ICC Cricket T20 World Cup-2021: R Ashwin In, Dhawan And Chahal Out Of The Indian Squad!

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) senior selection committee has announced the 15-member Indian team for the ICC T20 World Cup-2021starting from the 17^th of October 2021 in Oman and United Arab Emirates. The tournament final is scheduled on 14^th November 2021. Indian captain for all formats, Virat Kohli is to lead the team with the rather queer introduction of MS Dhoni as the Mentor of the team—how he is going to perform that duty in the presence of all the coaches is something left to imagination—perhaps this is being done thanks to the tremendous record of Dhoni as the former Indian skipper, his terrific rapport with Virat Kohli and that he will be there anyway due to the staging of the remaining part of the IPL-2021 which was also shifted to the UAE.      

 

This tournament is actually the delayed version of the ICC T20 World Cup-2020 which was originally scheduled in Australia, but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and later was scheduled in India during the same period, but because of the danger of a Third Wave of the pandemic in India the International Cricket Council (ICC) finally shifted it to the UAE with some matches to be played in Oman. The IPL-2021 too, played in only three venues in India, had to be halted midway due to the disastrous COVID-19 Second Wave and later was scheduled in UAE from 19^th of September 2021. Before we go on to the structure of the matches in the ICC T20 World Cup-2021 let us take a look at the Indian squad selected for the tournament.

 

India Squad for ICC T20 World Cup-2021: Virat Kohli (Captain), Rohit Sharma (Vice-captain), KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant (Wicket-keeper), Ishan Kishan (Wicket-keeper), Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Rahul Chahar, Ravichandran Ashwin, Axar Patel, Varun Chakravarthy, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammed Shami.

Standby Players: Shreyas Iyer, Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur.

 

The team looks balanced and mostly on the expected lines with KL Rahul likely to open with Vice-captain Rohit Sharma; of course, the reserve wicket-keeper Ishan Kishan is also an opener in the IPL. Here comes the surprising omission of Shikhar Dhawan who had been Rohit’s regular opening partner and whose injury greatly hampered the progress of India in the ICC World Cup-2019. Maybe he did not get the final call due to his a bit not-too-good recent record and also due to the fact that KL Rahul was doing well as an opener in the IPL. However, it must be said that Rahul has been basically a Test opener who had been denied a place till the series against England where he justified his selection; but even if he gets going in the shortest format he fails often to get the momentum going like Dhawan does, and that often hampers the winning chances of the team. Therefore, the decision to drop Dhawan is fraught with danger. If Ishan Kishan plays then there will be two wicket-keepers in the team as Rishabh Pant cannot possibly be dropped.

Likewise, the inclusion of Ravichandran Ashwin is a surprise considering the fact that he has been India’s best Test spinner in recent times and yet he was not played in the Test Series against England. Perhaps the slow and often turning pitches of UAE are being factored in for his selection along with promising spinners Rahul Chahar, Axar Patel and Varun Chakravarthy. The final eleven would depend on the IPL, because all these players will be there playing for their respective teams. Omission of Yazuvendra Chahal is not much of a surprise due to his erratic displays in various matches. India’s regular and seasoned three fast bowlers are figuring obviously in the squad with Hardik Pandya being thrown in to help them as required.

Photo: sportstiger.com

There will be two rounds in the tournament: the first, starting from 17th October 2021, is the qualifying round of 8 teams that have been formed into two groups with two top teams of each group entering the second round of Super-12 that starts from 23rd October. It is to be noted that India being the earlier hosts qualified for Super-12 straightaway, and 7 out of 9 other teams in ICC rankings also qualified directly for the second round. Sri Lanka and Bangladesh could not qualify being at the bottom of the ICC rankings, and both teams figure in the two qualifying groups. Other teams are Ireland, Netherlands, Scotland, Namibia, Oman and Papua New Guinea—the last team playing in the World Cup for the first time. Most of the qualifying matches will be played in Oman.

