Former World Cup winner with India in India back in 2011, Gautam Gambhir thinks come the 2023 ODI World Cup in India, BCCI will have to man manage the players who feature in all three formats by putting ODI in priority over T20Is.
“If they want to take a break, people who play more than three formats, they can definitely take a break from T20 cricket, but surely not from the ODI format. They got to play together,” he said on Star Sports. “I think the biggest mistake that Indian cricket has made in the last two World Cups has been that these guys have not played enough of cricket together. Tell me how many times have we got the best playing 11 on the park? We haven’t, only during the World Cup we decided to have the best playing 11, but unfortunately that was never the best playing 11. So these guys have to play enough of white ball cricket, especially for the 50 overs World Cup together irrespective whether they want to take a break from the T20 or from the IPL. But the break has to happen in the T20 format and not the 50 overs.”
Gambhir further suggested that the board needs to make sure that the players need to feature more for the national side, even if this comes at the cost of an IPL franchise missing out on their star players.
“If the franchise has to suffer they have to suffer. Indian cricket is the main stake holder, not the IPL. IPL is just the by product. So, if India goes out and wins the World Cup, that is the bigger ovation, that is the bigger ring. For example, if an important player does miss the IPL games so be it, because IPL happens every year and the World Cup happens only once in four years. So, for me I think winning the World Cup is far more important than winning the IPL.”
Former India player and Chairman of the selection committee, Krishnamachari Srikkanth also spoke in line with Gambhir’s beliefs.
“I think in my opinion, by the time the Australia series is over, plan, this is going to be my best team,” Srikkanth said. “If I was chairman of the selection committee, I would say, this is my 15, look at the form in the IPL, and then make some probably minor changes. I can’t wait till the Asia Cup and say ‘Man, after this Asia Cup I’ll select the team’, no way. As soon as the Australia series is over, we have to communicate that you guys are going to play the World Cup, come on, do well in the IPL, keep your form there, make sure your fitness is fantastic, keep going and that will be the team. That’s what I would do if I was the chairman of the selection committee.”
Anchors to play an important role
England may be the undisputed white ball champions of the world owing to their swashbuckling style of cricket. But former players who can anchor the innings will be pivotal to the men in blue’s success.
“I feel people like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and all those guys who can anchor their innings, who probably can play spin really well will play a massive role the coming World Cup,” Gambhir said.
He further added, “I always feel that when we talk about this new approach, which India always talks about, the template and stuff, you’ve got to identify players who can adapt those roles or that template very easily. Some people just cannot adapt to that template so why push them to play in a certain way which doesn’t come naturally to them. So, for me, I think identifying players and at the same time getting the right mix is very important, rather than thinking that we have to play at a certain template so we got to select all the 15 with a similar mind-set or with a similar template.”
“First, you need to identify the players who got that fearless approach and probably in a format like 50 overs you need to have a mixture of every kind of player. There are players who can anchor their innings. Change in role has also made a huge difference. During that time we had only one new ball, now we’ve got two new balls with five fielders inside. So, the role of a part timer has gone out of the window. The reverse swings, you don’t see enough of reverse swings anymore, you don’t see enough of chase for the finger spinners as well.”
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