Team India players are currently enjoying a break from international cricket ahead of the West Indies tour. This is the first time in so many years that the team will not play for a month and as soon as the action begins, the preparion for the upcoming ODI World Cup commences for the Men in Blue. Surprisingly, they are playing only three ODIs in West Indies in contrast to five T20Is.
With injury issues to several key players, the team is looking far from settled at the moment. The likes of KL Rahul, Jasprit Bumrah, Shreyas Iyer are expected to return to action for the Asia Cup in September. These scenes are similar to last year when injured players made a comeback in the Asia Cup and quite a few changes were made to the team.
Even though India are deemed to be the favourites with the World Cup being played at home, it doesn't seem so if we have one look at the Player Rankings for ODIs among bowlers. Mohammed Siraj is India's only one of the two bowlers in top 25 with Kuldeep Yadav being the other bowler who is ranked 24th. If only the fast bowlers are considered, Siraj is India's only active bowler in top 29 as Mohammed Shami is at the 30th position.
Siraj is one of the most improved bowlers for India across all formats for India in recent years. If only ODIs are considered, the fast bowler has picked 43 wickets in 24 matches after making his debut in the format in January 2019. He is ranked second in the ODIs among bowlers but who else after him? Jasprit Bumrah is at the 27th position who hasn't played an ODI since July 2022 and featured in only 14 matches in the format since 2019 World Cup.
While Bumrah's fitness continues to be a concern, Shami hasn't been at his absolute best it seems. There is no doubt that he is the best man for India alongwith Siraj with the new ball at the moment but the pace bowler has finished his quota of 10 overs in only 6 out of 23 matches since World Cup 2019.
In this situation, with only three months to go for the mega event at home, India do not have an established and consistently performing fast bowler apart from Mohammed Siraj. Next best fast bowler in terms of rankings is Shardul Thakur who is ranked 43rd and by no means is an automatic pick when it comes to India's ODI playing XI.
With hardly around 10-11 One-Day matches left before the World Cup, the time is ripe for India to quickly identify their fixed set of fast bowlers and play them in most of the matches in the lead up to the tournament. There is no room for 'EXPERIMENT' now which was a popular word among the management personnel ahead of the T20 World Cup and the struggle was evident in the crunch game.
With the schedule announcement reportedly set on June 27 for the West Indies tour, it remains to be seen if the selectors decide to pick their best possible players which is absolutely the right way to go. But the million dollar question is, Will they do it? Let us wait and watch!!!
