T20 WC-2022: Virat Plays His Most Incredible Innings Ever As India Win the Most Incredible Match Ever Against Pakistan!

More than ninety thousand spectators at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) watched spellbound as Virat Kohli scripted his most incredible innings ever to propel India to an incredible victory over archrivals Pakistan in their opening Group-2 match of the Super-12 stage of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup today. India-Pakistan matches are always exciting, nail-biting and full of ups and downs. However, in my lifetime experience of watching Indo-Pak cricket today’s match is perhaps the most incredible one, considering the unbelievable climax. When most of Indian fans, including this writer prominently, were almost giving up on Virat Kohli, he has chosen today’s match to prove what champion matter he’s made of. He has made the impossible possible, snatching the most improbable victory from the jaws of sure defeat. No doubt, he has thus bettered the memories of Sachin Tendulkar against Australia in Sharjah. Well, Virat’s innings of 82 in 53 balls with 6 fours and 4 sixes is not without precedents, but in the context of the depressing circumstances of the Indian chase it is momentous and unforgettable. Giving him the most enthralling company is of course Hardik Pandya—their match-winning partnership worth 113 runs.

 

India started the match in tremendous spirit capturing two early Pak wickets to Arshdeep after Rohit won the toss and put Pakistan into bat. As is usual in an encounter of the archrivals Pakistan recovered thanks to Iftikhar Ahmed and recovered again after being reduced to 98/5 in 14 overs and 120/7 in the 17^th over to post a very competitive target of 160 thanks to Shan Masood. In reply India lost both the openers at the pitiful score of 10 in the fourth over, and when India were reduced to 31/4 in the 7^th over even the most optimistic fans gave up hope despite the fact that the very capable Virat Kohli and Hardik Pandya were at the crease still, basically because the scoring rate was extremely poor and the asking rate climbing all the time. As India labored to reach just 45/4 runs in full 10 overs it became too much to expect them to score 115 in just 60 balls more. To confound matters both Kohli and Pandya looked nonchalant and were going about in ways that suggested they themselves had given up any kind of a chasing dream.

 

If their total laidback approach was a clever ploy it really had its impact on the Pak players who apparently thought the victory was theirs and they went on perhaps a bit complacently, just trying to contain the batsmen with the spinners to make the target go beyond their reach. Pak captain Babar also made the cardinal mistake of not keeping one of his strike pacers for the last over by bowling out Afridi, Naseem and Rauf. Of the Indian pair Pandya first showed signs of aggression after 10 overs were bowled and then, of course, Virat started attacking in the most spectacular manner. Yet, the run-ball equations continued to be uphill for India. And, the Indian fans who were starting to live up nearly gave up hope when India needed 48 runs in the last three overs; lived up again as Virat plundered Shaheen Afridi’s last over, the 18^th of the match; and finally got resigned to fate when India needed 28 runs in 8 balls. In that penultimate over by Rauf Kohli hit two mouth-watering sixes to bring the last-over target to an immensely possible 16 runs.

 

However, Babar did not have a strike pacer for the last over and he had to hand over the ball to Nawaz Mohammad who was hit robustly in his third over. But even then, the last over was the most eventful of the match. Pandya gets out first ball, India needing 16 in 5 now. Karthik comes in and takes a single—15 in 4. And Virat takes a couple—13 in 3. Next ball was hit by Virat for a six just missing the onside boundary fielder’s hands and the umpire declares a no-ball, leading to Pak protests and debates on the field—so then now it’s a very easy 6 in 3 balls. Next ball was a wide again--5 in 3 even as the free-hit ball remained to be bowled. In the free-hit ball Virat loses his stumps, but smartly runs three byes as the ball ricochets from the stump to third man, the umpire not heeding Pak protests—now it’s up to Karthik to seal the match by taking 2 runs in 2 balls.

 

Dinesh Karthik, however, gets out stumped in the fifth ball and Ashwin comes in needing 2 runs in the last ball. The most agitated bowler under extreme pressure Nawaz then bowls another wide and finally, India need 1 in 1 ball to win as by that time the match is already tied, open to a deciding super over, and Pak players coming in closer to prevent the single. Ashwin lifts the ball over the mid-off fielder and India win by 4 wickets. What a match! What an incredible victory! And what a start for an ‘experimenting’ Team India in their World Cup campaign! The scenes unfolding on the field indicated as if India had won the T20 World Cup-2022!

 

Questions still remain though about the selection of India’s playing eleven, particularly in regard to the pacers and the spinners. However, amid such incredible moments we leave the questions and instead join in the celebrations—Diwali, the Festival of Lights, happening tomorrow all over the country. Happy Diwali! Meanwhile on the first day of the Super-12 stage yesterday New Zealand scored the most emphatic win over the reigning Champions Australia and England beat Afghanistan in Group-1 matches. After a tough fight in the qualifying stage Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Ireland and Zimbabwe proceeded to the Super-12 while terribly inconsistent West Indies and an unlucky Namibia were eliminated. 

