cup.

Opportunities: Hardik Pandya will be returning to international cricket after a year since he broke his back.He has shown glimpses of what he offers in the eleven.He completes his quota of 10 overs and is a clean hitter of the ball down the order which is why he provides much needed balance to the side.Fast bowling all-rounders are a rare breed of cricketers and must be protected.

Threats: A prominent feature of Virat’s captaincy is making bold decisions.It is a gamble; sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t.On various instances it has proved to be costly.For example, after winning the toss in the champions Trophy finals against Pakistan he opted to bowl first on a belter of a wicket at the Oval knowing the pressure of a run chase in a final would eventually be too much to handle.Also backing the inexperienced Vijay Shankar to perform in a big tournament like the world cup was debatable. Eventually, he was ruled out of the world cup mid way with an ankle injury and was replaced by Rishabh Pant.

T20s:-

Strenghts: The openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma are both destructive in this format. Rahul is in the form of his life and Rohit’s ability to clear the boundary comes in handy in this format.

Trivia: Rahul has a strike rate of 146.10 in T20s and has 2 hundreds in the format.

Weaknesses: India lacks big hitting prowess down the order.The run rate at which the openers score runs has not been maintained or maximized in the final overs. Shivam Dubey and Krunal Pandya are some players that were tried out for this role.

Opportunities: With two T20 world cups scheduled to be played in the next 2 years there could be no better opportunity for Kohli and his men to prove their mettle.

Threats: Fielding becomes even more vital in T20s. A sharp throw from the deep, regularly saving boundaries, not allowing the batsman to convert the one’s into two’s or even blocking the easy single goes a long way in the end result. Individual brilliance in players like Virat, Jadeja and Manish Pandey can be seen but a collective effort makes the difference.

Conclusion:-

There is no question about Virat’s greatness as a batsman.He is a natural leader and no other captain has shown this level of consistency in bilateral encounters.He has transformed India into a fast- bowling country along with increasing the fitness standards. Looking at how strong this side is Indian fans would expect Virat to lift the Test championship at Lord’s next year and a few major trophies till the end of 2023. However, for now he remains a work in progress and will definitely get better with time and experience.

Stats Courtesy: ESPNcricinfo

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