Rebuilding for the next World Cup: Part 2

Continuing from his previous column, Arvind Iyengar takes a look at India’s player prospects in the build-up to the next World Cup.

In Part 1 of this article, I looked ahead to what India’s batting lineup might look like for the 2015 World Cup. Here’s the quick rundown of where we are - Gambhir and Sehwag/Vijay opening with Kohli, Raina, Dhoni and SaurabhTiwary making up the middle. That article may have inspired Rohit Sharma to come up with a match winning 86 against the West Indies. After all, he’d give anything to be featured in a hypothetical starting eleven picked by a writer who has no say in the selection process of a tournament that’s four years away.

In the hopes of inspiring more such great performances, here’s the rest of my 2015 World Cup India XI.

The All-Rounder: Irfan Pathan/Paul Valthaty/Abhishek Nayar

This wasn’t an easy pick because India does not have a genuine all-rounder. So we are left with giving Irfan another chance, picking Valthaty who has played ONE List A match in his life or going with Abhishek Nayar. I needed a medium-pace all round option since I am picking two spinners (because our spinners are better than our quicks) so Yusuf Pathan misses out.

Picking the all-rounder is like picking a door on the TV show ‘Let’s Make a Deal’ (or Khul Ja Sim Sim for those who saw the Hindi version); it’s random and you have no idea what you will end up with. Pick a number between 1 and 3 and then read the list below to see who you ended up with:

Door #1: An all-rounder once touted as the next Kapil Dev, who suffered an inexplicable loss in pace and could not decide if he was a batting or bowling all-rounder. Last represented India in 2009, was outshone by his brother, but still has a chance because we still have no genuine all-rounders. And because he’s still awfully talented if he gets his act together – the last time he played a Test series in Australia – he was the man of the match in a memorable Perth triumph.

Door #2: A man who is on this list based on a handful of IPL performances, where he showed some real potential (and since it was the IPL - you remember the hype at the time since there weren’t too many other juicy stories during the league stages.)

Door #3: A handy seamer and big hitter who’s been solid in domestic cricket with a 28-92 (average-strike rate) record in List A matches to go with a bowling average of 33. However, he looked out of sorts in the 3 ODIs he played for India, but that’s too little a sample to judge.
I went with door number 1, so I have Irfan in my squad.

The Spinners: Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra

Mishra was the highest wicket taker in the recent domestic Vijay Hazare Trophy. I did not get a chance to watch his spell against the West Indies in the 3rd ODI, but a friend described it to me as “Warne-like.” Now granted it was the West Indies who do not have the greatest batting line-up (how bad/inexperienced was that batting line-up you ask? Six of the top seven batsmen excluding Sarwan have cumulatively put up 4803 runs at an average of 26 in their career. In comparison, Pakistan’s Abdul Razzaq alone has 5063 runs at an average of 30.) Also granted my friend might have been exaggerating to make a point (though to be fair, he’s usually bang on with his cricket opinions), but it is quite clear that Amit Mishra is the attacking legspinner India needs to add a vital dimension to the bowling attack.

For the second spinner, I picked Ravichandran Ashwin (who will be 28 at the time of the 2015 World Cup) over Harbhajan Singh (who is 30 years old today. I’ll let you do the math). Age is a factor in picking the younger Ashwin, but Bhajji hasn’t exactly been rewriting the record books over the past couple of years. This year, his bowling average is 41.3 and his career bowling average has skyrocketed to 33.4 (not a good thing.) The only other ‘bowlers’ in the history of ODIs with at least 250 wickets and an average worse than that are Sanath Jayasuriya and Shahid Afridi. Note: I use the term ‘bowlers’ loosely in the last sentence, since Jayasuriya was a genuine all-rounder who was a better batsman, while Shahid Afridi used to be an all-rounder before he forgot how to bat.

The case for Harbhajan is that he does have 250 wickets, but Ashwin is probably the better offspinner in ODIs today and in four years, I do not think this will even be a debate. 

The Quicks: Praveen Kumar and Ishant Sharma/Abhimanyu Mithun

Praveen Kumar started his ODI career with a bang in Australia, with spells of 4-31 against Sri Lanka in Hobart and a match winning 4-46 against Australia in the Brisbane final. He can swing the ball both ways and he keeps it tight in ODIs. He’ll only be 28 during the 2015 World Cup and is the easiest pick in the bowling line-up.

Finding the other seamer is hard. Zaheer Khan will be 36 and I do not expect him to be playing during the 2015 WC. If he can stay fit and play on as the wily veteran, he will be a great asset for India, but that’s wishful thinking. Munaf Patel’s place in the side has always been iffy; I do not seem him in the playing XI in 2015. Siddharth Trivedi is a promising player while 27-year-old Yaju Krishanatry could turn out to be a late bloomer after his 17-wicket haul at the Vijay Hazare Trophy (he only made his first-class debut in late 2008). But in the end, looking at the balance of the squad, I figured we needed a legitimately quick bowler who can generate some pace and bounce in Aussie conditions. That left me deciding between Ishant Sharma and Abhimanyu Mithun. Today, they are only 22 and 21 years old respectively and will both have time to mature into consistent performers. Neither has looked particularly promising lately, but I am betting on intrinsics here and think at least one of them will evolve into India’s pace spearhead within the next couple of years. If I had to bet on only one of them, my money is on Ishant.

So here’s a final look at my picks for India’s playing XI for the 2015 World Cup:

1. Gambhir
2. Sehwag/Vijay
3. Kohli
4. Raina
5. Dhoni
6. Saurabh Tiwary
7. Irfan Pathan/Nayar/Valthaty
8. Ashwin
9. Praveen Kumar
10. Mishra
11. Ishant

If you force me to pick on the 2nd and 7th spots, I’ll go with Sehwag and Irfan. Should be a pretty good side by the looks of it.