IPL-2022 Starts From 26th March: New Format, New Teams And New Captains!

The TATA Indian Premiere League (IPL)-2022 starts in the state of Maharashtra from tomorrow, the 26^th of March, across three stadiums in Mumbai and one in Pune. This 15^th edition of the IPL is set to welcome the fans cum cricket revelers back to the stadiums after the Pandemic cricket-new-normal in 2020 and 2021 editions—the former delayed and had to be held in UAE while the latter started in India, but had to be stopped halfway and later shifted to UAE. As per COVID-19 norms at least 25% of the stadium capacity will be allowed and in light of relaxed restrictions all over India the crowd limit is all set to be increased later on. There will be a total of 74 matches during 26^th March-29^thMay out of which 70 league matches will be played in the stadiums mentioned above and the venues of the 4 play-off matches are yet to be decided. Ahmedabad was earlier earmarked for the final matches.

 

Only for the second time in the IPL history there are 10 teams or franchises in the IPL-2022 tournament and like in IPL-2011 the group-format is being introduced again to keep the total matches around 70. All the 10 teams are ranked as per their IPL Championship wins and other performance stats: from No.1 to No.10 and are divided into Group A and Group B; the ranks are reflected in the table in serial order across the groups; the teams in the same row across the groups will play each other twice and the remaining teams in one group will play with the remaining teams of the other group only once; and within a group the teams, as usual, will play each other twice. In all, as per earlier standards of the tournament each team will play 14 matches at the league stage.

 

The following table clears the scenario: the two new teams are Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) and Gujarat Titans (GT), naturally ranked 9 and 10 respectively; the Championship wins are marked in brackets against the earlier 8 teams.

	Group A		Group B
1	MI (5)	2	CSK (4)
3	KKR (2)	4	SRH (1)
5	RR (1)	6	RCB
7	DC	8	PBKS
9	LSG	10	GT

For example, the top team Mumbai Indians (MI) will play Chennai Super Kings (CSK) twice and the same follows down the order, in the last row LSG will play GT twice.

 

The IPL-2022 auctions conducted in February this year changed the structure of almost every franchise with the retention of players being only about 3-6 for each team and this resulted in the change of captaincy in all the teams except for MI, Delhi Capitals (DC) and Rajasthan Royals (RR). The big news among captaincy changes is Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s surprise move of handing over captaincy to Ravindra Jadeja for CSK. Although this move from the 40-year-old former India skipper MSD had been expected the timing of the same did surprise everyone. Very popular in Chennai as ‘Thala’ (leader), Dhoni has made himself available as a player-cum-mentor for CSK while reiterating that he’d call quits only before his beloved fans in the franchise’s home ground, Chennai.

 

Earlier, the erstwhile India captain, Virat Kohli also quit his captaincy of the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and the South African Faf du Plessis is the new captain. Former captain of Punjab Kings (PBKS) KL Rahul was bought by the LSG and later appointed captain. India Test opener Mayank Agarwal takes the reins of captaining PBKS. The former captain of Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) Eoin Morgan is nowhere to be seen while the franchise’s earlier captain cum wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik is bought by the RCB, and so KKR’s new captain is its new and dashing buy Shreyas Iyer. Hardik Pandya leads the new franchise GT. New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson is to lead the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) while its earlier stalwart-opener David Warner is bought away by the DC.  

 

So then, the biggest T20 cricket extravaganza of India starts tomorrow evening at the Wankhede stadium in Mumbai featuring the opening match between the defending champions CSK and the KKR. Starting on Sunday, the 27^th of March, the IPL-2022 double-headers will be underway which will be a feature of every weekend during the over two-month long tournament. Regular greats of the IPL like Suresh Raina, Steven Smith and many others will be missed as they remained unsold after the auction.  

 

The IPL-2022 Group Matches Schedule:

Indian Cricket: Who Would Be Or Ought To Be The Test Captain?

The sudden stepping down, somewhat inevitable, of Virat Kohli from test captaincy has started a raging speculation in India about who would be or ought to be the new Test captain. Earlier in the year 2021 we had suggested a split-captaincy regime, particularly after the stand-in Test captain Ajinkya Rahane led India to an incredible Series victory over Australia in Australia overcoming the 36-all out syndrome and the departure of Virat for home. Rahane had been the test vice-captain for quite some time and therefore, there should’ve been no hassles to make him the regular captain, relieving Kohli the burden of captaining all three formats. In hindsight, we can say that had that decision been taken Kohli would’ve continued to be the white-ball captain thus the confrontations and ego-plays between BCCI and Kohli could’ve been avoided. However, that was not done, and during the last one year Rahane has been in very poor form and perhaps he had played the last innings of his test career three days back in Cape Town. So, Rahane is out of any contention for test captaincy. For similar reasons, Cheteshwar Pujara cannot be considered either.

