With Young Turks exploding, India's T20 WC campaign could be a cracker

The process of separating the wheat from the chaff is underway in earnest as India continue their quest for the best 15 for the October-November T20 World Cup, in Australia. Their misadventure in the previous edition in the UAE just four-and-a-half months ago appears a distant memory — considering they are sitting on a nine-match winning streak since losing their two opening matches to Pakistan and New Zealand — but while public recall might be short,Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid are unlikely to forget the two abject surrenders in a hurry.

Dravid was nothing if not pragmatic when, after the 3-0 sweep of West Indies in Kolkata last weekend, he emphasised that the net would be cast wide, but not too wide. One of the pitfalls of the latter is that in the desire to try out a larger pool, opportunities to grow into their roles will be a casualty. To strike the ideal balance between trying out promising talent and not diluting the quantitative optimum is a delicate tightrope the new management team must negotiate.

As India brace for their next challenge in the shortest format, another three-match showdown against Sri Lanka starting in Lucknow on Thursday (February 24), the brain trust will derive satisfaction not just from the scoreline against the Caribbeans, but also the contributions that helped facilitate that outcome. It wasn’t the usual suspects who fashioned victories, it wasn’t the established order that carried the day. The triumph was achieved in the absence of near-first choices Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and KL Rahul; it was also catalysed by men young in experience at the international level but who have taken little time to make the transition up from domestic/franchise cricket.

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Among the biggest gains from the conquest of the Caribbeans were all-rounder-in-the-making Venkatesh Iyer and the little dynamo of a leg-spinner, Ravi Bishnoi. They have fired early salvos in attempting to ease concerns over two perennial problem areas in white-ball cricket — a seam-bowling all-rounder who can lend muscle and teeth to the lower middle-order and a wicket-taking weapon in the middle overs, when the game often slips away with the onus on run-denial rather than incision.

Iyer was a relative unknown until the middle of August last year and might have remained so had Kolkata Knight Riders not made a dismal start to their IPL 2021 campaign. Just two wins in the first seven matches before the tournament was postponed due to the Covid second wave in India last summer meant the two-time former champions had to shake things up going into the second phase in the UAE. Thus arrived Iyer on the IPL landscape, immediately firing the imagination with his loose-limbed, free-stroking left-handed ways at the top of the order and his handy medium-pace, good for two tidy overs if not the entire quota of four.

The logjam at the top within the Indian set-up meant Iyer was required to bat in a position he isn’t entirely familiar with and assigned a role he wasn’t accustomed to. Whilst opening, one is in a position to set the tone; at No. 6, the platform has already been set. Where there exists the luxury of taking a few balls to bat oneself in at the top of the tree, the finisher’s role needs instant acceleration, a wide range of strokes and an intrepidness that was Hardik Pandya’s calling card when he was fit and unaffected by the gremlins that have subsequently gnawed away at body and mind.

Iyer has adapted quite superbly. The rapidity with which he has embraced the new challenge has been staggering, speaking to a hunger and a soundness of temperament that bodes well going forward. The database is too frugal to definitively assert that he will fill the void created by Pandya’s MIA status, but the signs are far too promising for India not to invest in the gangly resource from Madhya Pradesh.

Bishnoi is a whirling dervish of a leggie, the first from the Under-19 World Cup of 2020 to wear the senior colours. He is quick through the air, relies heavily on his googlies, is unfazed by batsmen coming at him and has the heart to take punishment. Just three matches young, he has extended the maturity showcased while playing for Punjab Kings to the next higher level, and his electric fielding adds a new dimension at a time when India were just beginning to look ragged and lethargic on the park. Of course, much work needs to be done when it comes to catching — a new, worrying development given that catching has seldom let India down — but there is no reason why it won’t, even if long-serving fielding coach R Sridhar is no longer in the mix.

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Beyond Iyer and Bishnoi, the two other heartening developments are the extraordinary form and strength of mind portrayed by the immensely gifted Suryakumar Yadav and a return to somewhere near his best of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, the crack swing exponent who appeared until 10 days back to have been well past his sell-by-date. Both hold the potential to be influential cogs in the Indian wheel, even Down Under where the skill sets needed are different and the challenges manifold and varied.

There are far too many other encouraging signs for them to be listed here; suffice to say that India are in a much better position choices-wise than some five months ago. Somewhere in the region of 20 T20Is lie between now and the World Cup, enough to extend the net-casting endeavour for the next four months and then begin the final fine-tuning and role-definition of which both Rohit and Dravid are huge advocates.

The one intangible is player availability. Despite the waning impact of the coronavirus, no one is sure what is in store eight months from now. Also, there have been far too many injury casualties in recent times, perhaps necessitating a relook at training methodologies. As such, it reinforces the wisdom of the think-tank that it is seized with not just first-choice options but also adequate back-ups for each slot, every position.