Rohit Sharma‘s led side is the only team that is yet to lose a match in the ODI WC 2023. So far, the side has clicked as a unit in crunch moments of the match. It won’t be wrong to say that there is over-reliance on the star duo of Virat Kohli & Rohit Sharma who not only have done the bulk of the scoring but have taken the team out of the pressure situations.
Head coach Rahul Dravid & management would be mightily pleased with the performance of Men in Blue against New Zealand as the surface wasn’t a belter, chasing 274 against a quality Kiwi pace attack was never going to be easy. It was the sheer brilliance of Virat Kohli who stood tall from one end and the rest of the batters played key knocks.
Unbelievable bowling attack
So far, the management has used the veteran spinner Ravichandran Ashwin as a trump card. We should not forget that Ashwin can also provide lusty blows at the back end of the innings. The management though has stuck to one combination: Kuldeep Yadav & Ravindra Jadeja. Kuldeep has taken 8 wickets in the championship and has bowled quite a wicket to wicket which has been the main reason behind his success.
The sudden injury to Hardik Pandya (*unavailable for next match) and a rest to Shardul Thakur, opened the doors to Mohammed Shami who not only took wickets but created an impact with a 5-wicket haul against New Zealand. The management now has happy headaches leading into the next encounter which is against England on 29th October at Lucknow.
The trio of Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Jasprit Bumrah are already performing exceedingly well and even Shardul Thakur has the backing of Rohit Sharma due to his hitting prowess and wicket-taking ability. So it won’t be an easy task to pick the bowling attack in the crunch match for India.
Is Rohit Sharma & Co. peaking at the perfect time?
The billion people would be hoping that the side doesn’t get complacent. We have seen in the past how India loses crunch matches. The only concern for the management would be the form of Shreyas Iyer who hasn’t been able to convert his starts but has shown a lot of promise.
Most of the commentators and experts have predicted that the batting maestro Virat Kohli would complete his 50 ODI centuries by the league stage of the tournament he now has 48 ODI tons to his name. But we should not put too much pressure on the batter and most importantly, winning the ODI WC 2023 should be on the agenda rather than personal milestones.