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The team that was recently announced for the ODI cricket men’s World cup 2023 is too bland and boring. Fear of failure seems to be the main criteria for team selection.
When India beat Australia at its fortress at the Gabba about three years ago in a pulsating test match to clinch the match as well as the series we acknowledged the depth of the team, and the mentality of the young team to not only grind under pressure but also outperform the opposition at their revered home. That according to me was one of the best things which happened for Indian cricket team till date. The ability to take the game to the opposition, cherish crunch moments and hang in there till the very end. It was a gutsy win. The management of those times need to be credited for instilling in a young team and a relatively inexperienced captain the confidence and belief to play bold and brave cricket irrespective of the outcome.
Recently when I saw the team for the upcoming world cup at our home turf I found team India management and selectors reverting to the same mundane tried and tested formula from yesteryears. Over reliance on batsmen, omitting the two best spin bowlers of India R Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal, relying on a relatively inexperienced medium pacer like Shardul Thakur and chinaman Kuldeep Yadav, over the former ones shows the lack of clarity from the team selection committee. India shall play most of its group matches on slow and turning tracks against quality oppositions. In theses match ups we left out the two best spinners right now for India, who have been proven match winners in such conditions. Also to make matters worse neither of the batsman from the top 5 batters bowl. So no variety offered as well. A team that just while ago was confident enough to field two full teams simultaneously for different tournaments is now struggling to find even one team of 11 players that offer a balanced side. Those players that have been injured and hardly played any international one day cricket since a year are being roped in since those that were presumably given ample chances failed to impress the selectors enough to include them in the squad. Of course some players did not perform as per their potential to have merits to include them in the squad; the caveat however is there was anyways lot of shuffling in the squad in every tournament that we played prior to the world cup. Some players have been reduced to just playing in the bilateral events or against teams where winning is guaranteed, so how anyone performs hardly ever matters. The big names are roped in for the big events like the world cup for any format. And the result is open for all of us to see how they perform in crunch games making us-the fans wonder about the rationale for bringing them in place of youngsters. The lack of a left arm fast bowler and right arm spinner are omissions that could prove costly.
Timid mindset and over reliance on batsman is surely a recipe for disaster. I don’t have faith in this batting line up to deliver under pressure and against good bowling unit. Not that I would have more faith if some batsman that has been dropped from the side would have been included in it.
And that’s where the core problem lies. That in the tours and games that followed our great Australian tour, in all formats we have failed to build a team that is an equal bland of balance and charisma to play and win marquee events in those formats. That’s my biggest disappointment as a fan of the Indian cricket team.