When a 23-year old Jason Holder was handed the reigns of West Indies Test Cricket team in 2015, the team had won just 12 out of 50 tests in the since 2010, of which 5 came against Bangladesh, 2 against Zimbabwe, 1 against England (which was ranked 5th at the time), 1 against Pakistan (which was ranked 6th at the time) and 3 against NewZealand (which was ranked 7th and 8th at the time).
IPL, I like you but only as a friend.
World Cup, I like to flirt with you time and again.
It is Test Cricket I am truly in love with.
2019 has been nothing short of a cricket lover’s utopia. A nail-biting IPL final between 2 of IPL’s most successful franchisees, a grouping (or absence of it) format rendering the World Cup more competitive and more relevant. If that wasn’t enough, the World Cup Finals turned out to be one of the greatest ODIs of all time.
If the 15 men selected to play for West Indies live up to their potential, it’ll be one of the strongest teams out there. The squad is filled with players who are known for their exploits and players who come on the back of strings of exciting performances in ODI cricket. It’s just a matter of clicking as a team.
Srilanka is anything but in contention for a top 4 spot in this World Cup, and their squad doesn’t paint a happy picture, at least not on paper. Not being a critic here but just giving my honest analysis.
I promise I’ll be one of the few people who won’t call call this team “chokers”. South Africa’s bowling lineup is impeccable and its batting shows a lot of promise. An array of quality all-rounders also helps its case.
If you look at Pakistan’s 15-man squad, you can easily determine that Pakistan has as many as 5 allrounders but lack someone you’d call a “genuine all-rounder”. It isn’t a problem if the lower middle-order batsman and bowlers compensate for that void but even that doesn’t seem to be the case for Pakistan. Such is the dynamics associated with their squad.
NewZealand, as a team, always fly under the radar, coming into every world tournament. I don’t know if they actively do that or it just happens to them. Any way, those who can see it will surely say that NewZealand is a string team and they have managed to pick a team which will be able to cause some jitters to a lot of predictions.
It was way back in the 1987 World Cup that India had the luxury of playing 2 quality of seam-bowling all-rounders. And 32 years on, they have the same luxury once again. In no way am I saying that Hardik Pandya and Vijay Shankar are the same as Kapil Dev and Roger Binny ( they can’t be as well; not yet.) Another interesting trivia is that the last time India went with 2 seam bowling all-rounders to England for a World Cup, it was in 1983. No point there, just a trivia for you. The result of 2 seam-bowling all-rounders, dare I say, is that India looks lies a 3-dimensional side. I’d say get your 3-D glasses on.
Well, wouldn’t you like to be Eoin Morgan! A well-settled opening pair, a solid middle-order, an array of quality All Rounders, arguably the best ODI spinner in the world currently and more than handy crop of fast bowlers. The cherry on this cake – World Cup is in your backyard. The chocolate sauce on that cherry – the format calls for consistency, eliminates “flash-in-the-pan” advantage and allows for minor lapses.
Bangladesh have what many teams look for prior to a World Cup – stability in the playing XI composition. With all their stalwarts available, possibly for the last time in a World Cup, they have gone as far as to say that they are here to win the World Cup in 2019. I’ll surely be surprised if they do.