 

KL Rahul has been an ideal test player, but thanks to reasons unknown he was mostly left out of the test playing eleven except for the latest South Africa series. In this series he captained the second test in Johannesburg without much to be noticed about his leadership and that is the only experience of test captaincy for him. Although he has been captaining an IPL franchise, this cannot be taken as a justification to appoint him as a national test captain. Instead, he should always be in the test playing eleven as a no.3 batsman rather than trying out all means to play him as an opener. He is rock solid, dependable and a fluent batsman at no.3 positiion which is applicable to all three formats.

 

Cricketing legend Sunil Gavaskar has strongly favored batsman-wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant for the post while talking to a private news channel. But we feel that at 24, Pant is too young and too inexperienced to take charge of a very important position. Again, captaining an IPL franchise is not justification enough for the appointment. He is also a headstrong and an impulsive cricketer often going for very adventurous shots, be it tests or the shorter formats, and making hay only on his day. Further, in the just-concluded Test Series against South Africa his scores had been indifferent but for a 100 in the last innings of the tour, that too for a losing cause. Rishabh first has to cement his place in the test team with dependable and consistent batting. If youngsters are to be considered for a long-term plan then Shreyas Iyer would be a better option, because he is almost sure to make it to the test team after the consistent batting failures displayed by the older batsmen in South Arica. However, in all such cases of experimenting with youngsters they have first to be groomed under an experienced skipper like Virat had gained so much from MS Dhoni.

 

There is another option of considering a bowler for the job. In this scenario the name of Ravichandran Ashwin comes to the fore, because he is very experienced and successful, possibly the best India spinner at the moment, both at home and away, and very handy too as a batsman with two centuries. In fact, Virat Kohli came under a lot of criticism for leaving him out of the playing eleven in most matches in the last two years, particularly in Tests. It’s been a long time since a bowler was given the captain’s job in Indian cricket.

 

Therefore, at least for the time being, the natural choice seems to be Rohit Sharma who is already the regular white-ball captain and would definitely lead Team India into the ICC Men’s World Cup-2023 to be played at home during October-November. Apart from the emerging fact that Rohit too has become too big a superstar for the comfort of the BCCI and has often been in and out of the team due to injuries or ‘personal reasons’ which makes it rather tricky to give him the charge to lead in all three formats, he continues to be the ideal choice at least till 2023. During this time youngsters like Rishabh or Shreyas and also the regular vice-captain KL Rahul can be groomed for the job in the long term. Whatever be the decision it ought to serve Indian cricket in the best possible interests for its future in international cricket. All is not well in Team India at the moment, fans like it or not.  

And Then Virat Kohli Quits As Test Captain: Climax Of The Split-Captaincy Saga?

It was not entirely unexpected even though millions of his fans are just thunderstruck today by his sudden announcement to step down from Test captaincy, just the day after losing the Cape Town Test; because what had been happening in the last few months over the split-captaincy controversy definitely left its mark on the mind of the most successful captain of Indian Test cricket, Virat Kohli, with 40 Test victories out of 68 tests, including both home and away ones, under his leadership during in the last seven years. However, a 1-2 series loss to South Africa is not such a huge tragedy that should make the captain take the responsibility and step down. There are other factors leading to his decision apart from the split-captaincy issue to which we’ll come a bit later:

·       Virat has not been amongst the runs in the last two years without being able to score a single century, and his batting abilities were being questioned repeatedly.

·       Virat not being able to win the World Test Championship Final against New Zealand in England.

·       Virat suddenly announcing his decision to quit as the T20 captain after the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021 when the important tournament was nearly two months away. This decision came as a shocker to all including the cricket board, and many experts commented that this decision should ideally have come after the tournament as it leaves a negative impression on the team facing a tough international challenge.

·       India’s forgettable performance in that World Cup with some very obvious tactical errors by Virat in terms of selection of players and the batting line-up.

·       Personal issues coming up again and again making him leave the Australia Series midway and then sitting out of the second test against South Africa.

·       Virat’s suggestion in his pre-departure press conference that Sourav Ganguly, the President of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), was probably lying.

·       Lastly, the truly heart-breaking loss to South Africa when everybody was expecting India to win easily enough after going 1-0 up and that the failure was entirely due to batting of which Virat is the mainstay.

 

Now to the split-captaincy controversy. On December 9, 2021 the BCCI Selectors announced the squads for the India Tour South Africa, naming Rohit Sharma as the regular white-ball captain that means both for ODI and T20 matches while retaining Kohli as the Test captain. This came as a shock to the most successful India captain as he made it clear that he was available for ODI captaincy while announcing his decision to quit T20 captaincy. Later, he announced that he would not be playing the ODI Series due to ‘personal reasons’ to which the BCCI countered that Kohli had not applied for leave during that period. The conflict between BCCI and Virat Kohli was just growing up then.

