World Cup 2023: What is lacking in India’s ODI squad?

BCCI’s announcement of the Test and ODI squads for the upcoming tour of the Caribbean and the United States had been a major talking point in Indian cricket circles up until Tuesday, when the attention shifted almost entirely to the 2023 ODI World Cup schedule announced by the ICC.

Read | India fixtures list for ICC World Cup 2023

Until the global cricket body’s announcement in an event in Mumbai, both experts and fans were debating on the exclusion of Cheteshwar Pujara, the selectors’ decision to ignore Sarfaraz Khan yet again despite his solid domestic numbers and the introduction of new faces such as Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and Mukesh Kumar among other topics.

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The discussions, though, were mainly centered around the Test squad, especially in the aftermath of the 209-run defeat in the ICC World Test Championship final against Australia. The ODI squad, for a change, was somewhat swept under the carpet. This despite the fact that the WTC final is now behind us and the ODI World Cup is now a little over three months away, and the spotlight should ideally fall on the latter.

Read | India take first steps towards new era with bold decisions for WI tour

The one-day series against West Indies will also mark the beginning of the Men in Blue’s final preparations for the showpiece event that it will be hosting entirely for the first time in the tournament’s history.

It is an entirely different thing that two-time champions Windies might miss out on the 50-over World Cup for the first time in its 48-year history well before the ODI series against India gets underway. The Shai Hope-led side finds itself in a rather sticky situation in the qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe and will need a miracle of sorts to climb out of it and book their ticket for India.

Regardless of whether the Windies make it to the World Cup or not, the series will be an important one for the Men in Blue for them to get their combinations right and to experiment with certain players.

And before the Indians board their flights to the Caribbean, we take a look at some of the key talking points concerning the squad for the ODI series against West Indies:

Mohammed Siraj leading the bowling unit

With Jasprit Bumrah yet to recover from his back injury and Mohammed Shami rested from the West Indies tour in order to manage his workload, the responsibility of spearheading the Indian attack in the Caribbean will fall on the shoulders of Mohammed Siraj.

While the 29-year-old has grown used to being the primary pace option for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL), the job still is uncharted territory for him in international cricket, given he’s used to bowling alongside the likes of Bumrah, Shami or even Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar since making his debut in 2017. The task, however, will be a major learning curve for him.

Though left-arm seamer Jaydev Unadkat has been picked and brings variety into the attack, the team think-tank is likely to pair Siraj up with express pacer Umran Malik. On their day, these two can blow any opposition batting lineup away. And if they don’t get their lines and lengths right, they can leak runs aplenty and derail the team’s plans. It’s the relative lack of experience with the frontline pace options that could present a challenge to the team.

Choosing the right keeper

Skipper Rohit Sharma and head coach Rahul Dravid will have a lot of thinking to do far as zeroing in on their wicket-keeper is concerned — both in the Tests and in the one-dayers. Uncertainty still persists over the possibility of Rishabh Pant, who has been out of action since he met with a car accident last December, returning to action before or during the World Cup. Hence, the team leadership must focus on the ideal person to replace him, the process of which begins in this series with Ishan Kishan and Sanju Samson as part of the squad.

Since Pant’s accident, Kishan has been the Men in Blue’s primary choice as far as their limited-overs wicketkeeper is concerned. Not only is Kishan a tried and tested option behind the stumps, but he is also quite flexible in terms of his batting position and thus gives his team a lot of room for experimentation.

Samson too could be considered at par with Kishan in terms of keeping skills. What gives him the edge going into the upcoming series however, is the fact that he made a far bigger impact with the bat for the Rajasthan Royals in the IPL than Kishan did for the Mumbai Indians.

Zeroing in on the spin department

It won’t be an easy choice for the team to decide on its spin options either. And given the World Cup returns to the subcontinent after a decade, tweakers certainly will play a big role in deciding a team’s fortunes in the mega event.

Left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav has been among the standout bowlers this year and is currently the second-highest wicket-taker (15) in ODIs in 2023 among spinners from ICC’s Full Members, behind Sri Lanka’s Wanindu Hasaranga. Thus picking him for the West Indies ODIs as well as the Asia Cup and the World Cup, should he maintain his form, becomes a no-brainer.

What will be a hot topic of discussion in team meetings will be picking two between the three remaining options of Yuzvendra Chahal, Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. One option could be to reunite the Kul-Cha pair and choose between Jadeja and Axar for the all-rounder’s slot.

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