India, the reigning ICC Men’s T20 World Cup winners, enter the Champions Trophy with a 3-0 series sweep over England. The batters impressed with their scintillating knocks, while the bowlers were at their proficient best to bamboozle the England batters. With all their matches in Dubai, India will be keen to continue the good momentum they have right now into going all the way towards the Champions Trophy. Here’s a SWOT analysis from IANS on the Rohit Sharma-led Indian team taking part in the Champions Trophy happening for the first time after 2017.
Strength: Undoubtedly, India’s main strength lies in their top four powerful batters. Captain Rohit Sharma showed parks of his ultra-attacking way of playing in the first ten overs while hitting 119 in Cuttack, while Shubman Gill stepped up to hit a fine century in Ahmedabad. The Rohit-Gill opening combination has been the most productive pairing for India.
Since joining forces in 2023, Rohit and Gill have made 1874 runs as an opening pair in 27 innings, averaging 72.07, including six 100-plus and 11 fifty-plus stands, making for a highly useful opening combination for the Indian team in 50-over cricket.
Virat Kohli also got a fifty in Ahmedabad to add more confidence in India’s ability to control middle overs with the bat, while Shreyas Iyer has stepped up as a very solid number four batter. With Axar Patel, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja batting deep and in good current all-round form, it augurs well for the Indian team in their quest to register competitive scores in Dubai.
Weakness: With no Jasprit Bumrah, it means India are without a game-changing fast-bowling force who could turn around the game in a jiffy in any phase of the game. His absence is a body blow for India, as they would look up to Pandya, Mohammed Shami, Harshit Rana and Arshdeep Singh to step up.
Another pocket of weakness India have is diluting the powers of KL Rahul. It’s no secret that Rahul has been a handy run-scorer at number five. But with head coach Gautam Gambhir’s liking for left-right combination taking precedence, it has meant Axar has batted at that slot.
Rahul, meanwhile, has been pushed to number six, a place where his recent returns have gone down. A decision like this might backfire if India collapses like a pack of cards in the quest of getting fast runs in their batting innings.
Opportunity: India last won the Champions Trophy in 2013, when MS Dhoni was at the helm. Since then, they have reached two semi-finals and as many finals in 50-over ICC events. While they missed a home ODI World Cup win in 2023 and another Champions Trophy triumph in 2017, they now have a golden chance to make up for it in Dubai.
A Champions Trophy triumph will give Rohit another ICC trophy after winning T20 World Cup in the USA and the West Indies last year, while the win will also ensure a big result is in Gambhir’s kitty after having a tumultuous time in his coaching stint so far.
Threat: By picking five spinners in Axar, Jadeja, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy, India have decided to keep all options open in terms of bowling composition. It’s clear that they are going in with an intention to play three spinners in their playing eleven, especially with Dubai coming off hosting ILT20 matches earlier this month.
But what if they are asked to defend totals, and dew sets in the evening in Dubai, it would mean that their spin-pronged strategy would backfire, which then poses a big threat to their chances of winning the tournament.
India squad: Rohit Sharma (Captain), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul (wk), Rishabh Pant (wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Washington Sundar, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Arshdeep Singh, Ravindra Jadeja, and Varun Chakravarthy.
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