 

Finally, at his press conference on 15^th December, 2021 before leaving for South Africa the next day, Virat Kohli dropped a bombshell about Ganguly that we mentioned above. However, he confirmed that he would be playing in the ODI Series even as he clearly expressed his hurt on being informed about the sacking just one hour before the announcement. The BCCI President kept his silence over the ‘lie’ controversy just saying that the matter would be sorted out in due course. That the BCCI had been handling the delicate issue rather insensitively became clear when the Chief Selector chose the date of 1^st January 2022 to react to Virat’s hurt by saying that the decision in regard to one white-ball captain had been unanimous, just after India’s glorious Centurion victory. This must have aggravated Virat’s feelings, perhaps leading to his opting out of the crucial second Test in Johannesburg.

 

Having said all that it is an unfortunate fact that in India any influential person or group gradually becomes a power centre and in case of Virat it is basically a conflict between two power circles—the BCCI or Ganguly Vs Kohli. We had seen it in the case of MS Dhoni too when his stupendous success as captain made him almost a dictator getting whatever he wanted. The same thing happened in case of Virat too; combined with the then coach Ravi Shastri he got everything done as per his wish, even getting rid of the newly appointed head coach Anil Kumble just because he did not prefer him. After the Supreme Court of India brought the richest cricket board of the world to its knees in 2014 following the IPL spot-fixing scandal, the BCCI under Sourav Ganguly has been trying to rebuild its supremacy—not allowing any player to become too big as had always been the case in the past decades. Only Indian cricket suffered, and in the present scenario there is not concrete transition plan for future in appointing a long-term Test captain. Perhaps, as per Ganguly’s ‘sorting out in due course’ would’ve amounted to sacking Virat as Test captain on the team’s arrival back home, and in this regard Virat must have preempted the inevitable.

 

Virat Kohli has been a terrific player of all times and such happenings should not be allowed to impact his batting as he has still several years to play, and it is sure that he’d soon be amongst the runs once rid of all captaincy hassles. The two living legends, Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar, were leading the team only briefly, and that had no impact on their game. Or even Kapil Dev, the incredible winner of the 1983 World Cup. Kohli has all the time in his hands to go past the legends or join ranks with them. We wish him all the luck.

South Arica Win Test Series 2-1 Beating India Easily Again: Dead Wood In Indian Batting Must Be Removed!

 

Photo: file (wikipedia.org)

South Africa beat India by 7 wickets at the Newlands Cricket Ground in Cape Town on the fourth day today of the third and last match winning the Test Series 2-1, thus keeping their unbeaten record against India in Tests at home. Excellent bowling  and true-to-potential spells by SA pacers Rabada, Jansen and Ngidi ensured South Africa chase a total less than 250 runs like they did in the second Test in Johannesburg. And like in the second test the Proteas chased the even lighter target of 212 runs professionally with consistent batsmanship losing only three wickets and romping home in the 64^thover. Ever consistent Keegan Petersen who scored 72 and 82 in this match was rightfully declared the Player of the Series. Captain Dean Elgar again led the team to a healthy start scoring 30 runs building the momentum with Petersen, and Dussen (41 not out) and Bavuma (32 not out) did the rest. This is one of the resounding Test Series victories for South Africa, going down in the first test, and then coming back magnificently. This Series has also been very absorbing one with ups and downs throughout, largely thanks to the excellent work done by the fast bowlers of both sides.

 

As far as India is concerned there is nothing much to write home about as they did a repeat of the second Test: while in the Johannesburg test despite having the advantage of winning the toss the visitors crashed to 202 all out in the first innings, here in Cape Town they folded up for 223 runs; while in Johannesburg Shardul Thakur brought India back into the match with a 7-wicket haul restricting SA to 229 runs, here in Cape Town Jasprit Bumrah, in his first striking performance of the series, brought India back into the match restricting SA to only 210 runs; both in Johannesburg and Cape Town Indian batsmen failed to capitalize in their second innings—setting easy targets of 240 and 212 respectively; in both matches the hosts won by margins of 7 wickets.

 

India captain Virat Kohli came back in this match, giving some respectability to the team score of 223 with his score of 79 and by playing a sheet-anchor (29 runs 143 balls) to guide a non-performing Rishabh Pant to score a ton (100 in 139 balls, more importantly for keeping his position in the team rather than winning the match for his team) to the team total of just 198 runs, and they were the only two batsmen to reach double-digit individual scores in that immensely forgettable outing. In fact, Kohli played two of his slowest Test innings of his career. Emotional outbursts regarding the verdict of the third umpire as done in public through the stump mic by Kohli and Rahul on the third day afternoon do not help a team in hiding its shortcomings. This is not a healthy trend considering the fact that nowadays almost every LBW decision is contested by applying for a review or the DRS, and on many occasions the Hawk’s Eye cannot convince either the cricketing sides concerned or the spectators.

 

India had the advantage of winning the toss in all three tests, but a much-needed 300+ runs batting first eluded them all the time except for the Centurion test where they scored 327 runs thanks mainly to a century by KL Rahul that won them the Test. Their best chance of sealing the series was in Johannesburg where they had an unbeaten record and the pitch was playing quite easy; but they failed to set a target of at least 250+ runs. Anything less than 250 in the last innings to chase for any team does not create enough pressure on the chasing team and does not give the bowlers enough encouragement to bowl out their best. An addition of only 50 more runs by the Indian batsmen could have changed the result of that crucial encounter.

