India: The best team in the Asian Block?
The Asia Cup victory at Dubai is sure to give way to talks of the current Indian team being the best outfit in Asia. Players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Jasprit Bumrah surely lend credibility to this claim. Three of India’s batsmen, Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Shikhar Dhawan, feature in the list of top ten batsmen in ICC ODI rankings. Jasprit Bumrah tops the list of best bowlers, while Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, too find themselves in the list of top ten bowlers. It is quite visible that this side is currently the best in business, taking good care of its sports stuff, and possibly the biggest contenders for the 2019 world cup that is to be held in England. However, there is more to what meets the eye.
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The 2019 world cup will be held in England, where the Indian side took a beating in both the one-dayers, as well as the test series. Although they managed to win the T20 series, the seaming conditions troubled the Indian batsmen. In the test series too the side was far from their best, and had the only positive that came out of that series was Kohli’s superb run in the dual. But how long can the team depend upon the heroics of the top order? The Asia Cup final and the game against Afghanistan were the two occasions when the middle order got the opportunity to prove their worth. But on both the occasions the middle order batsmen failed to deliver.
One can argue that poor umpiring marred the game against Afghanistan, and the Indian batsmen fell prey to some bad umpiring decisions. But the final was a clear display of the inadequacies of the Indian middle order. Dinesh Kartik and Dhoni both got off to a start and threw away their wickets. Had it not been for the excellent sixth wicket partnership between Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the result might have been different. The lack of exposure is taking its toll on the Indian middle order. The possibility of a 2017 Champions Trophy Final like debacle happening again on another big stage cannot be negated.
Indians have always been poor travelers. And the team must fix its middle order woes if it intends to make a mark on the world stage. The over-dependence on Bumrah to fetch wickets in the initial overs, and stopping runs in the slog overs can backfire too. With just a few months to go by for the World Cup, India must find the answers to its batting woes, which can be magnified in the absence of quality bowling.
