India's decisions on Rohit, Kohli will reveal how much team has learned from defeat
ft. Shami ruled out of Tests vs. South Africa, Australia in control against Pakistan
India and South Africa finished a three-match T20I series on Friday with a share of the spoils, 1-1 after the first match was washed out. Rinku Singh was the standout youngster once again while Yashasvi Jaiswal impressed with 60 off 41 in the final match. Captain Suryakumar Yadav further stamped his claims as the best in this format with a cumulative tally of 156 runs off 92 balls (T20 strike rate [per 120 balls] of 203.48) while stalwarts like Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav were among the better performers as well.
The T20 World Cup is six months away and India have three T20I matches remaining at home against Afghanistan before the IPL leads straight into the World Cup.
Who is likely to figure in that squad? For starters, here are all 24 players who have featured in the last three T20I squads India has selected (I’ve skipped the Ireland series so it’s from India vs. West Indies in West Indies/USA, India vs. Australia in India, India vs. South Africa in South Africa):
Top order: Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shubman Gill, Tilak Varma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Ishan Kishan (wk)
Middle order: Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer, Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube
Lower middle: Jitesh Sharma (wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar
Spinners: Kuldeep Yadav, Ravi Bishnoi, Prasidh Krishna, Yuzvendra Chahal
Pacers: Arshdeep Singh, Mohammed Siraj, Mukesh Kumar, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan, Deepak Chahar, Umran Malik
That’s 26 names that don’t include Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, or Ravichandran Ashwin. When you look at the pace options in this format, it’s a no-brainer that Bumrah and Shami are locks for the squad if fit and they presumably were excluded from the two series post the ODI World Cup to get a well deserved rest. Bumrah is 30-years-old while Shami is 33, so both should still be in the running for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India/Sri Lanka health permitting. There is a level of continuity that can be maintained.
I think Rahul will need to play the entire 2024 IPL with absolute reckless abandon to stand a chance of making the squad. While he’s only 31, we have seen time and time again now — and especially in his painstaking World Cup final knock that was the slowest half-century of the tournament — that he was a turtle in his former life and goes into a shell whenever the going gets tough.
Which brings us to the two biggest names, Rohit and Virat. It’s hard to envision either player featuring in 2026 as Kohli will be 38 and fit but likely focusing on ODIs and Tests while Sharma will be 39 and unfit. It then becomes a question of weighing the emotion of giving Sharma and Kohli a final T20 World Cup against whether it is still in the best interests of the team to do so.
Kohli has played five T20 World Cups beginning in 2012, losing in the final once and the semis twice. Sharma was a member of the 2007 T20 World Cup winning team and has featured in every squad since (2009, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2021, 2022). Kohli is the all-time leading run scorer in T20 World Cups with 1,141 runs in 25 innings with 14 fifties and a T20 strike rate of 157.56. Sharma is fourth on the all-time leaderboard with 963 runs in 36 innings and a T20 strike rate of 153.47. Scoring 54 more runs would take him to second on the all-time list.
How important are those numbers to you? Is it more important for you to see India lift the T20 World Cup or Sharma and Kohli to lift the T20 World Cup?
Let’s look at the merit-based argument of recent form. For Sharma, his main competition for the opening slots are Shubman Gill and Yashasvi Jaiswal.
Jaiswal was the fifth-leading run scorer (625) in the 2023 IPL while doing so at the second highest strike rate of anyone in the Top 10. In 15 T20Is, he has a century and three fifties to his name at a T20 strike rate of 191.11. Gill was the highest run scorer in the 2023 IPL and his final tally of 890 runs is the second-highest tally ever, behind Kohli’s mind boggling 973 runs in 2016. He had the third-highest strike rate of anyone in the Top 10.
Sharma scored just 332 runs in the 2023 IPL at a T20 strike rate of 159.36. The average run rate for the entire tournament was 9-an-over. He hasn’t played an international T20 match since Nov. 10, 2022. Jaiswal and Gill are also both better fielders than Sharma at this stage of their respective careers. Now, we know that Sharma transformed himself at the ODI World Cup with tremendous intent up top and that aggression should carry over, but what’s the message being sent to the youngsters if Sharma can sit out T20Is for over a year and then walk into the World Cup squad?
When I see the Mumbai Indians’ decision to trade for Hardik Pandya and make him captain, I see a side that knows how to put emotion aside and strike while the iron is hot. The easy and very Indian thing to do would be to try and cheer Sharma up by saying you’re our captain and we want you to lead us to another IPL title. Instead, Mumbai sees which way the wind is blowing. Pandya has just led the Gujarat Titans to back-to-back IPL finals, winning one and losing one by the barest of margins. Mumbai, on the other hand, have gone three seasons without a title, with finishes of 5th, 10th, and 3rd and a cumulative win-loss tally of 20-24. Add the potential scarring that Sharma may have from having lost the World Cup final as captain and this is both a great short and long-term decision.
