World Cup is organized by International Cricket Council (ICC). T20 World Cup was started in 2007. India is the inaugural champion of the T20WC and must be hunting for the second one.
Let’s talk about the Indian side! India has 15 players in the squad which include KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma (c), Virat Kohli Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Axar Patel, Ravi Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal, Rishabh Pant (wk), Deepak Hooda, Harshal Patel. The squad looks good on paper, most probably first 11 players will be in the playing XI.
India has two openers who can give a good start. In Australia, one should know how to play the bounce because the ball bounces more in South Africa, England, New Zealand, and Australia (SENA) countries compared to sub-continent countries. Both Rohit and Rahul are good on the short ball and love to play cut and hook.
Then comes Virat Kohli at 3, one who has game sense, who understands the situation, and who plays accordingly. Plus point of having Virat at number three is in case one of the openers gets out in 1st or 2nd over then Virat can adjust accordingly because he has experience in the opening as well as he has done it for Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB).
According to the men’s T20I ranking, Surya Kumar Yadav is the best batsman in the Indian team and 3rd in the world who comes at four. He is also known as Mr. 360 because he is he has lots of shots to play on all sides of the ground. He can increase the run rate on the team as his strike rate is 177.48. The team believes him because he has delivered in crunch situations and it’s true that the sample size is not too big but he has a lot of experience in domestic cricket which he has shown in international as well.
Hardik Pandya gives balance to the team. A batsman like him at the fifth position who can bowl a few overs as well can be a big asset for the team. He has both games one is attacking and another in which he can take the game deep. At 3 down India needs a good finisher and Hardik has that capability, he has finished games not only for India but for Mumbai Indians and Gujarat Titans.
Dinesh Karthik is the only player who played the first match of the T20I for India and still playing. He was the player of the match in the first match in 2006 so he knows how T20 cricket works and what its nature of it is. He brings the maximum experience to the team and he is brilliant behind the wicket as well.
Axar Patel comes in seventh position and bowls as well. He gives confidence in the batting but the sample size is less. His bowling gives variety in the bowling as he is a left-arm orthodox bowler and can bowl in the powerplay as well. Ashwin is an experienced bowler and can take wickets in the middle order. He can make some useful runs as well.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar also has a lot of experience. He is very important as he bowls in the powerplay and it is important to take wickets in the powerplay.
Arshdeep Singh swings the bowl and brings variety to the attack.
Mohammad Shami is good at death bowling. In Australia hitting the deck bowler is very important as the pitches have more bounce and pace in Australia.
The squad looks good on paper and can repeat history after 15 years. This team has that capability just the thing is one bad day shouldn’t come in playoffs. What do you think?
–An article by Jayesh Kumar Thakur
