Across the length and breadth of the cricket world, defending champions England and India are being considered the two most overwhelming favourites for the 13th edition of the 50-over World Cup.
England received a reality check in the tournament opener on Thursday in Ahmedabad, beaten out of sight by the team they overcame in the final four years back. Getting a taste of their own medicine, Jos Buttler’s men were battered into submission by Devon Conway and Rachin Ravindra, who muscled New Zealand to a nine-wicket victory.
The aura around England has dimmed a little, though the World Cup is a marathon, not a frenetic dash. India will look to avoid a similar banana skin in their opener, against Pat Cummins’ Australia in Chennai on Sunday.
There are many factors that have combined to make India one of the strong contenders. For one thing, familiarity with the conditions; in a tournament as long as this, it is important to have first-hand knowledge of what one can except at each venue, and while head coach Rahul Dravid insists it is execution rather than reading of conditions and pitches that is more significant, the value of knowing what’s to come can’t be exaggerated.
The massive crowds that will throng the nine grounds where India will play their league matches will serve as their unofficial 12th man. Especially when the team is pushed to a corner, the audience can prove an inspiration with its infectious energy. India have grown accustomed to unstinted support in all corners of the globe, but to have full houses egging them on at home will be a fabulous experience for Rohit Sharma and his men.
Also see: India's schedule at ODI World Cup 2023
India have shown in the past that playing at home doesn’t automatically translate into ultimate success. It took them three tries to win the 50-over World Cup in their own backyard. Having fallen at the semifinal hurdle in 1987 and 1996, India created history in 2011 by becoming the first home team to win on its own patch. That ignited a trend of hosts emerging triumphant with Australia (2015) and England (2019) following suit. It’s up to India now to keep that streak going.
Beyond these extraneous factors, India have a team bursting with exceptional talent. There is a wealth of experience, but this is not an ageing team. Over the last couple of years, India have worked towards this flagship ODI event through assiduous planning. There were spanners in the works along the way, mainly through injuries to several influential players. But everything seems to have fallen in place now, with Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul all having recovered fully from surgeries and rediscovering form and rhythm immediately upon their return to action.
The sensational rise of Shubman Gill is another cause for great optimism. The classy right-hander is the leading run-scorer in ODI cricket this year, averaging in the 70s and striking at more than 100 runs per as many balls faced. He is the classic affirmation of contributing big and quick without seeking recourse to the unconventional. Having added power to his subliminal timing in the last year, Gill has assumed an entirely new dimension as a match-winner. It’s possible that he might not figure at the beginning of India’s campaign due to illness, and while that will be a setback, it will only be temporary. He and Rohit have struck up great understanding at the top of the batting order. Gill is a throwback to Rohit’s early days when he was essentially a touch artist, but the skipper is now a consummate six-hitter, so he and the four-loving Gill complement each other superbly.
More than most teams, India rely on powerful starts to catalyse their charge. Rohit and Gill are the fastest Indian pair to realize 1,000 runs together, in only 12 innings; there is no reason to believe they can’t extend that record. If they do so, it will set the ideal base for Virat Kohli, Iyer, Rahul and Hardik Pandya to feast on.
Kohli is most likely in his last World Cup and, alongside R. Ashwin, is one of only two Indians in the current team to have won a 50-over World Cup. After a difficult three years, he has been in outstanding form for the last 13 months. Without being the metronomic beast of the past who had a computer for a brain and for whom no run-chase was out of reach, he is still crucial to India’s scheme of things because his experience, game-awareness and supreme fitness are impossible to match. His presence will encourage Iyer and Rahul, occupying the pivotal No. 4 and 5 slots respectively, to bat with characteristic freedom, with the all-round skills of Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja waiting to express themselves.
As outstanding as Kuldeep Yadav has been, India’s trump card could be their pacers. Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj are a formidable new-ball combination and if India can somehow find a way to fit Mohammed Shami into the XI, they can boast arguably the best pace attack of the World Cup. Each of this troika is capable of striking at any stage of the innings, but the trick is how to get them into the mix simultaneously, especially when there is an avowed desire to have an additional batting option at No. 8.
At this point, India’s headache is not so much who to play as who to leave out, such is the wealth of riches at the Rohit-Dravid combo’s command. How do they fit in Ashwin, a late replacement for Axar Patel following an unfortunate injury? The 37-year-old has been roped in as a wicket-taker, but he can’t very well take wickets from the bench, can he? But if he does play, at whose expense will that be?
These are questions that will be answered by how the think-tank reads pitches, oppositions and conditions. There is no such thing as the best XI, because each of the 15 deserves his place in the extended squad; the trick is to identify the best XI for a particular game. In his typical understated manner, Dravid called the World Cup a festival of joy that moves from one stop to another. What he left unsaid was that his wards would hopefully be the last ones standing at the final stop, which will ensure that the cup of joy spills over.
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