The five-match ODI series against Australia will give the Indian team management one final opportunity to identify the squad that will travel to England in May for the ODI World Cup. The first of the five ODIs will be played at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Hyderabad on Saturday, 2 March.
As things stand, at least 12 players pick themselves in the World Cup squad. Over the next fortnight, captain Virat Kohli, coach Ravi Shastri and the selection committee will look to find answers to the remaining spots that need filling.
The Indian cricket team should be aware that at the cost of planning for the future, they shouldn’t be jeopardising the present.
Cricket is a momentum game; once a team starts winning, the entire squad feels confident and there is belief within the group.
Starting with the Asia Cup win last year, India were on a roll – registering success against the Windies at home, against Australia on the road and beating New Zealand in the ODI series.
However, most recently, India have now lost two series on the bounce – the T20I series in New Zealand and the T20I series against Australia at home.
One hopes the Indian team will look to first secure the ODI series against Australia before they experiment with different combinations in planning for the World Cup.
Australia have problems of their own.
The ‘Sandpaper-gate’ may have caused a lot of turmoil and resulted in sanctions on two of Australia’s gun players – namely Steve Smith and David Warner – but even before that, the Australian cricket team was a shadow of the team that dominated the cricket landscape for decades.
Barring Aaron Finch (who is battling poor form currently) and Glenn Maxwell, there are few batsmen in the Australian squad who will give opponents’ bowlers sleepless nights.
One glance at the Australian squad that has arrived in India, and it would be difficult to identify more than five players as being certainties in the XI; such is the poor state Australian cricket finds itself in.
On paper, India should beat this Australian team in every single contest in this series. However, that is not always how things pan out.
Rohit Sharma
Marcus Stoinis
Yuzvendra Chahal
Jhye Richardson
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