Batting legend Rahul Dravid summed up the popular sentiment lucidly when he recently declared that “winning the World Cup will not be easy for India”. The country’s batting line-up is robust but its bowling attack has time and again been shown up as woefully inept. Not one to give in to blanket declarations, Dravid left open a window for kismet in his analysis: “Reaching the quarterfinals shouldn’t be difficult, but thereafter, any team with three good games, and a bit of luck, should be able to win.”
Messrs MS Dhoni and Co would be hoping they are the team Lady Luck sides with during the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand beginning next month. India won the tournament’s 2011 edition but that was held in the subcontinent and back then the team had players like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Ghambir.
The 15 members chosen for the Indian squad this time are young (with an average age of 27.35), though they do have relatively high experience (with combined 1,242 matches between them). In the one-day rankings of the International Cricket Council, India fare well, coming in second. But in the rankings prepared by Scroll.in they are positioned a disappointing sixth.
To extract a better picture of the 14 participants in the 2015 tourney, Scroll.in analysed the individual career one-day international figures of each team’s chosen 15 players and then aggregated those numbers. As expected, India did well on the batting parameter, standing second among the top eight teams. Also predictably, they were dead last in bowling among those teams.
If the strike rate and batting average of all batsmen (who have played at least 25 innings) are considered, India have three batsmen in the top 10 – Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, all in fact in the top five. In contrast, if the runs conceded per over and runs conceded per wicket of all bowlers at the World Cup are considered, no Indian bowler features in the top 30.
Time and time again, India’s bowlers have let the team down. Ravichandran Ashwin, who has taken the most wickets after Ravindra Jadeja, fails to do well on bouncy surfaces. Mohammed Shami has the lowest overs/wickets average of any Indian bowler at the World Cup who has played at least 25 innings; however he has a bad economy rate of 5.7 runs per over. Jadeja, who is India’s best bowler, is injured and may not make it to the World Cup.
The bouncy and swinging pitches in Australia and New Zealand are bound to pose trouble for the Indian team, even its batting line-up. Throughout 2014, India’s main problem was their sudden collapse, some of which were more worrying because they happened on flat tracks that are ideal for batting.
For sure, India may have the talent but they fall short on form whenever away from the comfort of home-grown pitches. In Australia and New Zealand, Dhoni’s men will hope to avoid similar collapse and, of course, wishing for Lady Luck to stay by their side.
Messrs MS Dhoni and Co would be hoping they are the team Lady Luck sides with during the World Cup in Australia and New Zealand beginning next month. India won the tournament’s 2011 edition but that was held in the subcontinent and back then the team had players like Yuvraj Singh, Zaheer Khan, Sachin Tendulkar and Gautam Ghambir.
The 15 members chosen for the Indian squad this time are young (with an average age of 27.35), though they do have relatively high experience (with combined 1,242 matches between them). In the one-day rankings of the International Cricket Council, India fare well, coming in second. But in the rankings prepared by Scroll.in they are positioned a disappointing sixth.
To extract a better picture of the 14 participants in the 2015 tourney, Scroll.in analysed the individual career one-day international figures of each team’s chosen 15 players and then aggregated those numbers. As expected, India did well on the batting parameter, standing second among the top eight teams. Also predictably, they were dead last in bowling among those teams.
If the strike rate and batting average of all batsmen (who have played at least 25 innings) are considered, India have three batsmen in the top 10 – Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, MS Dhoni, all in fact in the top five. In contrast, if the runs conceded per over and runs conceded per wicket of all bowlers at the World Cup are considered, no Indian bowler features in the top 30.
Time and time again, India’s bowlers have let the team down. Ravichandran Ashwin, who has taken the most wickets after Ravindra Jadeja, fails to do well on bouncy surfaces. Mohammed Shami has the lowest overs/wickets average of any Indian bowler at the World Cup who has played at least 25 innings; however he has a bad economy rate of 5.7 runs per over. Jadeja, who is India’s best bowler, is injured and may not make it to the World Cup.
The bouncy and swinging pitches in Australia and New Zealand are bound to pose trouble for the Indian team, even its batting line-up. Throughout 2014, India’s main problem was their sudden collapse, some of which were more worrying because they happened on flat tracks that are ideal for batting.
For sure, India may have the talent but they fall short on form whenever away from the comfort of home-grown pitches. In Australia and New Zealand, Dhoni’s men will hope to avoid similar collapse and, of course, wishing for Lady Luck to stay by their side.
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