Leveraging Rohit and Virat as facilitators to strengthen India

I want to start by addressing my concerns about the Champions Trophy. While it may be a well-intentioned idea, I believe there are better ways to celebrate and showcase our champions.

It was a good idea when the ICC decided to discontinue it realising that 50 overs cricket was losing its appeal with the fans, fans of even white-ball cricket. Why did they revive the Champions Trophy when there was every indication that 50 overs cricket wasn’t resonating with fans anymore?

The answer to that is the 50 overs World Cup. The tournament has basically kept 50 overs cricket alive even when bilateral ODI cricket has decisively run its course.

The thing is, it’s not really the 50 overs format that drew large hordes of fans to India for the World Cup in 2023 or to England in 2019 before that, it was how those World Cups panned out – 50 overs cricket as a format would not have survived if 2019 and 2023 had turned out like 2007 or 1999.

That’s one reason, the other obvious one is it comes once in four years, so it’s like you miss this one and you have to wait another four years for the next.

Now, by having another 50 overs tournament in between two eagerly awaited WCs that come once in four years, the 50 overs WC won’t lose its attraction; just that CT will be ignored like it was before, and why they put a stop to it.

Cricket fans get an excessive, endless supply of cricket so they make their picks, the matches they will spare time and energy for. Don’t think the CT will be the box they will tick in the wider buffet that offers the 50 overs WC, the T20 WC, the World Test Championship final, and then there is the IPL.

Having said that, obviously, Indian cricket has to put its best foot forward. It’s after all a world event and India had a great curtain raiser with some solid performances against England recently.

England appeared like they were having nets in a match situation in that series. I’m sincerely hoping that England play the Champions Trophy differently. The last thing this sport needs is an England not trying too hard in a world tournament considering we just have a handful of teams left playing this format with any vigour.

For India, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli continue to be a little bit of an issue. Rohit Sharma got 100 in that series against England; actually, he played that particular innings differently, just to make sure that the ‘monkey was off his back’.

He took calculated risks with the main intent of staying at the crease longer than usual. I still believe playing the flyer kind of innings suits him better and the team today.

Vivian Richards towards the end of his career slipped down the batting order to let a younger Ritchie Richardson take the No.3 position, knowing that at this stage of his career Ritchie would give back more than he would with all the privileges that come with batting at No.3.

Rohit and Virat are clearly not in their prime, but you know what, Gill and Iyer are. It would be a shame if they weren’t given enough time and opportunity for India to make the most of their purple patch.

India would be a stronger side in the CT if both Rohit and Virat became facilitators rather than the flag-bearers in the front.

India will miss Jasprit Bumrah, he who in the big matches over the last three years has pulled the team out of a hole and put them in a winning position multiple times. India don’t have the ‘Bumrah blessing’ anymore, so the rest will have to just put in more; and this goes for both batters and bowlers.

That’s why I don’t care for allrounders too much, unless one of their two skills is great. One specialist like Bumrah ensures both batting and bowling gets a cushion in the team.

Remember the final of the T20 World Cup? The batters didn’t get enough runs on the board, but Bumrah made it a winning score.

Kuldeep Yadav now bowls a lot quicker than he used to, to the extent that he does not bowl a single ball in the 70 kph region. So, his wicket-taking ability has shrunk a bit.

Varun Chakravarthy is a good selection. He is a wicket taker, so I see three in the playing eleven as potential wicket takers and you need this breed of bowlers to win matches. As I had mentioned some time back, no team scores 180/2 in their 50 overs anymore; 180 happens only when the team is all out.

India without Bumrah is weakened, but it may still be enough to beat the rest of the world.

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