India Have Everything But The Trophy As T20 World Cup Begins

When India played the original ™ Cricket World Cup at home in October, the first six weeks were set up for a victory parade finale. The crowds came in their thousands as the team stepped up to the plate without breaking sweat. When they beat their biggest rivals in a much-heralded rivalry, the Pakistan team director wasn’t happy at all. “It didn’t seem like an ICC event to be brutally honest. It seemed like a bilateral series; it seemed like a BCCI event,” Mickey Arthur bemoaned as his side were crushed by seven wickets.

The fanfare blew the team along to nine group victories out of nine and a semi-final win over New Zealand. Virat Kohli and captain Rohit Sharma were batting imperiously. The former ended the tournament with a Bradmanesque average of 95. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami were blowing away top orders while Ravi Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav span their web to control the middle overs. The tournament was India’s to lose. They did.

Australia’s defeat of the favorites in front of 93,000 stunned spectators in Ahmedabad marked another chapter of disappointment in an open book of wounds. India rule the cricket world in every which way a team can. Except the trophy cabinet has been barren for more than than a decade

India generally have the best squad on paper and on the pitch. They are the world’s No. 1 ranked side in both ODIs and T20s. Yet their last success in an ICC-accredited limited overs competition was the 2013 Champions Trophy win over England in a reduced game at a soggy and grey Edgbaston . Curiously, that game ended up as 20 overs each. India won the real T20 2007 World Cup back in its inaugural edition, but have only come close once since in the 2014 final when runners-up to Bangladesh.

As the team arrived in New York to practise before their opener against Ireland on Wednesday, everything externally is being done to comfort feed them. The schedules are wired for the next month to suit the huge global Indian audience. The probability of knowing where their potential semi-final will be played is also a huge advantage. The financial heavyweight that is the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) had almost 40 per cent ($230mn annually) of the ICC’s revenue earmarked for them at a board meeting in July. India are the boss kings of the big bucks. Calling the shots before play is one of them.

India have ground to make up in their T20 policy after a rather stodgy 2022 tournament. Their policy of keeping wickets in hand rather than going hard was ridiculed by former players after a ten-wicket mauling in the semi-finals by eventual champions England. “I’m just staggered by how they play T20 cricket for the talent they have. They have the players, but just do not have the right process in place. They have to go for it. Why do they give the opposition bowlers the first five overs to bed in?”, said ex-England skipper Michael Vaughan at the time.

It needed a superb Virat Kohli knock to beat Pakistan in the memorable group stage game in Melbourne as India slumped to 31 for 4 after just over six overs. In the semis in Adelaide, Rohit scored at a strike-rate below 100 as the Indians reached 62 off ten overs.

There is no doubt that the opner has changed his tune since with ballistic batting at the ODI World Cup. Kohli has been in supreme form during the IPL and there’s little doubt that these two will be more aggressive over the next month. India have to take the shackles off when it counts. In November’s final against Pat Cummins’ team, the Men in Blue only managed two fours in the space of 30 overs. They were totally stymied after the skipper’s cameo blast.

One of the criticisms of India’s archaic approach two years ago was a lack of quality wrist-spin. This time, Kuldeep and Yuzvendra Chahal join Jadeja and Axar Patel. With two spinners being all-rounders who can bat and two attacking spinners in Yuzi and Kuldeep gives you balance,” said Rohit in a press conference early in May.

The return of Rishabh Pant is another positive. The wicketkeeper-batsman held up well in the recent IPL after 14 months out of the game and smashed 53 off 32 balls in the warm-up against Bangladesh on Saturday. The lack of a genuine and proven all-rounder for the big occasion outside the recent labored efforts of Hardik Pandya is still a big concern. Pandya repaid the faith with 40 in the win against the Tigers, including four sixes

Ultimately, India have to lock out the external noise and deliver on the last business day. The optics of looking forlornly at the winners’ enclosure is ingrained into their legion of fans. The psychological wall is the hardest one to climb. “When people throw stones at you, you turn them into milestones,” Sachin Tendulkar once said. That’s one way of making a positive out of a negative.