World Cup 2019, India preview: If middle order strikes form, few teams can stop Virat Kohli and Co

One of the many legendary exchanges between Christian Bale’s Batman and his butler Alfred in The Dark Knight goes like this.

Bruce Wayne: Batman has no limits. 

Alfred Pennyworth : Well, you do, sir. 

Bruce Wayne : Well, can’t afford to know ‘em. 

Alfred Pennyworth : And what happens on the day that you find out? 

Bruce Wayne : Well, we all know how much you love to say “I told you so.” 

Alfred Pennyworth : On that day, Master Wayne, even I won’t want to. Probably.

When you imagine Wayne to be Virat Kohli, that exchange fits fairly well to the current Indian cricket team as well. Here’s a side that feels near invincible, at least according to their captain and his immensely positive attitude. They have the records to show for it in One-Day Internationals. The team has the desire to succeed, no doubt, but does have a tendency to show a blindside to weaknesses. They, perhaps, think it is unnecessary to accept flaws in front of the rest of the world but sometimes people on the outside, much like Alfred, do have to wonder whether a reality check is important.

Indian cricket fans will hope and pray that the team does not have to be reminded of their limits by the time their World Cup campaign comes to an end.

For a while now, the problems have been obvious but the solutions have not been forthcoming. On more than occasion recently, the team management has come out and said the middle order is not a concern and that they have a player earmarked to deliver in that role. And that positivity off the field has not resulted in success on it, with the No 4 position. The musical chair has resulted in India’s middle order sporting an unsettled look ahead of the 2019 World Cup, in what is perhaps the only visible chink in an otherwise sturdy armour of Kohli’s men.

If the batting order fires as a collective unit and is not left depending on only Kohli (and the openers) this summer in England, no one would have to say “I told you so” to the Indian team, who are otherwise looking in fantastic shape.

Read more: With World Cup 2019 in full swing, is the delay for India good or bad?

History at the World Cup

India come in to the 2019 edition as one of the three sides to have won the tournament more than once (apart from Australia and West Indies). They return to the United Kingdom for the World Cup, hoping to repeat Kapil Dev’s feat in 1983 when he famously lifted that trophy at the Lord’s balcony, to set off the revolution in Indian cricket. And in MS Dhoni, they still have the man, who led Sachin Tendulkar and Co to an equally famous triumph in 2011, in their squad. While India became the first team to win the cricket World Cup as the host nation, they will be hoping to prevent a hat-trick with England, perhaps, the only side more favoured than Kohli’s men to lift the trophy this time around.

Since the 2015 World Cup

India’s recent form is reason enough to consider them hot-favourites for the World Cup this year. Here are a few standout aspects of it:

• This Indian team has won away ODI series in South Africa, Australia and New Zealand in the past year or so and almost came close to defeating England at home, something that has not been possible in a bilateral series in world cricket in the last four years. A second string side also won the Asia Cup trophy in UAE.
• With a record of 56 wins in the 86 matches played between the 2015 and 2019 editions, India’s win/loss ratio of 2.071 is second only to England’s record (58 wins out of 88).
• No one in the world has scored more ODI runs and centuries than Virat Kohli (4306, 19 tons) and Rohit Sharma (3790, 15 tons) between the 2015 and 2019 editions.
• Since the 2017 Champions Trophy final defeat, Kuldeep Yadav has taken 87 wickets for India: in the last two years, no one comes close to him in that list. The second best? Yuzvendra Chahal with 66. Jasprit Bumrah is fifth on that list.

These are stat nuggets that definitively prove that while England are rightly being applauded for their ODI revolution post Australia-New Zealand, India have stepped up their game incredibly as well. With Kohli taking over the reigns from Dhoni, the men in blue have become a well-oiled machine in ODIs, represented in a nutshell by their captain’s peerless batting form.

India’s bowling unit has undergone a transformation since the Champions Trophy, first with the wrist-spinners side-lining R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja (but the latter bouncing back in the past eight months). There is also another surprise package in Mohammed Shami, who looks all set to be the second-choice at the World Cup behind the imperious Bumrah. Much like India’s ascent to the top of the Test rankings, their form in ODIs has been built on this sturdy bowling group that has the capability to deliver the goods irrespective of the conditions they bowl in.

Keys to qualifying for the semi-finals

Let’s put this on record: anything but a semi-finals spot will have meant India had a disastrous campaign. Unlike most of the previous World Cups (except 2007 and 2011 perhaps) India have been outsiders for winning the trophy, but not this time around. Kohli’s men, alongside England and Australia, are the favourites in the eyes of many a pundit and rightly so.

Of course, no one can guarantee success in sport and all that, but India have to just do their basics right and play close to their potential to reach the knockouts and from there, it’s anyone’s tournament. They have well-settled bowling unit, capable of delivering in most conditions and in Kohli, they have the best batsmen in the world in this format.

But to spell it out, the key to India finishing in the top four is going to be the middle order. India have been evidently top-order dependent in the recent past. Kohli at No 3 will score significant runs in more matches than he won’t. Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan could go either way: they will either find their ICC tournament form and give India strong starts or they will continue their mini recent slump and put pressure on the rest of the batting lineup.

In both scenarios, the middle order will have to step up and deliver: either make the most of the good start provided (which could be the difference between a par 300 or a match-winning 350) or pick up the slack and take the team to a score the bowlers can defend, if the top order crumbles on the occasional green wicket.

Squad

Virat Kohli (captain), Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Vijay Shankar, Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wicketkeeper), Kedar Jadhav, Dinesh Karthik, Yuzvendra Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammed Shami.

Fixtures