Last Updated on 4 years by Charbel Coorey
Analysis: The best India T20 team for quite some time? | What should India’s goals be in the upcoming T20I series vs England?
The Indian team will take on one of their most critical assignments ahead of the forthcoming World T20 later this year. Virat Kohli’s men will have a difficult challenge to tackle the flamboyant English unit. The two teams will face off across five matches, and this is perhaps the best preparations that India can hope for in the shortest format of the game before heading into the world championship.
So, what are the major objectives that the men in blue will be looking to tick off in this much-anticipated series?
Firstly, it’s integral to note that the national selection committee took a bold turn ahead of this contest. Earlier, one had witnessed a trend of players repeatedly being ignored despite some stunning performances in the IPL. Furthermore, the Indian team always looked to play the catch-up game in the T20 format. That is, they were always chasing the momentum, not setting the tone of the game right from the upfront. This was largely down to the mainly conventional style of batsmanship that continues to dominate the Indian think-tank in T20 cricket.
However, the player selection for the upcoming T20 series defied all prevailing wisdom. Newer names such as Suryakumar Yadav, Ishan Kishan and Rahul Tewatia were introduced to the setup. Fine talents like T Nataranjan and Varun Chakravarthy were persisted with in the squad too, though the duo will be unable to make it to the squad now. The Indian T20 side has often been targeted for failing to keep up with the global standards and still holding on to their safety-first approach.
Players like Suryakumar, Kishan and Tewatia had their respective breakthrough IPL season last year. To be fair, Yadav had been knocking the national team door for quite some time. However, he broke down any remaining barriers with a career-defining campaign in 2020 and forced his way into the national team. With the inclusion of Surya and Kishan, the T20 side just seems to have gained a new lease of life altogether.
India has never had the dearth of players whose basic instinct is to attack the ball first in T20 cricket, at least in recent years. However, for that trend to amalgamate comprehensively with the incumbent strategy would obviously require some time. The selection of players such as Kishan and Suryakumar proves that the selectors have finally begun adopting an approach that has been much advocated for quite some time.
The Mumbai Indians duo promises to add some terrific flamboyance to the middle-order, which will be further bolstered by the presence of the reinvigorated Rishabh Pant. India has regularly faced the flak of going slow in the key 7-15 overs period, and southpaws such as Kishan and Pant will cause some serious trouble to the opposition’s wrist-spinners in this phase. Moreover, these are individuals who are adept at playing the long innings when required. So, they aren’t mere hit-and-go players who will click on some occasions and falter on most others.
These players’ modus operandi is that they have excelled whilst playing a vibrant, progressive brand of cricket consistently. They can be trusted to deliver the goods day in, day out. Add to this the opening pair of KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma, and India stares at a splendid T20 batting lineup; a combination that caters to the modern-day demands from this format.
Furthermore, the pace duo of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Deepak Chahar will return to the setup after recovering from their respective injuries. Kumar used to be one of the vital cogs of team India’s pace bowling arsenal. However, injuries have regularly kept him out of the scheme of things in recent times, thus somewhat pushing him down the pecking order. Similarly, Chahar had attained resounding success in the T20I series against Bangladesh in late 2019 that had almost confirmed his ticket to the World T20 2020 that couldn’t take place due to the pandemic.
Both Bhuvneshwar and Chahar have attained incredible success in the IPL, something that warrants their selection in this series. Moreover, Jasprit Bumrah’s absence will put the two in limelight and some promising performances against this excellent English batting unit will surely enhance their stature in the international T20 circuit. Moreover, some insecurity is bound to creep into players as they sit outside for considerable period of times and other newbies exploit that opening to cement their spots in the side.
Bhuvneshwar and Chahar will be adamant to battle the odds and further reaffirm their credentials as efficient T20 bowlers. The two pacers might not have piercing, lethal pace. But they are smart operators with the new ball and are excellent bets in the death overs. They will be ever so keen to erase any apprehensions over their caliber, a difficulty that every top-class international sportsperson has to overcome at some point.
Lastly, the Indian team will have get in the groove quickly and adopt their roles as seamlessly as possible to defeat this supremely talented English side. Virat Kohli will be looking for the newer additions in the batting order to fire and showcase their spark in the international arena too. On the other hand, the older workhorses in the bowling unit will be tasked to regain their mojo as the team prepares for the mega home World T20.
Hence, there are several key objectives that the Indian team will have to address amidst focusing on gaining a positive eventual outcome of the series too.
Written by Tarkesh Jha. Follow Tarkesh on Twitter today.