 

Overall, in the last two Tests India had 4 batting collapses in 4 outings after being in positions of strength, and if a famed batting line-up performs in this way, the thought of winning is daydreaming only. Almost all of the batsmen were inconsistent: KL Rahul did nothing after his magnificent century in Centurion; Mayank Agarwal failed in 5 of the 6 innings; Pujara and Rahane were the most inconsistent ones, failing most of the time; the lower order has been inconsistent too; and for a change the Indian tail also failed to wag in the last two tests. Some tough decisions need to be taken to change the batting line-up drastically, the persisting ‘dead wood’ must be removed and the reserve batsmen must be tried in rotation.

 

Winning the last frontier thus still remains a dream, and this is thanks to a chain of failures by the famed India batting. The white-ball Series is coming up now with the first and the second of the 3 ODIs taking place on the 19^th and 21^stof January 2022 respectively, at Boland Park in the small town of Paarl. For the third and last encounter on 23^rd January the teams will shift to Newlands, Cape Town again. In absence of Rohit Sharma KL Rahul is the stand-in captain and Jasprit Bumrah being his deputy.

India Vs South Africa 2nd Test: Virat-Less India Totter In Johannesburg!

 

It came as shocker just before the start of the 2^nd Test between India and South Africa at the Wanderers in Johannesburg that India captain Viral Kohli was not playing due to back pain and that KL Rahul would lead India as the stand-in test captain for the first time. Rahul won the toss and confirmed the news about Virat and that Hanuma Vihari was the replacement. Only a day back head coach Rahul Dravid lauded Virat’s performances ‘despite the noise’ and that the team would keep up the intensity to win. Something was just not right simply due to the reason as to why should a leading team lose its intensity, considering the fact that India had never lost at this venue before and registered two of the three victories over the Proteas so far here. Whatever be the actual reasons for whatever is happening in the dressing rooms it is bad news for Indian cricket. Out-of-form Pujara gets another chance and Vihari gets a berth in place of the captain himself. India elected to bat and what followed was a near collapse by the Indian batsmen.

 

India were off to a relatively good start thanks to Mayank Agarwal getting 26 runs in 37 balls before falling to a charged-up Marco Jansen caught behind; except him most other batsmen of the top order got into a shell and only KL Rahul stood guard getting his half-century in 133 balls. On the bouncy Wanderers pitch Duanne Olivier who was finally fit and coming back into the team replacing Mulder struck two vital blows—first he captured Pujara’s wicket and the next ball sent back Rahane for a first-ball duck—was on a hat-trick streak. The out-of-form Pujara who had a special responsibility in the absence of Kohli struggled pitifully for his 3 runs in 33 balls. Rahane who seemed to be coming back to form in the Centurion Test also failed. It was thanks to a rearguard action by R Ashwin (46 valuable runs) and vice-captain Bumrah (14 not out) that India could cross the 200-run mark. Jansen went on to capture 4 wickets while Olivier and Rabada got three each. India were all out for just 202 runs.

 

The way the Indian pacers have been performing in recent times the reply by South Africa was therefor far from easy. They lost Aiden Markram early on to Mohammed Shami at the team score of 14. Skipper Dean Elgar and Keegan Peterson saw the team through the day with unbeaten 11 and 14 runs respectively with the team score at 35/1 at stumps on day-1 in 18 overs. Tomorrow is going to be a crucial day for both teams. If South Africa go past 300 runs India would be in lot of trouble and if India can contain the Proteas around 250 runs the match would be set up perfectly for an absorbing finish. India’s failing middle order has continued to torment the team and if they entertain any chance of winning this match both the top and middle order must fire. They just cannot go on depending on the bowlers to boost the batting effort almost every time.

India Vs South Africa ODI Series: Rohit To Be Missed, Selection Of Shikhar Good Decision!

 

On the very first assignment as the regular One-Day International (ODI) captain for the India’s South Africa Tour-2021-22 and in the aftermath of the Virat split-captaincy controversy Rohit Sharma was finally ruled out of the full tour. This comes as a huge setback for Team India who has been doing well to take a 1-0 lead in the Test Series with the 3-match ODI Series to start from 19^th January 2022. Rohit had been suffering from a hamstring injury and was earlier ruled out for the Test Series which led to a lot of speculation about test captain Virat not playing the ODIs under the leadership of Rohit. As we wrote about Virat Kohli deciding to play the ODIs in his pre-tour press conference where he dropped a bombshell involving the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sourav Ganguly and it was not made clear till now who was probably lying with Ganguly saying the matter would to be sorted out as and when appropriate and the latter going down with COVID infection subsequently. The Chief Selector Chetan Sarma had given a response that the white-ball captaincy decision was that of the Selectors’ and that the BCCI was quite shocked when Virat declared his decision to give up the T20I captaincy after the T20 World Cup.

