The Ajit Agarkar-led committee has adopted a pragmatic and conservative approach while selecting the 15-member World Cup squad. Naturally, this has dampened some of the excitement and anticipation for the young players who performed brilliantly in this season’s IPL.
See also: T20 World Cup schedule
Where is Abhishek Sharma? Where is Harshit Rana? Why was Axar Patel picked over Varun Chakravarthy? Why were no Indian players from either of the IPL finalists selected in the World Cup squads? And why was Rinku Singh, a proven finisher, only included in the reserve players?
It will be interesting to see if this safety-first selection approach works for Rohit Sharma’s team. It is relatively easy to highlight the weaknesses of any IPL team, but the T20 World Cup has been a volatile and unpredictable game.
Even the best teams have not seen a period of dominance in the World Cup unlike the 50-over format. In the T20 World Cup format, it is also easier for teams like India to reach the knockouts, so anything less than a title win will not be considered satisfactory.
When fortunes depend on a hit or a no-ball, it is human nature to bet on experience and pedigree. One can say that the selectors have paid heed to their intuition along with the data. In fact, this T20 World Cup is a farewell ceremony on an elusive ICC trophy for some senior cricketers who were so close to achieving that goal last year.
In the 50 over format.
It is important to remember that India have not won a T20 World Cup since the inception of the IPL. Hopefully, that trend can be broken this time around, even if it is the same crop of top-order players – barring Yashasvi Jaiswal – who faltered in the semifinal against England in Adelaide in 2022.
The feeling remains that in the shorter format, which allows for experimentation, shouldn’t this season’s IPL performances have been given more importance? Should India have relied on in-form youngsters, as they did in the first edition in 2007, when they won the tournament for the only time?
It is worth noting that T20 was in its infancy in 2007. Senior players had voluntarily opted out of it. Analysts were yet to provide forensic details on every potential match-up. The key to T20 now is the ability to re-invent itself with the ability to consolidate experience, as Virat Kohli showed in this IPL.
Winning captain MS Dhoni was the first to red-flagged the temptation of picking cricketers based on IPL form in 2007. During the 2009 Champions Trophy in South Africa, Dhoni said such form should be put in the “right perspective”.
Though Dhoni was talking about format-changing selections at that time, there has been no change in his philosophy even after 15 years.
Captain Rohit Sharma said this time, “We had decided on the main players of the team much before the IPL.” “In IPL, performances change every day. Anyone can come and score a century or take five wickets. We knew 70%-80% of the players in our team (before IPL).”
So even though Kohli has adapted his T20 batting, tackled spinners and shown no signs of losing his incredible consistency, averaging 154.69 in this IPL, Agarkar says his name was included in this list long ago.
“We are not even discussing Kohli’s strike rate. You take the positives from what is happening in the IPL (but) the pressure of the World Cup is different. You need experience,” Agarkar said.
The pitches in the West Indies are different, slower. Unlike the IPL, this World Cup won’t be all about range-hitting. That’s not to say IPL performances don’t matter – just look at the impact of Shivam Dube, who has impressed with his ability to outwit spinners in the middle overs, which fits a similar need for India.
Of course, high quality is no guarantee of success. India have a number of experienced players in their squad, but these same players have faltered at the doorstep of ICC trophies in the past.
Moreover, India’s selection in the 28 T20 matches played since the last T20 World Cup has been a bit haphazard. That tournament was expected to draw a line and signal the veterans to step up. However, after trying out everyone – none of whom performed well – that change process has now been abruptly halted.
Having ruled out any kind of bias in selection, Rohit and coach Dravid will now have to consider a few key issues: should Kohli open like he did in the IPL? Should a dual leg-spin attack be considered normal on Caribbean pitches? Can Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja find form? Will Dube’s strategy work? Will Jasprit Bumrah miss the pace bowling support? And how will they compensate for Rinku’s absence?
India’s performance in this tournament will not only tell whether this conservative approach was justified or not, but will also shape future selection policies. Finally, we will get to know whether recent form – especially like in the IPL – matters more in the T20 World Cup.
