India’s best captain Virat Kohli was squeezed out of the T20 World Cup in the first round and the captaincy was taken away from him and handed over to Rohit Sharma. The Indian team is in danger of falling apart now that Rohit Sharma is a captaincy player in doubt. It is indeed a matter of concern if a superstar-laden Indian side loses to an out-of-form Bangladesh side, who will lose to Afghanistan.
2023 World Cup will be held in India. It looks like the Rohit Sharma-Dravid combination will fail to prepare a consistent 12-14 players by then. Star players say that if they play in one series, they will take rest in another series. Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya and Rishabh Pant are rested when they are not in consistent form. The Bumrah story is unknown, Jadeja, KL Rahul’s fitness is questionable. Rohit Sharma has now joined the fitness list. Virat Kohli is the only player in the team who is fully fit. But his batting form is questionable right now, Kohli can be relied on even though he lacks the consistent style of scoring runs. He proved his ability to return to his old form again in the T20 World Cup. Gilli is seen in fielding. He was also an inspiration in leading the team.
In this case, Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Hardik Pandya, Rishabh Pant, Jadeja, Bumrah, unbelievable Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar who does not exceed 125 km per hour is a player who gets injured often, Shardul Thakur is a slow bowler. I don’t know how Bumrah will bowl after coming back from injury, and going into the domestic World Cup with such a team would be like a joke called ‘Building Strong Basement Week’.
Dhoni will say something. Ahead of big series like the World Cup, rookies should be experienced players who have played at least 60-65 international matches, or prepare for it. This is what team building is all about. It is noticeable that the Rohit-Dravid alliance is following the ‘use and throw’ culture of using fringe players like Shubman Gill, Sanju Samson, Deepak Hooda, Mohammed Siraj and others after their arrival so that the superstars can return to the team. As a result, the Indian team has been forced to wither like a flower.
All the players are paying extra attention to stay fit for the IPL series, which the BCCI and selectors have given room for to skip international matches. After losing the ODI series to New Zealand, now the Indian team has lost 2 consecutive ODI series against Bangladesh on Bangladeshi soil.
Bowling Weaknesses Revealed: The bowling weakness of the Indian team is coming to light. Apart from Mohammad Siraj, no one bowls well, and Axar Patel is the best batsman in the Bangladesh bowler. Chahal was sat out during the T20 World Cup and his confidence was also drained. How weak the Indian bowling is, Bangladesh’s off-spin bowler gets down to 69/6 and scores a century off 83 balls. If superstar Mehdi Hasan bowls the Indian team in 2 matches, then it is clear that there are serious problems in the Indian team.
Shardul Thakur, Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Prasidh Krishna, and Washington Sundar are the top wicket takers among Indian middle overs in ODIs since 2020, according to a Cricinfo statistic. Siraj, Prashit Krishna, Avesh Khan, Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar are among the tight bowlers in ODIs in the middle overs. But the true situation can be understood only by looking at the circumstances including the pitch thrown by them.
How about saying that we always learn by losing? Shouldn’t the learning end at some point and be implemented? What emerges here is that Dravid is not functioning as a complete coach. A young player can say, we learn from failure but a coach like Dravid shouldn’t say it, and Rohit Sharma a captain shouldn’t either.
Dravid says we will find a fit full team on an auspicious day in the New Year over January. Let’s see. Have an open mind in team selection. Why are players like Sarbaraz Khan, Prithivi Shah, Sanju Samson, Rahul Divetia, Jaiswal, who is always in action, and Narayan Jagadeesan of Tamil Nadu not seen by the selectors?
The Kohli-Ravi Shastri combination created a player in Rishabh Pant, but now the Dravid-Rohit combination has drained his confidence. The way Manish Pandey was vacated and Ambati Rayudu was left out, Shubman Gill is now in the list, using him as a replacement player should be removed when the senior player comes in. To put it in the Countmani style, ‘These seniors can’t stand the trouble!’
Kohli needs to be made captain again!
Taking the above factors into account, the Indian team can regain its lost glory only if Rohit Sharma, who is often injured, is relieved of the captaincy and Virat Kohli is again the captain. Defeat to Bangladesh should be seen as a huge humiliation. And if the Indian team plays an ODI match against Afghanistan in the current situation, it will surely face defeat. The Indian team is lower in ODIs than Afghanistan.
Virat Kohli should be the captain once again to bounce back from these situations and use his aggressive ways to unsettle the opposition by asking what they are up to. Kohli was stripped of his captaincy in the first round of the T20 World Cup. But since then the team seems to be falling apart.
Bench strength is highly valued by the Indian selection committee and coach Dravid. Instead of doing that, take the bench players into the team and give them a chance until the 2023 World Cup, not 60-65 matches as Dhoni says, at least 30-35 international matches should be played and they should be selected in the team, along with pure talent, Sarbaras Khan, Jaiswal, Prithivi. Team India needs Kohli’s services now to try and build the team with the likes of Shah, so it is good for the future of the Indian team to talk back to Kohli and give him the captaincy without any respect. Also important to find a more aggressive coach to replace Dravid!