Hectic IPL hurting Team India?

India captain Virat Kohli during the team’s loss to NZ recently. Pic/AFP

Indian cricket and England football have one thing in common. Despite boasting of world-class leagues, the two nations have not been highly successful at the World Cup in their respective sports. While India won the inaugural ICC T20 World Cup in 2007, a year before the IPL was born, England clinched their one and only FIFA World Cup in 1966, much before the English Premier League was formed in 1992.

When it comes to T20 cricket, IPL is the cynosure that sets gold standards. However, all that glitters is not gold as the Indian team will now have to wait for another T20 World Cup. India have done reasonably well when the franchisee-based T20 league was played after the T20 World Cup. In 2014, India reached the final, losing to Sri Lanka, after which the IPL was held, 10 days later. In 2016, the IPL began a week later after India reached the semi-final of the T20 World Cup [lost to West Indies in Mumbai].

In the other three instances, India have gone into the T20 World Cup with less than a week's gap. This was the reason behind the Supreme Court-appointed Justice Lodha Committee to mandate a 15-day gap between the IPL and tournaments of international stature. However, Team India went into this T20 World Cup with a mere nine-day gap [IPL final was played on October 15 and India's first match against Pakistan was on October 24].

‘Lack of planning'

India's 2007 T20 World Cup-winning manager Lalchand Rajput reckoned having at least a three-week gap works for better planning. "The planning was lacking a bit. For a tournament like the World Cup, we must have at least a three-week gap where the team members can come together for a camp and plan better," Rajput told mid-day on Monday. India's 1983 World Cup-winning pacer Balvinder Singh Sandhu too felt the scheduling could be better.

MSK Prasad, Lalchand Rajput and Balvinder Sandhu

"IPL is an important tournament because it also helps our domestic cricketers earn a good living. But maybe, the scheduling can be better in the future [whenever it clashes with the T20 World Cup]. Having the IPL before the T20 World Cup is always good because those who perform in the tournament may get a chance; helps in selection. It will provide the selectors with a better idea of who is in form and who is struggling. Three weeks' gap is good enough," said Sandhu.

Former chairman of selectors MSK Prasad didn't agree that IPL was the reason for India's debacle. "The tournament was split into two phases due to COVID-19. We just had two bad games - against Pakistan and New Zealand - that's it. There are no other reasons," said Prasad. Rajput believed losing the first match to Pakistan completely demoralised the Indian team.

"I always believe it is very important to start well in such tournaments. The 10-wicket loss left the team demoralised. Then, the knee-jerk reaction after the first game, when we tinkered with the batting order [against NZ]. According to me, Rohit should have opened the innings. If you wanted Ishan Kishan to open, then KL Rahul should have come in at No. 4 because he has batted in the middle-order for India before," he said.

‘We played badly'

According to Prasad, the dew factor also hampered India's chances. "Dew played a major role in those two games [v Pak and NZ]. Yes, we must not shy away from the fact that we played badly and lost, but one has to take the conditions into consideration as well. They were quite different for both teams. The NZ match was not held in favourable conditions for both teams. It became advantageous to the team batting second," reasoned the former India stumper. Sandhu, meanwhile, stressed: "If we are dominating world cricket, then we should be winning the World Cup often. We have just two World Cups since 2007 [50-50 in 2011], which is too less."

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