Ringside view by Tushar Bhaduri: WTC: IPL workload, late departure could hurt India

By Tushar Bhaduri

India may still clinch the World Test Championship (WTC) final, beginning on Wednesday at The Oval in London. Shubman Gill’s sublime form and the class and experience of Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, and Cheteshwar Pujara may be enough to get the job done. On the bowling front, Mohammed Shami has been almost unplayable at times of late, and along with the ever-improving Mohammed Siraj could present a significant threat to the Australians. And one doesn’t need to remind anyone what Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja can do if they find even slightly helpful conditions.

The team’s credentials for the marquee clash are not in doubt. But the fact is that the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has not done its team any favours with its scheduling. The Indian Premier League final was scheduled for May 28, leaving less than 10 days before the WTC title showdown. That the Chennai Super Kings- Gujarat Titans clash went well into May 30 due to persistent rain in Ahmedabad (nobody’s fault) has taken two more days out of an already tight schedule.

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Key players like Gill, Jadeja, Rahane, and Shami only left for England with a week left for the big game after the rest of the squad departed on a piecemeal basis as and when their IPL engagements ended. Training and practicing as a squad is crucial to form strategies and deciding whom to field in the final XI, considering what they have been playing for the last two months is totally different from what they will face in South London from June 7-11 (possibly 12), in terms of the format and the conditions. Only Pujara has been honing his red-ball skills by playing in the English County Championship for Sussex.

Already depleted

India were already without the services of Jasprit Bumrah and Rishabh Pant even before the IPL began and lost KL Rahul to injury during the tournament. Despite whatever was said in the lead-up to the franchise showpiece, none of the Indian players in the WTC final squad skipped matches to manage their workload. Ashwin missed the final league game for Rajasthan Royals while Kohli limped off the field during the final stages of Royal Challengers Bangalore’s match against Gujarat Titans during a knee niggle. Though neither player’s availability for the WTC final is considered at risk, it does give anxious moments to fans, especially when pacers Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav, and Jaydev Unadkat had injury scares during the long IPL season.

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In contrast, only three Aussies part of their WTC final squad featured in IPL games – David Warner, Cameron Green, and Josh Hazlewood, with only the first two being regulars for their franchises. Skipper Pat Cummins and left-arm pacer Mitchell Starc pulled themselves out of the tournament while Steve Smith, who went unsold in the IPL auction, put his free time to good use by being Pujara’s teammate at Sussex, getting vital information about not just English conditions but also a key opposition batsman.

The Australians have the benefit of training together as a squad for much longer than their Indian counterparts, as Green was their only player involved in the final IPL week.

Victim of circumstances

Granted that in the present cricketing environment, shifting from one format to another within days – often without the benefit of practice games – is accepted practice, but one would have thought that with a world title at stake, it would have got slightly different treatment vis-a-vis scheduling. There would also hardly be any time for proper promotion of what should be one of the highlights of the bilateral calendar, as fans would have to jump almost immediately from the slam-bang version to the longest format of the game. One can understand if some of them suffer from some sort of cricketing fatigue.

However, with T20 franchise tournaments eating into more and more of the cricketing schedule, it was only wishful thinking.

India did prevail 2-1 over Australia in a Test series a few months ago, but that was played in conditions totally different to those expected at The Oval, which usually provides a pitch with pace and bounce, where batsmen often flourish and a fast outfield gives good value for shots.

It will not be like the pitches at Nagpur, Delhi, or Indore on which the ball turned and spat at batsmen from almost the first ball of the game. In one of those games, a first-innings total of under 200 was enough to win a Test inside five sessions. The Oval is likely to be much closer to a flat batting track in Australia, which may give Cummins & Co a slight edge, especially with the Indian bowling missing the cutting edge provided by Bumrah and the x-factor in Pant also not in play.

But one can never forget that it was India who came away with a Test series victory on their last two trips Down Under. Rohit Sharma and his band have it in them to end a decade-long drought of a major ICC trophy. They can rise above conditions and circumstances. Just that the build-up for them has been less than ideal.