In the Super-12 stage too there will be two groups of six teams each with both of India and Pakistan placed in Group-2. The qualifying teams are being marked as A1, A2 and B1, B2. All group matches will be played on round-robin basis within each group respectively and top two teams from each group will enter the semi-final stage from which point it will be the knockout stage till the Final on 14th November 2021. With the IPL-2021 matches to be played there till the 15th of October 2021 it would be interesting to see if this bonanza tournament played in the same format, would indeed help the cricketers prepare themselves better for the big international competition or fatigue them including some of the over-played Indian players. It would also be curious to know if all international sides would allow their top players to play on in the IPL or take them for special training sessions. Whatever be the scenario, cricket lovers are in for some great cricket with UAE, fortunately, becoming a safe hotspot for cricket.

England Vs India: And India Batting Clicks, Take An Unbeatable 2-1 Lead In The Test Series!

In an innings that mattered most the Indian batting clicked in the second innings of the fourth Test match at the Oval right from the top to the bottom with the sole exception of Rahane who went for a duck. Facing an intimidating deficit of 99 runs India hauled up the highest of the Series total so far of 466 runs with their openers Rohit Sharma and Kl Rahul going about it very methodically—the former notching up his first ever away century (127) and KL Rahul (46) who was the lone centurion for India in the first three matches, unfortunately, fell short of a much-deserved half-century, at least. Pujara joined Rohit and between them they put up a 153-run partnership, and Pujara, going strong at 61, again failed to take it further to a deserved century as he missed one in the third Test too, getting out for 91 runs. Kohli maintained the momentum, but again fell for 44 runs, unable to take the way for a long innings he is mostly used to, and Jadeja (17) coming ahead of Rahane could not make it big this time. There was a bit of concern with India at 312/6.

 

Shardul Thakur

Rishabh Pant, luckily, found his touch and was able to achieve his first fifty of the Series, and pacer Shardul Thakur did it again, picked up his second consecutive fifty (60) of the match, and later in the England reply took up the prized wickets of Burns and captain Joe Root who could not be the cause in this match. After that Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah—the new-found batsman—and Siraj contributed well to ensure a mammoth target of 348 runs for England to win.

 

Joe Root

England started very well with their openers Burns and Hameed remaining not out at stumps on the fourth day, and then on the last day today launched a century partnership with Burns getting out first for 50 at the score exactly 100.  But after that England wickets fell regularly with the tragic run-out of David Malan early on, and Bumrah and Jadeja striking deadly blows later—the former clean bowling Pope for 1 and the dangerous Bairstow for a duck while the latter taking the scalps of Hameed and Ali. If England entertained any idea to challenge the target it was gone now. When Thakur clean bowled Joe Root for 36 with England reduced to 182/7 the match was in India’s pocket. England finally was done for 210 runs. India won the the Fourth Test by 157 runs which happens to be India's second Test win at the Oval after fifty years, the first win being in 1971.  

Virat

 It must be mentioned here that Indian captain Virat Kohli handled his bowlers quite professionally, switching between them strategically—getting a breakthrough almost every time. All the bowlers except Siraj, one of the heroes of the second Test, were among the wickets. This victory gives India an unbeatable 2-1 lead in the Test Series with the fifth and the last Test starting from the 10^th of September 2021. And the victory comes following an innings defeat and India getting all-out for 78 runs; like in Australia when Rahane did wonders of winning the Series after being bowled out for 36 in the previous Test. The fifth match is likely to be fought tooth and nail as the hosts would definitely want to share the honors.

 

A few questions for India remain unanswered though. The precedence of Ravindra Jadeja over Rahane in the batting order for the second time is as inexplicable as keeping India’s best spinner Ravichandran Ashwin who is also a sound batsman with two tons eternally in the dressing room. However, as long as the team keeps winning everything is justified. Only the form of Rahane is becoming a big concern. His decimation in the batting order is also demoralizing for the star batsman. High time he proves to be a match winner again, more aptly in the fifth Test to script another Indian overseas series victory.

England Vs India: Into The Fourth Test Indian Batting Yet To Click!

The incredible Lord’s victory in the second Test that gave India 1-0 lead in the five-match Test Series against England notwithstanding, the much talked-about Indian batting depth has not delivered till the second day of the Fourth Test. It’s essentially the absolute failure of the middle order batsmen that let the great Indian fast bowling performances down, again and again. The non-performing and inconsistent batsmen are easily identified as the captain Virat Kohli himself who has managed to register just two fifties so far which were in the second innings of the third Test and on the first day of the fourth test, and giving him company in this discomfiture are Cheteshwar Pujara, Ajinkya Rahane and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant. Ironically, the Indian bowlers are forced to bat well too to give India some kind of respectability, again and again.

