The future of Indian Cricket.

The last 18 months have been turbulent for the Indian Cricket Team. The incredible series in England, World Test Championship final loss, failing to qualify for the knockouts of the 2021 T20I World Cup and losing their first World Cup game to Pakistan in the process, winning a Test in South Africa, winning both white ball series in England, Surya’s rise to the top, losing in the Semi-Finals to England in the 2022 T20I World Cup, missing the Asia Cup final for the first time in 8 years, Kohli relinquishing captaincy and returning to form, and finally Rishabh Pant’s freak car accident putting him out for 18 months. It is fair to say the last year and a half has been full of ups and downs. However, the one thing that stands out is their lack of success in tournaments. 5 tournaments, 1 final, and 0 trophies.

Why is the Indian Cricket Team struggling to win trophies?

India once again fell short in an ICC tournament, as their drought continues, but why are they struggling whilst New Zealand, Australia, England, and Pakistan seem to consistently have deep tournament runs? The problem lies within the selection and the range of players used.

For example, let’s take double world champions, England. In their red ball and white ball sides, the only names that consistently appear in both are Ben Stokes, Jonny Bairstow, and occasionally Joe Root. Even then, Stokes has retired from ODI cricket and Root hasn't played a T20I in 3 years.

Now let’s compare this to India. Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Ravi Jadeja/Axar Patel, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and recently Ravi Ashwin. If it weren’t for injury, Hardik Pandya would be on that list and it looks as if Suryakumar Yadav, Shubman Gill, and Shreyas Iyer may be joining it soon. With such a packed schedule for India, plus the IPL, having around 10 players playing almost every game all year round is simply impossible, especially if you are looking to challenge for titles. No wonder Rohit, Rahul, Jadeja, and Bumrah are always injured.

In 2022, the ECB turned over around £300 million from international games, sponsorships, domestic tournaments, etc… In the same year, the BCCI made over £100 million from the IPL alone. So why is there such a huge gap in tournament success between the 2 sides despite India’s much larger budget to spend on improvement? As seen above, the ECB has a vast player pool for each format. This way, players can focus solely on their job and format instead of constantly switching between training styles. For example, Buttler was dropped from the test squad in early 2022, but he went on to score 865 runs in white ball cricket, including a career-high ODI score of 162*. This shows that by reducing the load on Buttler’s shoulders, he was able to solely focus on white-ball cricket and took England to T20I glory in Australia. More importantly, England was able to replace Buttler in the red ball side with Ben Foakes, a red ball specialist and arguably the best wicket-keeper in the country. On the other hand, India dropped Ajinkya Rahane but replaced him with Shreyas Iyer who has an incredible start to his test career but he is already a recurring player in both white ball squads.

India was put in a similar position to England but they were forced to replace Pant as the wicketkeeper of the test squad (even though it was due to extremely different circumstances). Instead of bringing up Sarfaraz Khan who has the second-best first-class average ever only behind the great Sir Don Bradman, they brought up Kishan and Surya. Sarfaraz is not the best wicket-keeper but the fact that Suryakumar Yadav was called up over Sarfaraz is quite ironic. Surya is at the top of his game right now and is arguably the best white ball batter in the world but if there is one thing India will regret is debuting him when he was already 30. India does not want to make the same mistake with Sarfaraz. Hanuma Vihari is another player who has been mistreated by India in recent years. He is averaging 33.56 in his 28 innings for India. The man who has been keeping Vihari out of the squad, Cheteshwar Pujara, averaged 28.08 across his 26 innings in 2021. India has played favorites for far too long and it has limited the growth and potential unearthing of future stars. The selection board, headed by Chetan Sharma, lacks the ruthlessness and do-or-die mindset that the English selectors have had in recent years leading to their success.

Talking of Chetan Sharma, when he was fired as the chairman of selectors, many fans believed change was around the corner for India, but only a few months later he was back in the same job. I think there is no better way to sum up India’s ignorance of the obvious problems in its selection system.

My final reason that England has had more recent success compared to India is due to their domestic setups. The ECB has created a domestic system that is a breeding ground for specialists in all 3 formats, which gives opportunities to younger players to make a name for themselves. Even though India also has a 3 format system, it is not prioritized as much as it is in England. For example, in the county championship, international players are allowed to come and play which allows younger, English players to gain experience against the likes of Mohammed Rizwan, Kemar Roach, and Simon Harmer. England players like Joe Root, Ben Stokes, and Jimmy Anderson also appear for their county if they are no playing for England, something that is rarely seen in the Ranji Trophy. This very setup has introduced players like Haseeb Hameed, Rehan Ahmed, Matthew Potts, and many more. It has allowed them to have a seamless transition into the international stage. The fact that India rarely picks straight from the Ranji Trophy shows they lack faith in the quality of it.

If I was Chetan Sharma, these are the 2 XIs I would pick in red-ball cricket and white-ball cricket moving forward (No Rishabh Pant).

Red-Ball XI:

1. Rohit Sharma ( C )
2. KL Rahul ( WK )
3. Cheteshwar Pujara/Hanuma Vihari
4. Virat Kohli
5. Shubman Gill
6. Sarfaraz Khan
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Mohammed Shami
10. Jasprit Bumrah
11. Mohammed Siraj

White-Ball XI

1. Ishan Kishan (WK)
2. Prithvi Shaw/Shubman Gill
3. Virat Kohli
4. Suryakumar Yadav
5. Shreyas Iyer
6. Hardik Pandya ( C )
7. Axar Patel
8. Kuldeep Yadav
9. Jasprit Bumrah
10. Mohammed Siraj/Arshdeep Singh
11. Umran Malik

With the World Cup in India around the corner, it is arguably the best time for India to end their poor form in competitions. So who should India pick in their 15-man squad?

1. Rohit Sharma ( C )
2. Shubman Gill
3. KL Rahul (WK)
4. Ishan Kishan (WK)
5. Virat Kohli
6. Suryakumar Yadav
7. Shreyas Iyer
8. Hardik Pandya
9. Ravindra Jadeja
10. Jasprit Bumrah
11. Umran Malik
12. Mohammed Siraj
13. Arshdeep Singh
14. Kuldeep Yadav
15. Yuzvendra Chahal

For me, Rohit and Jadeja should follow in Ben Stokes’ footprints and retire from ODI cricket after the World Cup. This is not because they are not good enough, but this will both be their last World Cups, they are constantly injured and carry a huge load already in all 3 formats. It is only fair they retire from ODI’s to allow the next generation to come through. I did not want to pick Rahul but without Pant, the only other options are Samson, who is yet to prove himself for India, and KS Bharat who is too inexperienced to play in a World Cup. Unless Bharat/Samson gets into form before the World Cup, Rahul is the best option. Axar narrowly misses out but may get a look in if Jadeja is injured or doesn't return to form. ODI’s have always been Jadeja’s weakest format, but before his injury, he played 9 ODI’s in 2022, averaging 50.25 with the bat. Even though Bhuvi had an excellent 2022 in T20 cricket, his recent ODI form has been poor as he failed to pick up a wicket in the format all year. Gill is definitely India’s best talent with the bat and should be one of the few players that play in all 3 formats going forward.

2023 is going to be a huge year for India. The Border Gavaskar Trophy, a possible return to the World Test Championship Final, and a home World Cup. Here are my 5 pieces of advice for them:

1. Be stricter with selection.
2. Invest in a better domestic setup.
3. Focus solely on the World Cup.
4. Move on from older players.
5. Increase the player pool.