 

Now, it is clear that neither Virat nor Rohit is going to play under each other’s leadership for whatever reasons be and the Test vice-captain KL Rahul is the automatic choice as the stand-in captain for the ODI Series. Although the services of Rohit Sharma will be missed sorely by India the return of Shikhar Dhawan is a positive development and a good decision by the selectors. He has been a successful opener for India in the shorter format for the past several years and his injury in the 2019 World Cup cost India dearly. Yet, he has been continually sidetracked by the selectors in the recent tournaments even after his good performances in the IPLs while several rookies like Rituraj Gaikwad, Venkatesh Iyer, Ishan Kishan and Prasidh Krishna have been included in the India squad based on their IPL performances. Anyway, the opening pair of in-form KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan is expected to deliver the goods, and else the two openers, Gaikwad and Ishan, are available as possible options. The full squad is as below with Jasprit Bumrah appointed Rahul’s deputy.

India ODI Squad: KL Rahul (captain), Shikhar Dhawan, Rituraj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Surya Kumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Rishabh Pant (wicketkeeper), Ishan Kishan (opener cum wk), Y Chahal, R Ashwin, Washington Sundar, Jasprit Bumrah (vice-captain), Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Prasidh Krishna, Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj. 

 

The comebacks of R Ashwin, Washington Sundar and Yazuvendra Chahal are sure to make more bowling options available for India. While Mohammed Shami has been rested Ravidra Jadeja and Axar Patel are yet to be declared fit. Hardik Pandya and Rahul Chahar have not been selected.

 

Meanwhile, Quinton de-Kock had done a Dhoni by retiring from Test cricket suddenly in the middle of a crucial Test Series when his team is trailing and needs his services as an experienced wicketkeeper cum batsman the most. He is only 29 and has a long career ahead of him while Dhoni was around 34 when he dramatically retired in 2014 in the middle of an away Test series against Australia. Quinton’s decision has shocked all cricketers in South Africa and elsewhere. It was reported that he was granted paternity leave by the South Africa cricket board, but his decision to announce retirement from test cricket was totally unexpected. He has, of course, made himself available for the white-ball formats. His likely replacements, namely Kyle Verreynne and Ryan Rickelton, have very little experience in test cricket. The services of the injured strike pacer Nortje are also in doubt. It seems both teams have suffered setbacks and how the ODI Series goes is to be only to be seen later this month.  

India Vs South Africa 1ST Test: Brilliant Unbeaten Century By KL Rahul Puts India In A Strong Position!

India got into a strong position on the first day of the 1^st Boxing Day Test against South Africa at the SuperSport Park in Centurion today, India at 272/3 at stumps off the full 90 overs. This is thanks to a technically sound unbeaten century crafted by opener and the stand-in vice-captain KL Rahul (122 not out in 248 balls) who first built up a 117-run opening partnership with Mayank Agarwal (60), then an 82-run one with captain Virat Kohli (35) and an unbeaten 4^thwicket partnership of 73 runs with Ajinkya Rahane (40 not out), batting out the full day on a pacy and bouncy pitch most suited for fast bowlers. Other than the luckless Cheteshwar Pujara who is literally playing for his place with players like Shreyas Iyer and Hanuma Vihari in reserve and who is without a ton in his last 43 innings got out for a first-ball duck, all batsmen so far have contributed well. For South Africa all the three wickets were captured by Lungi Ngidi. The host team must be sorely missing the services of their strike fast bowler Anrich Nortje who was out due to injury with all-rounder Marco Jansen making his debut in his place. The lone spinner Keshav Maharaj too is wicketless so far.

 

The selection of the India playing eleven has been judicious, mixing experience with promising youngsters which is why Pujara and Rahane have been retained while having a foursome pace-battery preferring Shardul Thakur and Mohammed Siraj to Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah coming back to the team. Ravichandran Ashwin is the lone spinner and his selection is also justified. Mayank Agarwal is spiritedly trying to make the best of his chances thanks to the regular Test vice-captain and opener Rohit Sharma being ruled out of the Test Series and earlier rested for home Test series against New Zealand. KL Rahul proves yet again that he is specially made for test cricket in whatever batting position he is required. Interestingly, this is the first away Test Series for head coach of Team India, Rahul Dravid, once considered the great wall of Indian cricket. 

 

Earlier, captain Virat Kohli won the toss and chose to bat first. He looked to be in good nick despite the recent split-captaincy controversy. In this same venue Virat scored the highest ever individual score of 153 by a visiting cricketer in his only away test series against South Africa during 2017-18, and India actually lost that test match losing the 3-match series 2-1. In fact, the lone victory registered by his team in that visit is only the third by any India team. India is yet to win a test series against South Africa in South Africa. India looks to be in a sound position at the moment to force a win, if they go past 400 runs tomorrow with Rishabh Pant, Ashwin and even Thakur to follow. Winning the toss and the batsmen applying themselves well could definitely lead to conquering literally the last frontier. The pacy pitch of SuperSport Park is surely going to get worse with uneven bounce from the 3^rd or 4^th day onward. However, the South Africa pace-battery is yet to deliver true to their potential. We are in for some absorbing cricket ahead. 

