Fear of failure is the main factor in India’s ICC World Cup 2023 team selection
Bold decisions, such as choosing Yuzvendra Chahal or Ravichandran Ashwin instead of stressing over lower-order runs, were avoided due to injuries and concerns over lack of balance.
India making it to the World Cup semifinals would be the wisely courageous wager. Beyond that, it would take a very brave individual to predict this squad as the winner if nationalism didn’t taint their betting acumen.
To go beyond that, Rohit Sharma will need to captain with inspiration and make a very wise choice for the playing XI that day. Both Rohit and Rahul Dravid have their hands and minds full in what would be a very tough World Cup campaign for a competition that will determine their legacy.
If they succeed, they will be remembered as great leaders; if they fail, it won’t come as a surprise.
A pattern became apparent when the World Cup venues for India’s games were revealed. All of the opponents’ carefully selected slow, maybe spin-abetting tracks hinted at CSK-level planning. Australia will be defeated in Chennai, England will be ambushed in Lucknow during a slow-turner, South Africa will be defeated in Kolkata during a slow-turner, Pakistan will be defeated in Ahmedabad during a pace-and-spin-sucking belter, and Sri Lanka will be defeated at the 2011 World Cup final paata. According to the impression it gave, the Indian strength subdued the opponents’ strengths.
That’s not exactly how it’s turned out. India has chosen a squad that’s neither here nor there, continuing the tradition of mediocre planning or confident punts, further hampered by injuries, and most importantly, driven by the concern of a lack of balance.
The emotion that stands out in the choice is fear or apprehension.
What if our top players, Nos. 8 through 11, don’t score 20 runs? What if our spinner, whether it be Yuzvendra Chahal or R Ashwin, is hit and fails to add runs? Suppose the top three fall short. What if spinners from the opposition, such as Rashid Khan or Adam Zampa, outspin Indian spinners? What if Jasprit Bumrah can endure a two-month competition even though his fluency isn’t exactly at its peak? What happens if the middle order doesn’t work?
They have turned to patching up their possible weak places in order to alleviate that anxious worry. In the belief that he would be an all-around player like Mitch Marsh, invest in Shardul Thakur. Get Axar Patel in and hope that he will salvage India with his batting while still managing to get through with his bowling without giving up too many runs.
similar to EQing headphones. fewer bass? Increase the low frequency dbs. A lot of treble? Reduce the higher frequency’s volume. Tune in the mid-frequency for muddy vocals. However, EQing will be ineffective if the quality of the instrument itself isn’t nearly adequate.
The selecting process has been riddled with anxiety rather than forethought. The discussion of a left-handed alternative was raised when Suryakumar Yadav was unable to shoot at Nos. 4 or 5, at which point Ishan Kishan entered. Despite Ishan’s victory over Pakistan at the Asia Cup, Dravid won’t be able to breathe easily. He might be feeling what Sunil Gavaskar said, that the pacers’ prolonged absence due to Babar Azam’s poor captaincy caused that partnership.
Similar to how the idea that motivated the selection of the pitches quickly vanished. That strategy was somewhat comprehensible. India likely reasoned that it would be wiser to wager on turners and have the strongest spinners on it if they had to succeed despite having an unbalanced roster. the CSK way for a long time. However, they lacked the courage to continue that punt. They removed Ashwin and Chahal from the competition because they were concerned about the batting depth.
Kuldeep Yadav is now the wicket-taker for the crucial middle overs. Hardik Pandya is responsible for crucial runs from the lower order. It will be hoped that Bumrah or Shami can cast a powerful spell against the odds if Kuldeep fails to fire. Or Shardul’s breakthrough talent brings good fortune. Hope Jadeja performs the job of firing the bat if Pandya doesn’t. Going by their previous performances, it’s even unclear if India will be confident enough to launch both Shami and Bumrah, or will their concern for batting power cause them to split the two.
Really, not much was accomplished with conviction. Due to a lack of confidence, Umran Malik’s experiment was never successful; the spinners’ punt was easily folded.
Nothing really surprises anyone. Some of the names that came in and left quickly in the run-up to the T20 World Cup in Australia included Venkatesh Iyer and Deepak Hooda. It remained a mystery as to why they were chosen in the first place and lost important games leading up. India decided to bench Chahal, just as nearly all successful teams did when they went with a leg spinner. And it was impossible to imagine a candidate who was more inappropriate for the climate in Australia than was Harshal Patel.
They made odd, doomed-to-fail decisions and punted on them, but had the guts to take a similar chance on potentially superior decisions like Chahal (in that T20 World Cup).
This ODI World Cup has been driven by nervous hope in contrast to previous T20 World Cup’s chaotic experimenting. The decision of which paths were closed and the timing of the closures reveal something. Most people would find it easy to decide whether Ashwin should play in an ODI match in India or a T20 event in Australia. not in the group.
The team management undoubtedly views them as wise choices. They aren’t quite sure how their pacers Bumrah and Shami will fare over the two-month event, which will be arduous because of the selection of locations that will require India to travel the entire length and breadth of the nation. It makes sense that they are concerned about the runs from the lower tier. Their secret weapon for Powerplays and end-overs was Rishabh Pant’s injury, along with doubts about KL Rahul’s fitness, Shreyas Iyer, who appeared to have found a solution to the No. 4 dilemma before he left, and Bumrah’s back injury.
They have experimented with both batting and bowling since they are concerned about the runs at the bottom and lack of confidence in the middle. However, you can’t rely on bandages. If India steals the World Cup, it will be Rohit Sharma, the captain, who will execute brilliant plays with a little luck and a lot of guts from his chosen team.
