Secret behind India’s World Cup march: Rohit sprints, rest follow

Sometime before the start of the 2023 ODI World Cup, Rohit Sharma had enough of the old Indian way of playing white-ball cricket. In the dressing room, he addressed the seniors and “garden-mey-ghoomney” wale youngsters and told them that he is going on an all-out attack as an opener himself, preferring to inspire them through action.

The result was startling: the old-dawdle from the land that had ironically liberated batsmen from other countries through the IPL was gone, and a box-office hit followed that was soaked up by adoring fans all around the country, so much so that there wasn’t any criticism when they failed in the final.

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Rohit’s India have gone with the same method in this T20 World Cup as well on mostly sluggish tracks. Consider just a couple of stats: India has the best strike rate in Super 8 and has hit most sixes – double of the team in second position. Incidentally, their second highest sixes count in a T20 World Cup came way back in 2007 (38 sixes), the tournament that gave birth to IPL in many ways. Had Misbah-ul-Haq not messed that night with his lap-shot, who knows whether the fans would have lapped up the IPL as euphorically as they did. But it’s astonishing that India ditched that free-hitting style they showed in the inaugural tournament for a decade-and-half after that.

 

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This time too the plan was set-up nice and early, at least in Rohit’s mind. As he has said, sometime during the IPL when Rishabh Pant raced ahead of Dinesh Karthik in the wicket-keeper race, he had firmed up in his mind that the left-handed basher would be his No.3. With Pant, perhaps self-aware of his frailties lower down the order in T20s in the past, pushing himself further, India has never been short of fury at the top in this tournament. Neither Rohit, barring an Ireland game and the astonishing walloping against Australia, nor Virat Kohli could provide good starts but Pant had them covered.

All-new Kohli

Even before the IPL, Kohli had read the tide correctly and decided he had to change his ways at the top, if he were to be selected without major fuss. He is yet to nail it in this tournament, and it still has the potential to upset India’s cart on the big day. But the die at least was cast and he has tried to fit in the mould rather than the other way around – a criticism that could be easily laid on the team in the past that had puzzlingly continued in an outdated fashion.

It’s perhaps apt that they run into England in the semi-final, a team that had blown them away in the semifinal of 2022 T20 World Cup that was also overseen by Rohit as the captain. If India had won that, it would have been an upset; such was the stark contrast.

 

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England who had overhauled their white-ball cricket after the horrors of 2015 ODI World Cup and sparkled from the 2019 edition onwards has some in ways be the team that has shown others the way. It’s one thing for Australia to dominate – for they never have wallowed near the bottom, but England’s style was an anaesthetist’s delight for decades in the shorter format. It took a man born in Ireland in Eoin Morgan to drastically transform them and a man born in New Zealand in Ben Stokes to extend that further.

The Rohit template

Somehow, Rohit managed to let loose of the controls, and once the captain does it, it’s not surprising that the rest would follow. Especially when the youngsters were more than eager to do it and were doing it in the IPL to an extent as it comes more naturally to them.

There was this one astonishing shot against Australia in the eight over of the innings bowled by Marcus Stoinis. Until then, Rohit had been imperiously overcoming Australia’s attempts to make him hit into the breeze, but that shot was a page ripped out of Suryakumar Yadav’s playbook. Rohit had anticipated that Stoinis was going to hurl that one short, and crouched a touch more than he usually does and positioned his body perfectly for the swat-pull into backward square-leg stands. It was relatively an ungainly looking hit that night where he even had unadulteratedly slogged a couple but his most craftily-executed shot. Ungainly as it wasn’t a natural shot for him.

 

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That it came from Rohit and not from Surya captures how this Indian team has adapted and adopted from the more accomplished naturals in this format. His reaction was priceless: he quit following the trajectory of the ball and broke into this childish smile, almost a laugh even, as he walked across to that shot’s owner Surya. Australia’s bowling lengths too wasn’t ideal, they played into Rohit’s hands by full-pitched half-volleys.

 

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Surya has continued to be the middle-overs wizard, manipulating the fields, angles, pace and contorting his own body into perfect positions while retaining his supreme balance. He has also evolved, occasionally confounding the opposing team by not going for his typical shots but targeting the V, but aerially.

Dube or Dinesh Mongia

Shivam Dube seems to be India’s Dinesh Mongia-like carryover of the 2003 World Cup, yet to totally find his feet at this level in this tournament. Mongia was taken to England then in hope that he would fit in as the pace-swing-negotiating middle-order batsman who can also bowl spin. Dube has been considered the spin-bashing middle-order batsman who can bowl some seam, if needed. Dube has fought hard, just as Mongia did, but both are in the same boat of not quite getting able to nail their performances as expected. Just like Kohli at the top, Dube’s performances in the middle overs could also well decide how things turn out on the big day.

Luckily for India, Hardik Pandya the batsman has risen as well as the bowler, turning in a couple of crisp performances that have allowed them to give breathing space to Dube, and Ravindra Jadeja. Barring a game, they haven’t had to make Axar extend himself as a batsman either. And importantly, Pandya’s all-round performance has allowed Rohit Sharma to carry Ravindra Jadeja almost as an impact sub – use him rarely, only if needed with both bat and ball.

The bowling, especially once Kuldeep Yadav came in, has been nothing short of phenomenal. Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep haven’t been a surprise, Arshdeep Singh has surprised the opponents. But it was never about the bowling in the past; it was the much-touted batting that would repeatedly drag them but Rohit’s India took that leap of faith, crossed the self-imposed Laxman rekha, freeing and finding themselves.

The only worry is this: what if Rohit pushes himself too far again – his failures before Australia have almost all come from frantic across-the-line swipes and the success against Australia was aided by the poor bowling lengths, and what if Kohli continues to fail. Can Pant and Suryakumar continue to make India march on under immense knockout-game pressure? If Rohit exits early, it could well come down to how Kohli, in particular, and Dube bat – India could sink or swim with them.

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