India should shun conventional wisdom in T20s to create their own dynasty
“Someone comes and says, I am in the team, I am not in the team, kuch farak nahi padhta (It doesn’t matter much).” These were Shreyas Iyer's exact words when he was asked about his India selection despite piling on the numbers that are rare in Indian domestic cricket and hence hard to be ignored.
A cricketer of impregnable mental belief, Shreyas Iyer burst onto the scene with 1321 runs at an average of 73.38, including a century in the Ranji Trophy final, to help Mumbai storm to their 41st title in the 2015-16 Ranji Trophy. It was quite a feat that a youngster was oozing a level of confidence that was not only rare in Indian cricket but also a revealing transformation for New India, post IPL, that doesn’t mind stepping into unchartered territory.
Priyank Panchal had 12 double centuries to his name in first-class cricket. He has already helped Gujarat to their maiden title with a mammoth 1310 runs from 10 matches, falling just 105 runs shy of VVS Laxman’s record of most runs in a season. Among others, Prithvi Shaw, Shubman Gill, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Ankit Bawne, and Manish Pandey made batting look ridiculously easy, and yet most of them had to wait for their opportunities longer than they would have done say six years ago in Indian cricket.
Saying this a problem might sound ridiculous from outside but this is one. This is perhaps the greatest Indian cricket team ever - you can stand against argument until the cows come home but it would certainly take some blind belief system in place to disagree with it - and this has become possible, not only because of the team’s regular top performance but also because of the bench strength the team possesses. When Australia brought in an A-team of their own to India last year for a Quadrangular series, apart from Mitchell Swepson, everyone had international caps. Yet an Indian team took the honours. It attests to my observation.
People might have contrasting views about Indian Premier League, with the two-month league bringing fatigue factors ahead of major World events but the importance of it can never be ignored. IPL provided a solid launchpad to many careers, and the likes of Hardik Pandya or Jasprit Bumrah might not have been that successful, if not for the IPL. In lieu, India have enjoyed an influx of talent that no one in the history of the sport had even imagined.
This leads to the question, do the A-tour chances suffice, or is it a case of having a marginalised understanding process, where everyone is happy having “India” written on their jersey? Of course, for Shreyas Iyer playing England Lions is a better proposition than wasting his time playing his teammates in his local club, but how much of it can be equalled to the experience of representing an actual national side? To preserve cricketers, standing on the fence wouldn't help, rather it would take a solid system to award the talents without delaying their arrival.
For a fact, the likes of Shikhar Dhawan is not as good in the shortest format as he is in the ODI squad, where he is unquestionably a great batsman, and perhaps one of the world’s best. However, he has failed to have the same impact in the 20-over format. While Rohit Sharma has done great things in T20Is with Virat Kohli putting in an exhibition of orthodox batting in the day and age of slam-bang cricket, has it helped that they keep on playing all three formats of the game.
Post the World Cup, the paradigm has been shifted quite a bit, with India straight away drafting in the likes of Deepak Chahar, Washington Sundar, Navdeep Saini, Shreyas Iyer and ensured that the young guns would be prioritised. But the truth is India is just two years late to the party. By keeping MS Dhoni for the longest time, they ended up being confused about what Rishabh Pant brings to the table. And now by losing sight, they brought in Sanju Samson to the T20I side for the upcoming Bangladesh series, blinded by the first century in List-A cricket. The wisdom behind the decision can be viewed in the hindsight post the Bangladesh series, but why such a situation arose in the first place? Who was the culprit of it all? Why Samson was drafted despite having done nothing worthwhile?
Conversely, the Rohits, the Dhawans, the Kohlis, and the Jadejas bring in a lot of positives to the T20 side, which might - and that is a huge might - or might not be fulfilled by the likes of Iyer, Gill, or Sundar for that matter, but as we have seen from the exploits of Shreyas Iyer in the Windies series, it is a punt worth taking. Over the years of his evolution, the Indian skipper has proved that he can bat in the same way across all three formats of the game and can still manage to come out on top of all the bowling units. And knowing that there is a lack of firepower during the middle-overs, especially from the over No. 8 to 16, Kohli, despite being a serial aggregator, has been forced to take risks which have resulted in a cascading effect in the team's fortune.
In the process though, he runs and runs and runs, and that extra bit of push might come back to haunt him in the future. The very same tendency in the LOI format did catch up with MS Dhoni and Kohli would be well served if he helps India win the World Cup and Test Championship. He had already complained about his back issue last year and the amount of cricket he is playing at present can easily be reduced if he moved away from T20 format post the Australia 2020. His absence from the T20s can also ensure India remaining a potent force on their course to grab the maiden Test Championship, and succeeding 50-Over World Cup at home.
This, honestly, is a huge suggestion. Kohli is inarguably the most powerful figure in Indian cricket, wielding an unmatchable power. His market value is what that has kept many stakeholders in Indian cricket hooked to the brand, and it would be unwise in the BCCI’s part to accept any sort of radicalism. But for the sake of Indian cricket, and to extend the dominance or possibly to establish a dynasty, it is a harsh call that has to be made. India have not set foot on the summit by stepping off a helicopter rather they reached there on the back of several steady progress. Whatever is happening from the glaring spotlight of international cricket is what has made India a superpower that is now and preserving it would help take it to a level previously unimagined.
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