Thirteenth Edition of Men’s ODI World cup (2023) has already started with the inaugural match between current champion England & runners up New Zealand with effect from 5th October 2023 at Narendra Modi stadium, Ahmedabad. As the cricket fever rises among a billion Indians, it’s time to critically scrutiny whether India can win this World Cup by getting the home advantage.
In 2011, India was champion being the host team. This history isn’t sufficient to claim that India will win the World Cup because India despite being favorite couldn’t cross Semi-finals in 1987 & 1996 with home advantage. So, let’s keep the history aside.
If we investigate form factor, it’s a fact that Indian team is going through best of times as all batsmen & bowlers displayed superb form recently. In any case India has displayed super strength since 2011 especially in bilateral contests. But whenever it contests in knockouts, it usually falters.
In the World Cups of 2015, 2019 India ended the group stage as the number one team yet exited from Semi-final knockout. Similarly in Champion trophy 2017 & ICC T20, 2022, India finished as group leader yet exited from semi-final knockout. In last two World Test championships (2021 & 2023), India entered the final as number one ranked team but failed to win the final match. That means despite excellent display in league level, India fails to clear the knockouts.
Is it a jinx or some kind of nervousness or pressure on Indian team in the knockouts? I don’t know what exactly that is, but this is also a factor that would be one of the concerns for Indian campaign. Well, the just concluded, Asia Cup 2023 gave good result and India became champion wining the knock-out. But then we must realize regarding the quality of teams in the Asia Cup. Only Pakistan was available as a quality team to match India, which was practically eliminated by Sri-Lanka in Super-4.
Let’s do a critical analysis of Indian team. Although all batsmen are in an excellent form but sometimes, the famed batting line used to collapse suddenly. That’s why perhaps Indian team management is stressing for a batsman at number-8 sacrificing quality of the bowling attack. At the moment, India’s pace battery is number one yet for that number-8 position one of the quality bowlers like Mohammad Shami or Siraj had be kept out of the final eleven. Some believe that bowling attack shouldn’t be compromised but I think Indian team management understand it better as a strategy.
One more matter is of concern that Indian top batsmen like Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma have displayed a lot of vulnerability against spin bowlers, especially leg spinner or left-hand spinners. Indian pitches help spinners and most international spinners play IPL in India. Thus, for them, Indian conditions & pitches won’t be alien.
India’s World Cup Win in 1983 & 2011 was possible because of quality allrounders & finishers. Kapil Dev was a legendary all-rounder & finisher during 1983. In 2011 India had quality all-rounder & finisher in Yuvraj Singh & M.S.Dhoni. Apart from them there were all-rounders like Mohinder Amarnath, Madan Lal during 1983 & Virendra Sehwag, Suresh Raina in 2011.
The present Indian team lacks with quality all-rounders. Hardik Pandya is the only true all-rounder whose bowling has been improved a lot, but batting is inconsistent. Ravindra Jadeja’s batting average and strike rate are very low in last couple of years. Neither Hardik nor Jadeja have been proved as credible finisher till now.
It’s no secret that India will reach semi-final of this World-Cup without fail. Question is whether it can become champion? If I go through my analysis above, it doesn’t give much confidence. However, when I see new bloods like Subhuman Gill, Kuldeep Yadav and Mohmmad Siraj, I think they will be able to break the jinx. So, it gives some confidence.
What’s your opinion?