Pant-Pandya Heroics seal ODI Series but Problems Persist for Team India!

From Rishi Sunak as a frontrunner for PM to soaring temperatures and Rishabh Pant’s breath-taking brilliance, it’s been quite an Indian summer in England this year. While Sunak’s future still remains unsure, Pant’s magnificent century sure took India to a thrilling five-wicket win over England in the final match of the ODI series. The southpaw’s maiden ODI ton and his terrific partnership with Hardik Pandya guided Team India to an amazing victory after a shaky start when India’s Top 3 – Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli- fell cheaply.

PANT-PANDYA HEROICS
The Pant-Pandya heroics in the ODI grand finale should not, however, make us overlook the reality that the trip to England was not an undiluted triumph. While the tour highlighted several gains, it also underlined serious areas of concern that need urgent corrective attention. With red and white ball cricket both being played, we need to take stock of the major gains and grey areas in all formats of the game as Rohit Sharma and his team gear up for the all-important T20 World Cup in Australia in October and the ODI World Cup in India early next year.

INDIA’S BOWLING
India’s bowling deserves a special mention as it has been a big success all through the tour. Except for their failure to bowl out England in the second innings of the Test Match, the bowlers put up a stand out show to take all 10 England Wickets rather cheaply in all 3 ODIs and T20s. Both Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammad Shami fared excellently and added to their tag of the most feared pace combo in world cricket today.

INDIA’S POSITIVES
One of India’s biggest positives was the return of Bhuvneshwar Kumar in T20 matches. His standout swing bowling earned him the Man of The Series award. With Hardik also back to peak fitness, India’s fast bowling fire power has added sting to it. There is still some conundrum in the dressing room with regards to the selection of Ravi Ashwin in Tests abroad and dropping him from the final Test match cost India dearly. His role needs to be clarified as Aswin still remains World’s leading spinner. While bowling resources seem rich and well-stocked, it’s the batting that seems to be of grave concern. Though everyone pointed out bowlers’ inability to take 10 wickets in the final innings of the test match, it was the poor batting by top order that actually cost India the game. With Rahul unfit, Rohit shaky and Virat going through a horror patch, India was saved by strong middle order. Emergence of Surya Kumar Yadav gives hope of a bright future after Rohit-Virat exit. But at the moment, India needs to take a hard look at who will be the Top 4 batters for T20 and ODI World Cups. There is an urgent need to bolster batting resources and batting allrounders like Venkatesh Iyer should be given more chances. He is a good back up to Hardik as well but was ignored during the entire trip.

KOHLI’S SILENT BAT
Most importantly, Kohli’s silent bat needs to start talking again. The sooner he regains his run-scoring touch, the better becomes Team India’s chances at the World Cups. But beyond Kohli’s form, it’s tough to run away from the basic fact that India is still scuttling to find their best eleven ahead of the ICC T20 World Cup later this year. The fact that India won both T20 and ODI series despite largely flop shows by top order reflects the fighting spirit of this unit.

INDIA’S WEAKNESSES
One of India’s biggest weaknesses have been over experimenting and giving chances to too many players. The selected few need to have many games under their belt before they play the World Cups. Since the last T20 World Cup in 2021, India has tried 27 players in 16 T20s and 21 each in 6 ODIs and 8 Tests. Even the Captaincy is being rotated regularly and many experts felt that it was a wrong decision to hand Bumrah Test Captaincy. It certainly wasn’t the best choice to saddle the young fast bowler to lead the team so suddenly.

INDIAN TALENT
It’s only the lessons learnt from history that can take one to victory. Indian cricket has all the talent and money in the world but if they keep repeating their mistakes from the previous World Cups, then it would be a missed opportunity once again this October come the T20 World Cup. They would do well to not rotate and change too much. Over resting of players was a folly that was committed in Kohli-Shatri era too. The team could do big favour to themselves if they stick to a small pool of players and play to a template. If they do that, there is enough firepower in the team to bring back the World Cup home this time.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

SIDDHAARTH MAHAN   The writer is a specialist on Sports and Cinema who works as an actor in the Hindi film industry