India’s IPL 15: Superstars miss the cut

KOLKATA: Between the Indian Premier League (IPL) and T20 World Cup in October-November, India are scheduled to play five T20Is against South Africa in June, three T20Is in England in July, three T20Is in the West Indies in August, and the Asia Cup in Sri Lanka in September followed by three T20Is against Australia at home if BCCI splits the tour. That will allow the team management to give game time to every World Cup probable and try all possible combinations keeping in mind the conditions in Australia. We are talking about a huge pool of players, chopping and changing, and a long, sometimes confusing, buildup.

What if IPL numbers was the only ground for selection?

The biggest franchise T20 league in the world, IPL is so exacting that any player who has done well here is almost bound to prosper in international cricket. This IPL too has thrown up a clutch of performers, some known, others relatively new. But only 15 are selected for the T20 World Cup, and none is an automatic pick. That means Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah—they are almost India’s all-format core—don’t make the cut on the basis of current IPL numbers. How would that squad look?

Let’s start from the top. KL Rahul, with 451 runs, two hundreds, averaging 56.37 with a strike rate of 150.76, retains his spot as opener. Pairing with him would be Shikhar Dhawan, who has been the next best Indian opener. The third opener? Last year, it was Ishan Kishan but he has struggled this season. Shubman Gill scored 96 against Punjab Kings last month, but has blown hot and cold. Among other openers, Abhishek Sharma has been more consistent, providing Sunrisers Hyderabad stability at a better average (36) than Gill (26.9).

At No 3, Shreyas Iyer fits the bill the best. Given the wretched form of his openers, the KKR captain almost always does the heavy lifting in powerplay, making him a perfect fit at one-drop. Suryakumar Yadav too is a no-brainer at No 4. With almost 1,100 runs at a strike rate of around 145 since IPL 2020, he is calm or busy depending on the situation. He is the one bright spot for Mumbai Indians in a disappointing season.

With 234 runs at a strike rate of 149, Rishabh Pant hasn’t done badly as keeper- batter but Rajasthan Royals captain Sanju Samson has scored 298 at 153.6. Besides keeping, Samson has also done well as opener too in the past, giving India flexibility as a wicketkeeper-batter.

For the T20 World Cup last year, India picked six batters, three spinners, three pacers and three all-rounders—Jadeja, Axar Patel and Hardik Pandya. On relatively quicker and bouncier pitches in Australia, there will be temptation to pick mediumpacer all-rounders. This is an area where IPL has failed to produce options, apart from Hardik who has again stopped bowling due to injury. Deepak Chahar is injured. The next best bet is Shivam Dube. He has a top score of 95* and a phenomenal strike rate (almost 160), but dropped by CSK. Shardul Thakur (Delhi Capitals) hasn’t got enough time in the middle and Venkatesh Iyer— he was seen as a batting allrounder—has been benched by KKR. There is hardly any Indian who has thus enjoyed a long, uninterrupted spell at No 7 who can be slotted in as the sixth bowler. Apart from Hardik, India need another finisher at No 6, and probably none deserves that slot more than Dinesh Karthik, who has a strike rate of 194.64 for RCB at the No 6-7 slots. He will turn 37 soon, but the bulk of RCB’s wins were fashioned by him. That means keeping the likes of Rahul Tewatia and Ayush Badoni waiting.

With comparable economies, T Natarajan, Umesh Yadav, Umran Malik and Mohammed Shami are the most successful Indian fast bowlers in the wicket-taker’s list. They make for a useful mix too. Malik as a tearaway has the X factor needed in Australia, Umesh has found second wind in his IPL career as KKR’s opening bowler with a fantastic economy (7.15), Shami is a blend of experience and variety in the slog overs while leftarm Natarajan has been incisive in the middle overs with his seam and yorkers. Natarajan’s economy (8.65) is higher than Bhuvneshwar Kumar (7.28), but he has 17 wickets compared to Kumar’s nine.

Leading wicket-taker this IPL, Yuzvendra Chahal should be the lead spinner in an India XI. Benefiting from the backing at DC, Kuldeep Yadav—No 2 on the wicket-takers’ list—has also built a rapport with Pant that should help India when they plot dismissals at the World Cup. Rounding off this category should be an off-spinner or a slow left-arm bowler, but the former gets the nod for two reasons—he imparts more spin, has more variations and can extract more bounce on Australian pitches and chief selector Chetan Sharma had stressed the need for an off-spinner in a World Cup.

And you can’t look beyond Ravichandran Ashwin. He has been all guile and skill combining with Chahal for RR while his batting cameos too have been fun. But it’s his mean economy of 7.10 that makes it an open-and-shut case. An off-spinner, legspinner and left-arm wrist spinner thus round off an excellent spin attack.