The hard fought win over West Indies in the ODI series capped a fine year for Indian cricket. But for 30 minutes or so of poor cricket in the semi-final of the World Cup against New Zealand, as Virat Kohli admitted recently, 2019 would have finished on an even sweeter note.
In the year, India won all the Test series they played in, had more wins than losses in the limited overs formats of the game. Not just that, two Indian batsmen – Kohli and Rohit Sharma – were numbers 1 and 2 among batsmen with international runs. Among bowlers, Mohamed Shami was top of the pops.
Kohli’s high run scoring continues unabated. He revels in and feeds off his own success. Keenly competitive, he wants to stay ahead of the pack, and knows that the best － perhaps only － way to this is to keep bettering his performances. He is today widely, and justifiably, acknowledged as the world’s best batsman in all formats.
Shami has seen a tremendous upsurge after some terrific performances in Test cricket in 2018 that saw him force his way back into the ODI team last year. By end 2019, he was also in the T20 side. In Jasprit Bumrah’s absence, he became the spearhead of the Indian attack.
Sharma had perhaps the most dramatic 12-month period of his career yet. With three double hundreds in ODIs, his credentials in white ball cricket were impeccable. He embellished this further with five centuries in the World Cup. To underscore that this was not some aberration, Sharma enjoyed stupendous success on his return to the Test side, this time as opening batsman and is now regarded as the most dangerous batsman in the game.
I have highlighted these three players because their individual contributions were quite extraordinary. But several other Indian players also featured prominently among run-getters and wicket takers to add substance and heft to Indian cricket in 2019.
Cheteshwar Pujara was superb against Australia in the Test series, Ajinkya Rahane appeared to have rediscovered his mojo, and while Shikhar Dhawan and K L Rahul lost their places in the Test side, Mayank Agarwal emerged as splendid replacement for the second opener’s spot.
Among bowlers, veteran pacemen Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav showed that the fire in them hadn’t been doused with age or intermittent opportunities to play in Tests. Along with Shami, they formed a deadly troika, winning matches even on placid home pitches where otherwise only spinners thrived.
Not that the slow bowlers lagged behind. Both R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja reiterated their prowess whenever given the opportunity. That fast bowlers were also now taking wickets on slow or spin friendly pitches actually defined how well-rounded and penetrative the Indian attack has now become: perhaps the best ever in Indian cricket history.
These attributes are also true in ODI cricket, with some changes in personnel. Rahul’s current form in white ball cricket is quite sensational, and India’s bowling options in both pace and spin get that much vaster with established hands like Yazuvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and newbies like Navdeep Saini and Khaleel Ahmed.
One area of concern would be the wicket-keeping where the precocious Rishabh Pant is still to find his métier. But here too, there are options aplenty － including M S Dhoni for the immediate future － if Pant doesn’t achieve a higher degree of reliability.
By common consensus, Kohli’s team emerges as the best across all three formats in 2019. But that may not necessarily hold true in the next year. There are challenges ahead that have to be identified clearly and addressed early.
Failure to even reach the final of the 2019 World Cup will still be rankling Kohli. He is a deeply ambitious man, and the fact that the team has not won a single ICC Trophy under his captaincy as yet, leaves one important box not ticked in his roster of achievements.
The ODI World Cup is still more than three years away, but the T20 World Championship in October 2020 affords Kohli another opportunity to fulfill this desire. India are still experimenting with players, but need to finalise a 18-20 member potential squad early to enable team bonding and determining strategies.
Equally, if not more, important is how India fares in Tests. Excellent performances at home against South Africa and Bangladesh have provided a head start in the World Championship. But playing overseas is the big trial that awaits the team in 2020, starting with the series against New Zealand in February.
Being in the final of the World Test Championship (2021) seems a cinch at this point in time. But India’s No.1 ranking could get dented unless the results are as anticipated. In the bitterly competitive world of international sport, letting up on intensity, focus and ambition is asking for trouble.
The writer is a senior journalist who has been writing on the sport for over 40 years.
