India, the Champions Trophy winners in 2013, fell short of defending their title in 2017 when they were led to another Champions Trophy final under veteran batter Virat Kohli. The Champions Trophy title triumph was India’s last major ICC title in the longer format of white-ball cricket, which has been over a decade long.
Though India won the T20 World Cup 2024, which ended their ICC trophy drought of over 10 years, they are still in the hunt for better results in the ODI format, as even an undefeated Indian team fell short of the trophy in the World Cup 2023, as they lost the final to the mighty Aussies.
With the new coach Gautam Gambhir taking over, since then they have not made a good start to the ODI format. The World No. 1 ODI side, as ranked by the ICC, has faced their recent series defeat at the hands of seeming underdogs, Sri Lanka, who did not win any bilateral ODI series against the Men in Blue for the last 10 such series for over 27 long years.
Sri Lanka, who secured a victory of 2-0 over the visitors, broke the Indian teams back as they struggled to handle the Lankan spinners. Dunith Wellalage was named the Player of the Series against India in ODIs, as he scored vital runs for the team in the first two outings while picking a bunch of 7 wickets, though less than Vandersay, who picked 8 wickets in just two games with a 6-fer in the 2nd ODI itself.
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India’s 3 major concerns in the ODI format
India’s recent troubles against Spin
India has recently been among the weakest teams, who are not good at handling spin. Much unlikely to teams from the subcontinent, the most legendary Indian players have fallen like dried leaves in front of even the most timid spinners.
Though truly, the Lankan pitches largely favored spinners, the Lankan batters did not face equal trouble while handling the Indian spinners as much as the Indian batters did. Even the likes of the great Virat Kohli faced severe problems against spinners like Wellalage and part-timer Asalanka, who is not such a great spinner of the ball.
The Indian coach, who was once one of India’s best players in spin bowling, should address this major problem and make adjustments to his players batting ideologies to evolve them as better batters.
A reluctant middle-order
The Indian middle order has not been at its very best in the recently concluded series against the Lankan men. After their immense and strong performance in the World Cup 2023, India relied highly on their middle-order batters; however, the likes of Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul, and Rishabh Pant, who are making a comeback in the format, have all failed miserably.
To address this problem, Gambhir will face serious trouble with the Champions Trophy in sight; however, Pandya, even if he is back to the side, will need these batters mentioned above to excel before he can put a good end to the innings, which will act as a cherry on top.
The opening batsman dilemma
India recently announced Shubman Gill as the vice captain of the Indian side. With the likes of many senior players in the side, this decision seemed to be a little hasty. Gill has not been in the best of form for over a year now since the CWC 2023, where he underperformed and also faced a T20 World Cup squad snub.
Gill, despite his unconvincing form, has never been shown the wat out of the ODI side, as Gambhir and Indian selectors have not recognized probable options for the role, with the likes of Ruturaj Gaikwad and Yeshasvi Jaiswal being repeatedly not recognized in the format.
Jaiswal, who now seems the fixed opener in both the T20I and the longest format of the game for India, can be a solution to this problem, as he can often hand skipper Sharma a share of his intent. Rohit is seen striking the ball alone, while Gill has batted with a below-par strike rate of sometimes even below 50. This is disastrous when considered for the format; hence, even the Indian vice captain should be ideally replaced if he cannot improve or even improvise his game.
