WTC Final: What changes do India need to make ahead of next cycle?

Since winning the 2013 Champions Trophy, it has been the same old story for Team India in almost every major ICC tournament that has followed.

Faltering in the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup in 2019 and the T20 World Cup in 2021 as far as recent tournaments are concerned, the Men in Blue seem more like a work in progress rather than a settled unit.

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And their latest disappointment is the World Test Championship (WTC) final against Australia in London, where India, looking to chase down 444 on the final day on Sunday, collapsed to 234. That too after being at 164/3 at one stage.

Also read: Has the most consistent Indian Test team lost its best shot at glory?

So what do India need to change after their latest ICC heartbreak?

Grooming young talent

The just-concluded WTC Final against Australia might very well be the last time we would see the likes of Ajinkya Rahane and Cheteshwar Pujara donning the whites in a major ICC final.

Yes, both Rahane and Pujara have served the Indian Test team for a decade, but how long can a team persist with two batters who are in their mid-thirties and in the fag end of their cricket careers?

This is where grooming young talents come in. Fresh talent is the need of the hour for India. Grooming and nurturing youngsters has to begin from the earliest phase possible, if they have set sights on winning the WTC Final in 2025.

Take the duo of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad for example. Over the last two-three years, the two have produced stellar performances in the Indian Premier League (IPL). But, as we all know, cricket is much more than the IPL or any of the other franchise leagues.

Both Jaiswal and Gaikwad have a pretty good record in First Class cricket. Jaiswal has amassed 1845 runs from 26 innings at an average of 80.21, whereas Gaikwad has 1941 runs from 47 matches at an average of 42.19. Jaiswal even played a huge role in Rest of India’s Irani Cup triumph against Madhya Pradesh this year, with scores of 213 and 144 in both the innings.

Ishan Kishan, too, has runs under his belt in First Class batting. With 2985 runs from 82 innings, the wicketkeeper-batter cannot be overlooked in any case, and might be a good alternative for KS Bharat if Rishabh Pant remains absent.

The lack of India A tours recently have been a major cause for concern, but it remains paramount that with an able team management, long-term planning and blooding in fresh cricketers with fresh mindset be the priority.

India begin their WTC 2023-25 cycle with an away series against West Indies starting in July, and it will be crucial that the team management begins developing youngsters as early as possible. Afterall, India have been known for a team with so much depth in young talent, so why not utilise?

Fearless cricket

When it comes to fearless cricket, one name that would pop-up on everyone’s mind is Rishabh Pant. Pant has done wonders in Tests on foreign soil, and the wicketkeeper-batter’s presence at The Oval would have done India a huge favour.

Meanwhile, barring Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane in the second innings, none of the other batters stayed at the crease for prolonged periods meaning the middle-order and lower-order batters collectively crumbled under pressure.

In an ideal scenario, Pant would have walked into bat with India four down or five down, and would have taken some momentum away from the opposition.

And that fearless brand of cricket is what the likes of KS Bharat and Shardul Thakur missed on the big occasion.

“There is nothing lacking (in terms of skills). The more you play the big games the better you get.  I feel you need to play more freely in these big games. I think we have become a bit too tight. Will have to play more freely and not think about the results,” Harbhajan had told news agency PTI recently.

“The more you leave the players to do the job, they will do the job. If you put pressure on them that if you don’t perform well, some get dropped and some don’t (they will feel under-confident).”

“The idea is to give them confidence that even if you don’t do well, give your best. That way we will probably lift a few cups.  Just play fearlessly,” he had added.

Play less IPL, maybe?

The WTC Final being staged in England just over a week after the IPL 2023 final meant that players of both teams had little time to regroup for a major ICC tournament.

Both Australia and India were deprived of warm-up matches leading up to it, but one would argue that Australia were slightly well-prepared for the final given that they had lesser players taking part in the IPL 2023 playoffs.

However, talks of an extended preparatory gap between tournaments resurfaced when India skipper Rohit Sharma said that his team needed “20-25 days” to prepare for a major final.

It’s only worthy to note that Rohit had said that there would be enough preparation time for players, whose IPL teams get knocked out in the penultimate week of May.

However, former India coach Ravi Shastri, on the other hand, urged to be “realistic”.

“That’s never going to happen. Let’s be realistic. You’re going to get 20 days, but if that’s the case, you got to miss the IPL. The choice is yours (players),” Shastri had told on Star Sports.

“It’s up to the establishment as well. I’m sure the BCCI is going to review this in the future. If the WTC Final is going to come after the IPL, in month of June, for that season, if your team qualifies for the final, there should be certain clauses put in for the franchises,” he added.

For India, it may still be early days of planning for the next WTC cycle, but it will be pivotal that it starts from scratch, be it players’ workload or otherwise. This will surely be not the last time that the issues of scheduling will come up, but eventually it is what it is, be it foregoing a part of the IPL or not.

It will be interesting to see how Team India approach the next WTC cycle as a unit, given that there will be a few notable personnel changes on offer as far as batting lineup is concerned. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma might remain in the Test plans for now, but two years is a long time in cricket and only time will tell how the youngsters are groomed and brought up in the Indian Test team.

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