India No. 1 in ODIs: What it means for Rohit-led side in World Cup year

A week back, when it took the field in Hyderabad, New Zealand was ranked the No. 1 One-Day International side in the world. After its 90-run hammering in Indore on Tuesday night (January 24), it ceded that spot to its vanquisher. Rohit Sharma’s India is now the top dog in 50-over cricket too, as it is in Twenty20 Internationals. Should it win the four-Test series against Australia by a margin of at least two matches (2-0 or 3-1), it will hold the No. 1 ranking in all three formats. If and when that does happen, it will be a remarkable achievement.

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That said, how much should we read into the successive 3-0 routs of Sri Lanka and New Zealand in the back-to-back ODI series? Haven’t we been here before, lording bilateral showdowns and then coming a cropper when it comes to the crunch, in multi-team tournaments? Is there something now that suggests an imminent snapping of that trend? These are questions uppermost in the minds of most Indian followers, who have lapped up victories with expected glee but who’d rather settle for bilateral meltdowns if it means another trophy in the cabinet.

Plenty of choices

To not acknowledge India’s consistency – for that’s the No. 1 ranking means – will be unfair because across conditions and at different times of the year, with different personnel, it has held its own against all-comers. Workload management and the non-availability of key resources due to injuries haven’t allowed India to field its best combination at all times, which makes the side’s ascent to the very top even more commendable. But it also can’t be disregarded that in the final analysis, it’s the trophies and the cups that offer a more tangible valuation of a sportsperson or a team, and India’s think-tank won’t be unaware that on that count, it has a fair bit of work ahead of them.

What these six victories on the bounce have done is provide an indication of what the thinking of the brains trust is, and who are the personnel that, for the time being, have made themselves ‘undroppable’. The logjam will become more intense when, at some stage in the next few weeks, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna and Ravindra Jadeja too will be primed for international comebacks. What then will Rohit and Rahul Dravid do? Bumrah is a shoo-in and Jadeja would appear to be so, even though Axar Patel has ensured in the last several months that the Saurashtra all-rounder hasn’t been terribly missed. Will India be tempted to play both left-arm spinning all-rounders in the playing XI?

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These are all questions that assume significance because this is the year of the 50-over World Cup. In India, no less. Spin might not play as much of a part now than it might have in the past, but the changing dynamics of the white-ball game, with a studied focus on players with more than one skill, means the likes of Jadeja, Axar and Shardul Thakur will perhaps be more the flavour than pure specialists like Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal and Prasidh, no matter how prolific they might loom as wicket-taking options. After all, it is a delicate balancing act, and walking that particular tightrope isn’t the easiest of tasks, as India has found out twice in the last two years at 20-over World Cups in the UAE and Australia.

Shubman Gill’s rise

The rout of New Zealand reiterated how far Shubman Gill has come as a reliable, hungry, barely-satisfied ODI opener. Pretty 30s and graceful 40s no longer cut ice with the 23-year-old, already the youngest double-centurion in 50-over internationals. Three hundreds – including that phenomenal 208 against the Kiwis in Hyderabad – in his last four ODI hits indicate a consistency that in the past has been linked to Virat Kohli and Rohit. Gill’s intimidating alliance with Rohit at the top of the batting tree has been fruitful, electrifying, explosive and impactful; the middle order hasn’t always built on the wonderful starts provided by the skipper and his understudy, but it’s only a matter of time before that anomaly is addressed, such is the quality of batting that follows the openers.

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Not even Gill’s aesthetics, however, could overshadow a much-awaited 30th ODI hundred for Rohit. The captain might be peeved that people are talking about the three-year gap between 50-over tons because he only played 16 innings in this format in that period, but such is the high standard he has set that 16 knocks without a century are perceived as a prolonged drought. Rohit has taken the onus of setting an aggressive tone from the outset to heart; determined to lead by example, he has often chanced his arm once too often and been dismissed with the bowling at his mercy. Which Rohit – the one who begins carefully and finishes with a huge score, or the one who kicks off at the rate of knots and therefore attracts attendant risks – is better for the team is open to debate though for the time being, he has silenced wagging tongues, much like Kohli had done last September when he ended a 1,020-day wait for his 71st international hundred.

For all his pyrotechnics in 20-over cricket, Suryakumar Yadav has struggled for like success in the longer white-ball variant, while Ishan Kishan has found the middle-order conundrum too hard to crack. Admittedly, the sample size is small, but both will not be unaware that they have to do plenty more if they are to impress the think-tank and displace incumbents Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul respectively.

India has sought to take the less travelled path to victory against the Lankans and the Kiwis, which must be welcomed. In India, batting second is a preferred option, not least because the dew can be so incapacitating when defending a total. India often chose to set a target by choice, and scores of 373, 390, 349 and 385 in the four matches in which it batted first must be viewed as a vindication of the team’s thinking and masterly execution. As always, the spectre of multi-nation events will loom as an ominous footnote, but with eight months to the World Cup, there is justified optimism that the tide could turn this time around.

Another comprehensive performance from #TeamIndia as they outclass New Zealand by 90 runs in Indore to complete a 3-0 whitewash. 🙌🏽

Scorecard ▶️ https://t.co/ojTz5RqWZf…#INDvNZ | @mastercardindia pic.twitter.com/7IQZ3J2xfI

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 24, 2023

𝗡𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 1️⃣ 𝗜𝗡 𝗢𝗗𝗜𝘀!

Congratulations #TeamIndia 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/pjzuPZ4ENt

— BCCI (@BCCI) January 24, 2023