Indeed, no matter how much we say that the selected team for the World Cup lacks off-spinners, left-arm pacers, or leg-spinners, there is no point in commenting on these matters now.
The team that the selection committee has chosen under the guidance of Ajit Agarkar, based on Rahul Dravid’s advice, should now be trusted. The way Rohit Sharma said during the team announcement that our focus was on all-rounders, but the truth is that this time the team doesn’t have as many all-rounders as the 1983 and 2011 World Cup India team have. Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Shardul Thakur are the four all-rounders in this team, but only three of them will play. That is, either Axar or Shardul will made their place in playing 11.
In the previous World Cup, where the number four position was bothering us, this time we are facing a similar situation at number eight. The selection of Shardul and Axar has been made to strengthen the batting until this number eight. This means that India will only play two out of its three frontline pacers – Bumrah, Shami, and Siraj. We saw this in the first two matches of the Asia Cup as well. It’s easy to say that India should have included either Washington Sundar, Ravichandran Ashwin, or Yuzvendra Chahal in the team, but the question is whose place they would take. Could they replace Axar Patel, who has recently shown his batting prowess? We’ve witnessed his skill in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Moreover, Ashwin hasn’t been a part of Team India in ODIs for the past one and a half years. Sundar and Chahal have also played very few matches. Clearly, these three bowlers were not a part of Team India’s scheme of things.
Just before the World Cup, such changes could have been costly for the team. India is scheduled to play five league matches on spin-friendly tracks in Chennai, New Delhi, Pune, Lucknow, and Bangalore, where you can see Jadeja and Kuldeep playing alongside Axar Patel. Meanwhile, in Dharamshala, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad, it is possible that Shardul might play instead of Axar.
The team needs to pay attention to towards its fielding standards which recently scaled below average and needs to regain control in bowling. Nepal team scored 230 against India which can be great lesson for team India to improve their bowling tactics, and Team India that lost its last seven wickets for only 32 runs against Pakistan is also alarm bell for the team batsman to perform better.