I see Mumbai’s decision to transition from Sharma to Pandya in this moment as a similar type of one India should have made back in 2017 when MS Dhoni stepped down from white-ball captaincy. There was the option to make Sharma the white-ball captain on the back of leading Mumbai to two titles (a third followed later in 2017) but instead they opted for Kohli who was piling on the runs like no one else on the planet but RCB’s team results left quite a bit to be desired. Kohli was already the Test captain and was MS Dhoni’s recommended choice, but the unemotional and logical choice was Sharma.
Picking Sharma now could certainly work out. His explosive starts and mostly brilliant captaincy at the ODI World Cup were major reasons India fared so well, but just as Dr. Ian Malcolm in Jurassic Park explained that just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should, I don’t think this is the choice India should be making. When India were bowling in the ODI World Cup final, I thought Sharma made decisions out of desperation and it screamed of someone who wanted something too badly. The tighter you try to hold onto something, the more easily it slips away.
This is by no means an easy decision, but I feel India has a big opportunity to refresh the side much like 2007 and if India are to play with freedom in the biggest of matches, it seems best to go with players who have minimal scarring.
Looking at Kohli, there’s no debate that the rediscovery of his form post-pandemic has been one of the best stories of the last year-plus. He is now the all-time leading century maker in ODIs and has Sachin Tendulkar’s hundred international centuries back in his sights. His unbeaten 82 off 53 against Pakistan in the 2022 T20 World Cup group stage is the stuff of legends and an all-time great knock. He finished as the tournament’s top scorer with 296 runs in six innings at an average of 98.66.
When he was at his worst, some of you know I still backed Kohli to be in that squad because the World Cup was being played in Australia where he has great numbers but also because there were no adequate replacements. Deepak Hooda wasn’t ready, Shreyas Iyer’s numbers outside India flattered to deceive, Ishan Kishan seemed a bad fit for Australia’s bounce, and Sanju Samson wasn’t considered.
Now, there is Tilak Varma, both Iyer and Kishan would prefer West Indian and American conditions to Australia, though Sanju Samson is still strangely out of the mix even as he figures in India’s ODI squad to face South Africa.
Kohli finished the 2023 IPL as the fourth-leading run getter but only one batter in the Top 20 finished with a definitively worse T20 strike rate. Devon Conway (167.65) and Jos Buttler (166.81) both finished with a virtually identical strike rate as Kohli (167.79) while David Warner was the worst (157.96). I think there is room for Kohli to be more adventurous, especially at this stage of his career.
There can be a case made that Varma isn’t quite ready for a World Cup stage and that Kishan is still a level below Kohli, but I think there is once again a bigger case to be made that there is no better opportunity for a squad reset and that if India fails, let’s at least see them fail in a different way. Varma has proven he has the talent with tremendous performances in the 2023 IPL and has been getting groomed for the international stage with matches against the West Indies, Australia, and South Africa. Shreyas Iyer had a very good ODI World Cup and showed that he has the mindset to attack from the word go.
Why have I included these images of Kohli and Sharma? Because, for me, even with being reminded of this pain, this 2024 T20 World Cup is about moving on.
A T20 World Cup in the USA/West Indies on the back of the most recent ICC failures will have little expectation. If India fail playing the likes of Jaiswal and Varma and Bishnoi, so what? Expectations will once again elevate in the 2026 T20 World Cup because it will be played in India/Sri Lanka so why make that the first World Cup experience for the likes of Jaiswal and Varma? It also shows the bias towards batters that there is no semblance of conversation of whether India should be giving a last chance to Ravichandran Ashwin as Bishnoi thrives but it is the complete opposite perspective with Kohli and Sharma.
This 2024 World Cup is a great grooming option while also having players who could do something special in the present. Back them. In the words of Rohit Sharma, India have “tried to do something different” the last couple years after so many ICC failures. With those failures now spanning a decade, it is time to play someone different.
If India can’t move on now, it will be a reflection of how little they’ve learned about separating emotion from logic in decision-making.
SLIP CATCHING
India’s women crushed England by 347 runs in a home Test match. Deepti Sharma was Player of the Match for scoring 67 and taking 5-for-7 in the first innings, as well as 4-for-32 in the second innings.
Australia are in cruise control against Pakistan in the first Test at Perth, leading by 300 runs after Day 3. Playing his final test amidst some controversy whether its deserved, David Warner smashed 164 off 211 in the first innings. Aamer Jamal took six wickets but had little support. Pakistan were bundled out for 271 in response to Australia’s 487 and Nathan Lyon now sits at 499 Test wickets.
After winning the ODI series against England, West Indies are in control of the T20I series as well after winning the first two matches. With Andre Russell back in the fold, watch out for them at the T20 World Cup.
Mohammed Shami has been ruled out of India’s Test matches against South Africa due to an ankle injury, a massive blow to India’s chances.
Cricinfo has made a list of five uncapped players to look out for in the upcoming IPL auction on Dec. 19, and it includes a big hitting wicket-keeper from Jharkand.