Zimbabwe series: India look ready for life without Kohli, Rohit in T20Is

The overwhelming number of ongoing sporting showpieces, not to speak of the euphoria over India’s T20 World Cup win, somewhat overshadowed India’s 4-1 T20 series win against Zimbabwe. Not surprising, given the fact it was only a BCCI act of largesse to help the African country’s cricket board financially, but there was a historical significance of the tour.

 The series, for one, officially marked the beginning of Men in Blue’s journey in this format in the post Rohit Sharma-Virat Kohli-Ravindra Jadeja era. The bigger picture, meanwhile, is that it leads to the road for the next World T20 scheduled in India in two years’ time – where they will go in as defending champions. It’s been a promising start to that end and the new head coach Gautam Gambhir will get a two-year cycle, and a surfeit of bilateral T20 cricket, to shortlist his men.

 Just reflect on the following playing XI against Zimbabwe in the final T20I, which had just three names from the World Cup-winning squad in the Caribbean: captain Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson, Riyan Parag, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, Washington Sundar, Ravi Bishnoi, Tushar Deshpande and Mukesh Kumar. An enviable line-up this, with enough clues on who can take up the positions of the famed trio who just bid adieu to the shortest format.      

The top three being the most contentious positions, Gill, Jaiswal and debutant Abhishek made merry – albeit against a mediocre attack. Gill, who could be one of the leaders of the batting unit in days to come alongwith senior pro Suryakumar Yadav and Rishabh Pant, was quieter of the three in the series but one could see him occupying the No.3 spot to hold the innings together a la Kohli. However, Pant did a commendable job in that unaccustomed position under the challenging conditions in the West Indies and it will be a tough call to displace him.

Jaiswal, who smashed an unbeaten 93 off 53 balls in the fourth T20I, announced his return to the team after being benched throughout India’s World Cup campaign while Abhishek served notice with his swashbuckling century. The latter, who made the squad on the strength of his aggregate of 484 runs for Sunrisers Hyderabad in IPL, provides an interesting option with his left-arm spin (he has also bowled in powerplays in the past) but it may still be difficult to accommodate him when the other regulars are back.

The fact that Ruturaj Gaikwad, who captained India to an Asian Games gold in Hangzhou, is in and out of the playing XI betrays a problem of plenty for the selectors and team management.

 While the future India line-up reveals there is no dearth of choices in the batting department, it’s also heartening to see Shivam Dube coming good as the second seaming allrounder after the skipper designate Hardik Pandya. His Man of the Match performance in the final T20I in Zimbabwe shows that the late bloomer can serve India well for at least the next couple of years. ‘’It’s always a special thing to contribute in both departments,’’ the hunk of an allrounder said later.   

It's their seam bowling department which looks relatively thin and still overreliant on Jasprit Bumrah. While Arshdeep Singh finished with 17 wickets to emerge as India’s highest wicket-taker in the World Cup, the Zimbabwe tour was not particularly fruitful in search of their back-ups – notwithstanding Mukesh Kumar’s four-wicket haul in the final game.  

 The spin department, however, offers more variety as Washington Sundar, the off=spinner allrounder from Tamil Nadu is being adjudged the Player of the Tournament for eight wickets besides making a handy contribution with the bat. Sundar’s contribution was especially crucial in the third T20I, in which his figures of 3/15 from four overs halted Zimbabwe’s spirited charge led by Dion Myers’ unbeaten 65 in their chase of the 183-run target set by the visitors.

 Add to this is the presence of Ravi Bishnoi, who became the No.1 T20 bowler in the ICC rankings towards the end of last year but couldn’t find a place in the World T20 squad past Yuzvendra Chahal or Kuldeep Yadav. And yes, Axar Patel will now be a regular in place of Jadeja after a long wait – something which certainly bodes well for the future!