Indian cricket needs return to 2007's bold approach if they are to win ICC trophies again

What is cricket in India? A religion? A passion? An emotion?

Well, it would be all three for someone who has followed the game for more than 20 years. Just like me, millions have cried when India have lost a close encounter or a big tournament and have celebrated a triumph with absolute joy.

But what happened in November was just shattering. It wasn’t the manner in which the side surrendered in the semi-final vs England but the “process” which was followed in build-up to the ICC tournament.

Let’s rewind a bit and revisit the year which triggered a new era in the Indian cricket team. It was 2007 and everyone was in the Caribbean for the 50-over World Cup. The side was being led by Rahul Dravid with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Sourav Ganguly and MS Dhoni in the squad. The Men in Blue suffered a shock exit from the competition after they losing their group stage matches to Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

It took some time to brush away the defeats and Indian cricket took a turn in a new direction. A turn which was initiated by some bold moves from the men who matter. A young side under a young leader was assembled for the inaugural T20 World Cup and they brought home the much-needed glory and ended India’s long wait for a World Cup title.

What followed next?

The first season of what was destined to become the best league in the world — Indian Premier League (IPL).

The Indian team was back on track and by 2013, the national side had won three ICC trophies and in IPL had a tournament that was growing each year.

It isn’t that the Indian team never faced disappointment after that. We lost the 2014 T20 World Cup, failed to defend the ODI World Cup in 2015 and lost the semi-final in 2016 World T20 but there was never a rush to make changes in the captaincy duties or in the team. Or undertake experiments that lacked logic.

Dhoni eased himself out of the captaincy role and gave his successor Virat Kohli enough time to get into the groove.

What followed next was a period of positive results in Test cricket. Kohli was handed over the Test captaincy back in 2014 after Dhoni bid adieu to the format.

In the next seven years, the Indian team won consecutive series Down Under, put up a great show in South Africa, made it to the finals of the first World Test Championship and developed one of the most lethal fast bowling units in the world.

What led to the current situation?

India’s search for the ICC trophy continues and even after a host of changes, both in captaincy and coaching, the drought continues. After Kohli let go of captaincy responsibilities, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul combined and started prepping for the 2022 T20 World Cup.

In 2022, India created an unwanted record where they had as many as seven captains in a span of seven months. Some were forced by injuries and others to manage workload, but there was no stability on the leadership front. Plenty of experiments took place but the side which travelled to Australia for the T20 World Cup had very few additions/changes from the one which featured in the disastrous previous edition.

India faced big guns in Pakistan, South Africa and England and lost to two of them, and only a Virat Kohli masterclass helped India somehow beat the arch-rivals.

Had Kohli not hit those two sixes in the penultimate over, we might have suffered another World Cup defeat against Pakistan.

Scapegoats

Just like Kohli after the last World Cup, all criticism has gone Rohit’s way this time around. First for his run with the bat, and then the debatable decisions with regards to the Playing XI. No Yuzvendra Chahal, lack of bite from the seamers and no intent in the powerplay with the bat were some of them.

What next?

India have now begun the road to 2024 T20 World Cup and 2023 50-over World Cup and a clear blueprint must be in place to end the trophy drought.

Hardik Pandya and Shikhar Dhawan led India in the T20I and ODI series respectively against New Zealand. While Hardik’s side won the series 1-0, the Shikhar Dhawan-led unit suffered a 0-1 defeat during a tour that was marred with rain.

Keeping the ODI World Cup (scheduled for next year) in mind, the board should actually have the approach that the duo of Dhawan and VVS Laxman kept. India went in with five bowlers in the first ODI which backfired as Tom Latham and Kane Williamson thoroughly dominated the bowling unit and helped the hosts chased down a target of 300+.

But Dhawan was quick enough to make the changes as he brought in Deepak Hooda in place of Sanju Samson and Deepak Chahar in place of Shardul Thakur.

Chahar was a like-for-like replacement, Hooda was brought in as the sixth bowling option with a mindset that he can be used as a floater. Unfortunately, the second and third matches were washed away and we couldn’t really get an exact assessment.

But the point is that making subtle tweaks in the XI can be more fruitful rather than making big and massive changes which eventually leave everyone in a state of confusion.

While the bilateral series wins are okay to be celebrated, it’s important the bigger picture is kept in mind and the entire composition of the squads revolves around the two big events lined up ahead.

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