Five Resolutions That Team India Must Take In The 2020s

We are officially in the third decade of the 21st century and just like the start of every year or decade, people are busy making a list of new goals that they can realistically aim to achieve in the upcoming years. And, so, I thought of why not jot down a few resolutions that we fans want Team India to achieve this decade.

Team India ticked off a lot of unchartered territories besides improving on a lot of fronts- notably fast bowling- in the 2010s. They won their maiden Test series win in England, embraced a culture of fitness-championed by their skipper Virat Kohli besides winning an elusive ODI series in South Africa and a 50-over World Cup on home soil.

But there still remains a few things and some territories that the Men in Blue would want to improve on and scale respectively in the 2020s.

On that note, here’s a look at five resolutions that Team India must take in the 2020s:

Stop picking or dropping players in a format based on their performance in another

This was a common theme in Indian cricket throughout the 2010s where a player was picked or dropped from other formats due to their performance or lack of performance in the other. The most pertinent example of it was Dinesh Karthik. Following his maniac knock of 8-ball 27 in the 2018 Nidahas Trophy final, Dinesh Karthik not only received a call-up in the ODI team but also in the Test side.

His Test return, however, was short-lived as he was dropped after just two matches in England in favor of Rishabh Pant. Karthik continued to remain a part of the 50-over set-up though till the 2019 World Cup. He was made the scapegoat following Team India’s semi-final exit from the World Cup and just as he was picked in all the three formats back in 2018 based on his performance in one format, he was dropped from the set-up entirely for the same reason.

And, this is the problem that India needs to address. Kartik may not have succeeded in the longer formats but he was still a more than handy option lower down the order in T20I cricket. Since the start of 2018, DK has 228 runs in 14 innings at an average of 57 and a strike-rate of 160.56.

DK is just one example. Recently, Team India picked KL Rahul in the Test squad for the tour of Australia based on his form in white-ball cricket and even though the discarded Test opener had played just 1 FC game since he got dropped in 2019. Mohammed Siraj is another such example, who was initially picked in the T20I team for his performances in FC cricket.

Another thing that India would be better off doing is not picking players in the T20I team based on their performances in ODIs and vice-versa. Currently, not only is India playing T20 cricket as if it is an extension of ODI cricket but they are also picking players suited for one format to play in the other while conveniently ignoring proven performers like Suryakumar Yadav in the shortest format of the game.

Breaking the drought of Test series win in South Africa

Team India struck off a major goal from their bucket list in the last decade when they became the first Asian team to script a Test series win in Australia- 2-1 in 2018/19.

And, so, winning a Test rubber in South Africa remains the only unchecked goal in their proud cricket history. To be honest, India had a great chance of achieving that when they last traveled to the rainbow nation in the winter of 2018. But questionable team selections, inability to seize the initiative when it mattered, paved way for a heartbreaking 1-2 defeat.

The Men in Blue are set to travel to South Africa in the winter of 2021 for a three-match Test series. And, with the Proteas in a rebuilding mode, there wouldn’t be a better opportunity for Virat Kohli’s men to undo the wrongs of 2018.

Regaining the T20 World Cup

The last time Team India won a T20 World Cup, Barack Obama was yet to become the president of the United States, social media surge was still time away, Anil Kumble and Sourav Ganguly were still playing International cricket and IPL was just a concept designed on paper— 2007.

Yep! It will be 14 years since India last captured the T20 World Cup when Virat Kohli’s lock horns with other member nations on home soil in the 7th edition of the ICC T20 World Cup.

Since MS Dhoni-led India to World Cup glory in 2007, the Men in Blue, barring the 2014 edition where they made their way to the finals, have hugely underperformed. While they failed to reach the top-4 in three successive editions in 2009, 2010, and 2012, they were unable to script the triumph despite staging the tournament on home soil in 2016.

With two successive editions set to take place at the start of the decade including the upcoming one on home soil, there cannot be a better opportunity for the Men in Blue to end their 14-year drought.

Improving Test record in England and New Zealand

India’s record in Tests in England took a major dip in the 2010s. While the Men in Blue drew 1-1 in 2002 before scripting a historic series win in 2007, the 2010s saw the proud cricketing nation suffer some of their most humiliating defeats in the second decade of the 21st century.

It started with an embarrassing 0-4 rout in the summer of 2011 where the then No.1 ranked Test team was brought to its knees by a rampaging England. They did win at Lord’s in 2014 but fell away embarrassingly to lose three Tests in a row and by humungous margins.

Virat Kohli’s side did considerably well in the summer of 2018, even though the 1-4 scoreline will not reflect it, but they failed to capture the small moments, eventually losing hard-fought encounters in Edgbaston and Southampton. Kohli will once again lead the Indian team for a 5-match series in the 2021 summer and one can only hope that they learn their lessons from the disappointment of 2018 and end a decade of horror run on English soil.

Just like New Zealand, the Men in Blue would want to improve on their Test record in New Zealand. After winning the Test series in 2009, India came close to winning in 2014 but they failed to capitalize on the crucial moments, eventually going down by 0-1.

The 2020 series proved to be a nightmare for India as they were blown away by a Kyle Jamieson-led Kiwi pace attack. With New Zealand at the height of their powers as a Test team in their conditions, it will be a herculean task for Team India to script a series win this decade.

Consistency in selection

Despite boasting of heaps of talent, one has to say that Team India did not achieve the heights that they should have in the last decade.
Bizzare and inconsistent selections were one of the major reasons behind India failing to script Test series wins in South Africa and England. Besides these two, the inability to build a potent middle-order in ODI cricket in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup was also a major blip.

Factor in this fact: India tried more than a dozen players between 2015-19 for the No.4 spot but when the most important game of that four-year cycle arrived, we saw a guy who had never batted at that spot walk out to bat with the score reading 3-5.

Ambati Rayudu was long hailed as India’s solution to the middle-order ruddle for the 2019 World Cup but he was discarded after a few indifferent performances in the lead-up to the tournament.

This is just one example of a series of inconsistent and bizarre selection calls that Team India made in the last decade. And, one can only hope that this isn’t the case in the new decade.

Also Read: Five Successful Captains Who Could Not Win An ICC Trophy