Virat Kohli To Play The ODIs In South Africa Under Rohit’s Leadership, Ends The Rift Speculation!

A bombshell dropped by a tweet of the former India captain Mohammed Azharuddin that indicated a possible rift between Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma over the issue of split-captaincy which was lapped up fondly by a juicily speculative news and social media, aiming inevitably for a crescendoing climax at the most eagerly looked for press conference by the India Test captain Virat Kohli today in Mumbai finally ended with a cool and composed Kohli answering the questions candidly and bravely. To my knowledge he is the first captain of the Indian cricket team to have publicly questioned the functioning style of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) by implying clearly a lack of communication between the board and him or other players.

 

Virat said that the Chief Selector contacted him only one and half hours before informing him about their decision to sack him as the ODI (50-over one day international) captain in favor of Rohit Sharma to which Virat, as he had disclosed, responded positively and informed about his availability for selection for the shorter format. This apparently declared war with the board did not end there as Virat denied that he was ever requested by the President of BCCI, Sourav Ganguly to not give up the T20I captaincy prior to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup-2021. Recently, Ganguly said to the media that he had personally requested Virat for the same. Is this going to be the start of a war between the most aggressive captains ever—former captain Ganguly Vs present Test captain Kohli? In any case, his feelings raise important questions about the rather opaque functioning of the BCCI which is further corroborated by the fact the board preferred to remain silent amid one of the most speculative debates about cricket for over a day ahead of a very important tour.

 

The India Test captain went on to say that he was tired of answering the question of a ‘proverbial rift’ with Rohit Sharma, and confirmed that there was never any rift with the most experienced cricketer of the team, further saying that he would miss Rohit as an opener in the Test Series coming up in South Africa later this month. The most positive news for millions of Indian fans is that Virat is ready to play the ODI Series under the newly appointed captain Rohit Sharma. Virat also denied having requested the BCCI about taking rest from the ODI Series in South Africa in the beginning of this year. About giving up his T20I captaincy Virat said that he informed the board about his decision that was received positively by the board, and that he made it clear that he’d be available for selection as Test and ODI captain if the BCCI and selectors thought in similar lines. Asked about the possible reasons for his ‘sacking’ he answered candidly that possibly the reasons could be his inability to win an ICC cup. He added that the change of leadership would not affect his role as a batsman in the team.

 

The seeds of the proverbial rift between Virat and Rohit were sown during the ICC Men’s World Cup-2019 when Rohit allegedly violated the regulations by allowing his family stay with him for more than the mandated 15 days which was followed by an alleged social media action by Rohit. After that the issue of the rift has been coming again and again in the cricket grapevine despite the on-field demonstrations by the duo about their long-lasting friendship.  It was again reported during the India Tour of Australia-2020-21 when Rohit Sharma was not included in the squad due to a hamstring injury or for personal reasons leading Kohli to wonder aloud about the whereabouts of Rohit. Rohit’s ‘hamstring pull’ injury has been very frequent in the recent two years and rather mysterious too.

 

In the middle of the year 2020 Rohit was reportedly suffering from that injury; however, he became fit during the IPL-2020 in UAE leading his Mumbai Indians team and winning the Championship title. But after that he was again in the ‘injury’ list, coming to Australia only in the second of the Test Series when Virat left the team for domestic reasons. Now, ahead of the South Africa tour and him being made the captain in the shorter format, Rohit again suffered a hamstring pull during practice session in Mumbai and was ruled out of the Test Series, advising a rest for about a month. The coincidence was so delicious, Virat Test captain with Rohit not playing and Rohit ODI captain with Virat not playing, that there was no stopping the speculative games. Rohit Sharma should be more careful and must have a ‘national pride first’ perspective if the selectors and the Board had really believed in his experience (rather than choosing a captain younger than Kohli) to lead Team India into the T20I World Cup in 2022 and the ODI World Cup in 2023.  

 

There must have been some behind-the-scene ‘damage control’ activities by the Board and other cricket mandarins leading to Virat’s presser. And also, the fact that the union Sports minister spoke to the media saying that ‘no individual player is bigger than the national team’. However, irrespective of whatever must have happened we must congratulate Virat Kohli for his wonderful candidness and straightforwardness. No doubt, he, the most successful Indian captain in all formats, must have felt a little let down by the last-minute decision conveyed to him over phone; but as per his strong mental frame he’d definitely overcome everything and perform as wonderfully as all his life as a batsman to help his team conquer the last frontier with Series wins. His press conference today was not just for clarifications, but this has been a customary practice by India captains a day ahead of the team’s departure. Team India is leaving for South Africa tomorrow morning instead of 12^th December as scheduled earlier and we wish them all the luck.