 

In the first Test India lost a huge opportunity of winning after Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami devastated England for a mere 183 in the first innings as despite the good start provided by the Indian openers Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul the middle order failed to maintain the momentum depriving the team of taking a lead of at least 150 runs, and it was the spinner Ravindra Jadeja who hit a half-century and 28 by never-known-to-be-a-batsman Bumrah to ensure a lead of just 95 runs with the team all-out for 278. Ollie Robinson and veteran James Anderson uprooted the Indian batting. Thanks to the ever-consistent England skipper Joe Root (109 runs) his team made 303 runs in the second innings setting India a target of 209 runs which could still have been overhauled had the rains not washed away the fifth day’s play. But the point is if the Indian middle order delivered the visitors could have sealed the match before the rains came down. India were sitting pretty at 51/1 at the end of the fourth day with the match heading for an exciting finish, and in the England second innings Bumrah and Shami again captured most of the wickets.

 

In the second Test the hosts were with a big chance of win after they overhauled India’s highest total of the Series 364 (126 by KL Rahul, 83 by Rohit, 42 by Kohli, 40 by spinner Jadeja and 37 by Pant, his highest so far), making 391 thanks to a magnificent 180 by Joe Root (57 by Bairstow and 49 by Rory Burns) and having India reeling at 175/6 in the second innings. But then came the rollicking partnership between Shami (56) and Bumrah (34) after a useful 16 by Ishant Sharma, and India declaring at 298/8 set a stiff target of 272 runs to win for England on the last day. And that incredible win by 151 runs came in the dying moments of the match with Mohammed Siraj taking 4 scalps, Bumrah 3 and Shami 1 and England getting all-out for 120 runs. The heroes of the match clearly are Shami and Bumrah both in batting and bowling and Siraj, except for a good partnership between Pujara (45) and Rahane (61, his solitary half-century) in the Indian second innings.

 

After that incredible win Team India got all out for one of their lowest first innings totals of 78 after being put into bat by an aggressive England in the third Test at Headingley. It was all over for India in the very first day of the match and had to face the humiliation of an innings defeat. England took full advantage of India’s 78 by hauling up a huge total of 432 thanks to the third century by Joe Root (121), 70 by David Malan and the new opening pair Burns-Hameed giving an opening partnership of 135 runs. In India’s second innings Rohit made 59, Pujara 91 and Kohli making his first half-century at 55, but nobody could stick on to avoid an innings defeat. England levelled the Series at 1-1 now.

 

In the fourth Test at the Oval India, being put into bat, displayed another dismal batting failure folding up for 191 with Kohli’s second half-century and 57 by fast bowler Shardul Thakur who replaced an unfit Shami, and only the latter performance could only lend some respectability to the Indian total. England started badly losing early wickets and Root not performing well for the first time, but Ollie Pope making 81, Bairshow 37 and Moeen Ali making 35 stabilized the innings somewhat managing to ensure a lead, and the hosts were finally all out for 290 building up a significant lead of 99 runs till the last reports came in. This match too is more or less evenly poised at the moment, slightly favoring England. But everything depends how India bat in the second innings, first to clear the deficit of 99 without losing wickets. Unfortunately, class opener KL Rahul who managed to make it only after team management ran out of options nearly gave up his class after the second Test.

 

England has been making smart moves all the time with new replacements both in batting and bowling, and every time a new fast bowler was introduced the Indian batting faltered invariably. India must get its middle order in action immediately if they still entertain any hope of winning the Series, being the Australia-beaters in Australia just a little time before. However, that time Rahane led the team wonderfully well as Kohli went home for the birth of his first child. in this fourth Test India is sorely missing the services of Mohammed Shami, although his replacement Umesh Yadav got into the wickets. Kohli’s tactic of keeping Ravichandran Ashwin, India’s best spinner at the moment, consistently out of all the matches, particularly at the somewhat spinning track at Headingley, Leeds.