3 major challenges that await Indian men's cricket in 2025

The Indian men's cricket team had a year of two contrasting halves in 2024. They began their journey with a terrific win over South Africa in the Cape Town Test to draw the two-match series 1-1. India then hammered Afghanistan 3-0 at home in a three-match T20I series before getting the better of England 4-1 in a five-match Test series at home.

The high point of 2024 for the Indian men's cricket team was of course winning the T20 World Cup held in the West Indies and the United States. After faltering in the final in the 2023 ODI World Cup, Rohit Sharma and co. came up with a sensational effort to lift the T20 World Cup without losing a single game and ending their 11-year-old drought in ICC events.

The second half of 2024, though, was an eminently forgettable one for India. They lost a bilateral ODI series to Sri Lanka for the first time in 27 years. India suffered further embarrassment when they were whitewashed 3-0 at home by New Zealand in a Test series. The year ended with them losing Test matches in Adelaide and Melbourne in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

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#1 Finding the right replacements as the transition phase kicks in

India are set to go into the final Test against Australia in Sydney without skipper Rohit, who has been miserable with the bat in the Test series. His captaincy has also come in for a lot of criticism. It would be safe to assume that we have seen the last of Rohit in Test cricket. At 37, with his reflexes failing him, he is unlikely to be considered again for red-ball cricket.

Veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin (38) also announced his retirement from international cricket midway through BGT 2024-25. Virat Kohli and Ravindra Jadeja are both 36 and might not play for much longer, especially when it comes to the red-ball formats. Kohli has been struggling for runs for a while now and one can never be sure when his time to call it quits comes.

India need to have a plan in place so that the transition happens in a rather smooth manner. The likes of Shubman Gill, Dhruv Jurel and Washington Sundar need to be backed and given a fair run to prove their worth. There could be a case to hand a comeback to Shreyas Iyer as well. To put it in short, there are some challenging times ahead for the Indian men's cricket team.

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#2 Providing better support to Jasprit Bumrah

One of the biggest reasons why Australia are 2-1 in the five-match Test series against India is because the backup for Jasprit Bumrah has been very weak. This has allowed Aussie batters, particularly the lower-order, to lift the team out of some rather tricky situations.

If we take a look at BGT 2024-25 bowling stats, Bumrah has been the best bowler on show by a distance. In four Tests, he has claimed 30 wickets at a stupendous average of 12.83, with three five-fers and two four-fers. Mohammed Siraj has claimed 16 wickets, but his scalps have come at an average of 31.44. Akash Deep, Harshit Rana and Nitish Kumar Reddy have failed to make an impact with the ball.

There was a time when India had Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav as part of the Test team. The pace bowling cupboard doesn't look as promising now. Shami (34) hasn't played international cricket since the 2023 ODI World Cup and there is still no confirmation over the exact date of his availability. India cannot afford to exhaust Bumrah and need to find suitable backups for him.

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#3 Making an impact in the one-day format

India played only three matches in ODIs in 2024. All three games were played at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The first one-dayer was tied, while the Men in Blue lost the next two matches by 32 and 110 runs respectively. They clearly looked out of sorts, especially against Sri Lanka's spinners.

Considering the fact that India played only three one-dayers in the entire of 2024, playing the format after a huge gap could pose a significant challenge to the side. Most of the players are used to batting in T20 mode and won't find it easy to adapt to the 50-over version, which is beginning to seem redundant for many.

The Men in Blue will play three ODIs against England at home before playing their Champions Trophy matches in Dubai. It would be rather interesting to see how the players turn up in the format after being away from it for such a long period of time.