 

In conclusion, I need to mention one point again: we, the lovers and fans of the game, make excellent cricketers into ‘superstars’ which is also apparent in the film world, and these superstars are always hyped to the sky by the media. In the aftermath, obviously, such superstars develop egos, mannerisms and dictatorial attitudes which is inimical to the spirit of the game. Virat Kohli is a superhero as he has the best of both worlds of cricket and cinema having one of the top heroines of Bollywood as his wife. But his fans must understand that playing in all formats, performing in all formats and having the burden of leadership in all formats really makes one tired, superhero or normal cricketer. Virat must be the only three-format captain with the exception of Kane Williamson who has also been seen to take rest often in the present-day world cricket. Not to speak of the bio-bubble fatigue of nearly two years now. Therefore, everyone must accept the reality and act accordingly.

India Tour Of South Africa: Rohit Named Regular Captain In The Shorter Formats, Virat Retained In Tests!

The regime of having different captains for different formats for which we have been writing in these pages has finally happened with the Indian cricket selectors making opener Rohit Sharma the regular captain in the ODIs and T20Is with effect from India’s tour of South Africa-2021-22 while the captain of all formats since 2017, Virat Kohli, has been retained as captain for the 3-match Test Series starting on the boxing day, 26^th December 2021, in Centurion.

This move, probably under the guidance of the new Head Coach Rahul Dravid, is ideally aimed at allowing the wonder of a batsman Virat Kohli to play freely and most importantly, in view of the ICC Men’s World Cup-2023 to be hosted by India for the one day format. This could also be a reflection of the fact that Virat is yet to win an ICC Cup! It is unfortunate that Ajinkya Rahane, the hero of the great Indian comeback in Australia in January this year when Kohli left for home for domestic reasons, has lost his place in Tests as vice-captain to Rohit Sharma who is also assigned to be Kohli’s deputy in Tests. Although Rohit has crossed the age of 34, a year older than both Virat and Ajinkya, he seems to be the right choice as the most experienced senior player to take charge. As we had mentioned quite a few times in these pages the practice of the different-captains regime has been followed by most of the big cricket playing nations.

 

Notwithstanding the outbreak of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in South Africa the respective cricket boards of the two countries have decided to go ahead with the 3-match Test Series and the 3-match ODI Series, albeit delayed by a week, under a strict bio-bubble plus regulations, with the T20I Series yet to be scheduled, by announcing their Test squads late evening yesterday,. While the Indian selectors have announced an 18-member test squad South Africa announced a 21-member squad. The teams can also expect small crowds of fully vaccinated people at the playing grounds.  

 

Rahane despite his being out-of-form in the last 16 tests has been retained in the Test squad along with the inconsistent Cheteshwar Pujara which is a good move too for their experiences as specialist Test cricketers. Useful all-rounder Hamuma Bihari who has already been playing in South Africa for the India-A team has made a comeback. Shreyas Iyer has also been included for his great showing against New Zealand at home. The other rested seniors players— KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami—have all joined the team. Although opener Mayank Agarwal has been included for his great match-winning battle in the second Test in Mumbai against New Zealand he may not make it to the playing eleven as KL Rahul has come back. Wriddhiman Saha has been retained as the reserve wicketkeeper.

 

Ravindra Jadeja, Shubman Gill and Axar Patel are left out due to injuries, and Jayant Yadav may make it to the playing eleven in the place of Jadeja after the first-choice spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. However, playing two spinners in the tests could be tricky decision considering the fact that most of the pitches in South Africa are fast-paced helping the fast bowlers and India have good choices available in Bumrah, Shami, Umesh Yadav, Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Siraj along with three pacers already playing in South Africa being kept as reserve pacers that include Deepak Chahar, particularly if Hanuma Bihari finds a place in the final eleven. In any case, it would definitely be a toss between Bihari and Jayant in making it to the final eleven.

 

South Africa has announced a 21-member Test squad under the captaincy of Dean Elgar with Temba Bavuma as his deputy. The comeback of medium fast bowler Duanne Olivier who last appeared in 2019 is a significant inclusion. The Proteas have ample choices available in the fast bowling arena with the familiar faces of the IPL, Rabada, Nortje and Ngidi, apart from the others; they have too at least four spinners in the squad with many their batsmen having the ability to throw in a few good overs each. The selection of the final eleven would be as interesting as that of India.

 

The India team is set to leave for South Africa on 12^th of this month, and everything looks good for some absorbing cricket, this Test Series also being a part of the WTC-2021-23 (World Test Championship) which is going to be South Africa’s first. The Omicron is still a scare and hope the variant does not do something real nasty. Of course, the news arena currently abounds with positive reports that the Omicron variant—mutating all the earlier variants like alpha, beta, delta and so on—may finally turn out to be weaker virus that may spread very fast, but may cause only milder diseases like normal flues as has been observed so far in South Africa, United Kingdom and other countries. However, many other experts say that it is too early to say that and it may take weeks to arrive at a decision with more and more data available. Like the continuing phenomenon of the ‘toss’ in cricket it is a ‘toss’ too in the case of Omicron for, hopefully, good results.