Asia Cup 2018: 5 Team India members who have something to prove

In any other sport, a tournament called the Asia Cup could be reasonably expected to be an epic affair. Teams from all around Asia converge in one spot, to prove their mettle in a battle for continental supremacy. A tournament where legends are born, and the names of the conquerors etched into history.

Unfortunately, Cricket's Asia Cup offers none of that. It will be an interesting tournament for sure, but certainly not the pantheon of Cricketing Gods. That honour is reserved for the World Cup. The tournament officially started four days after India's Test Series in England ended.

Moreover, Captain and star batsman Virat Kohli has been rested. It is fair to say that this tournament has somewhat slipped under the radar. However, life as an Indian Cricketer means that the Indian squad will be under more pressure than any other in the tournament (with the arguable exception of the Pakistani team before their clash with India).

Words will be written. Shot selection will be analyzed. Bowling changes will be scrutinized. And team selection will be criticized. Every member of the squad selected will be under an enormous amount of pressure, irrespective of whether they are playing or not. It is the nature of the beast. It is part of being an Indian Cricketer.

However, the tournament is doubly important for these five men. For one reason or another, they will be under more pressure than most. They include a grizzled veteran, a wide-eyed youngster, and one of Indian Cricket’s nearly men. For some, this tournament is a chance to prove to others what they have fervently believed for years; that they have what it takes to be successful in international cricket.

For others, this tournament is a chance to show the world what they have done so many times in the past; that they are elite in their fields. Without further ado, let's analyze, scrutinize, and criticize what I have written.

Khaleel Ahmed

Willing, but is he ready?

Khaleel Ahmed.

Go ahead, google him. I certainly did when the squad was announced. Yet here he is, one of five pacers in India's Asia Cup Squad.

Ahmed is the latest in a line of India A players; Rishabh Pant, Krunal Pandya, Hanuma Vihari, Deepak Chahar, and Prithvi Shaw, who have recently been elevated to the national team. I believe that his elevation is proof not only of his talent, but also of his perceived mental preparedness for international cricket.

This is not the idle speculation of a columnist; Rahul Dravid's desire to use the India A team to build up a reserve of players that can easily be slotted into the national team is well known. Ahmed's elevation to the Asia Cup squad does not take place if Mr. Dravid does not think he is mentally ready.

A left-arm medium pace bowler, Ahmed certainly has the benefit of recent match practice; he played his last competitive game on the 29th of August, for India A against South Africa A. He has also had the benefit of being guided by the Sage, Rahul Dravid, whose wisdom has hopefully made Ahmed a more thinking fast bowler. Crucially, Ahmed is the only left-armer in the squad, which means that if selected in the final eleven, he provides the attack with variety.

Ahmed's best chance of getting a game is against Hong Kong; he has surely already faced tougher opposition during his India A tenure. However, there is always the chance that one or more of the front-line fast bowlers is injured, or completely loses form, in which case Ahmed is the next man in. If selected, there is no doubt that he will attempt to do his best, and barring a catastrophic debut à la Simon Kerrigan at the Oval in 2013, should remain in the conversation regarding reserve players. It is even possible that I am not doing the young man justice; maybe he will set the international stage alight à la Mustafizur Rahman.

I believe that Ahmed's real test, and best opportunity to favourably acquit himself, will come off the field of play, if he can impress the coaching staff, and senior members of the team with his work-ethic, attitude, and skills in practice sessions. The likelihood that he will be selected in future squads depends on that; he must ingratiate himself within the group. Moreover, he must take advantage of being around the national team to improve himself. He must ask questions. He must be a sponge that absorbs all the knowledge that he can.

Khaleel Ahmed is not only in the position to play for his country. He is also in the position to become a much better player.

Ambati Rayudu

Scrambling to make an impact

Only 32 years of age, Ambati Rayudu has had enough trials and tribulations in his cricketing career to last a lifetime. The agony of not fulfilling his youthful promise. The self-inflicted ICL exile. The surreal moment when he realized that M.S. Dhoni did not trust him with the strike during an ultimately failed T20 run chase against England in 2014. The frustration of warming the bench during the 2015 World Cup. And then, the yo-yo test.

The last one must still sting. Coming off of a very prolific IPL season, wherein he reinvented himself as an opener for the victorious Chennai Super Kings, Rayudu failed a fitness test, and lost his place in the limited overs team for the tour of England a couple of months ago. Hearing batting coach Sanjay Bangar state that places for the 2019 World Cup squad were still up for grabs must have especially rankled. Was he to be a perpetual nearly-man; agonizingly near, and yet so far?

Yet, here he is. Back once again in the team. The consummate survivor. Often knocked down, but never knocked out. However, time is fast running out.

His multiple recalls have as much to do with his own perseverance, as they have to do with other players' failure to lock down the last middle-order batting slot.

He will be competing with Dinesh Karthik, Kedar Jadhav, and another nearly-man, Manish Pandey, for two middle-order slots. Given their styles of play, it is likely that Karthik and Rayudu will compete for the number 4 slot, and Jadhav and Pandey for the number 6 slot. Karthik is the man in possession, and Jadhav was a regular fixture in the side before getting injured. As such, it is likely that Rayudu will have to wait his turn.

If and when he gets his chance, he will have to make it count. With less than a year till the World Cup, the team management will want to start penciling a tentative batting order. A strong performance in this tournament will go a long way in being factored into those plans. However, conversely, failures in this tournament will likely sound a death knell for World Cup ambitions.

Rayudu is in a less than enviable position. If Karthik does well, he may well be discarded from the next squad without playing a single game. And if Karthik fails, Rayudu will bear the treble pressure of a World Cup audition, making a comeback, and attempting to stabilize a struggling middle-order. Not to mention the fact that he batted with the most freedom he has in a long time as an opener, and will now be shunted back into the middle order.

No pressure, then.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar

Sultan of Swing

I wish Bhuvneshwar Kumar had been fit for the Test series in England.

Bhuvneshwar Kumar likely wishes he had been fit for the Test series in England

The team management certainly wished that Bhuvneshwar Kumar had been fit for the Test series in England.

But if wishes were horses, beggars would ride. And, India might have won the Test series in England.

They say you don't know what you have got until it has gone. India badly missed Kumar's swing, control, and guile in England. New-ball partner Jasprit Bumrah returned with a vengeance in the last three Test matches, showing everybody just what they had missed. Now, it is time for Bhuvneshwar Kumar to do the same.

He is an excellent fast bowler by any standards, and that is saying a lot. For years, Team India has wished for a fast bowler that was excellent even by Indian standards; we yearned for another Kapil Dev or Javagal Srinath, but would have happily settled for another Madan Lal or Ajit Agarkar. And then Bhuvneshwar Kumar went and reinvented himself.

He always had excellent control over swing, but he added a yard of pace too. Always excellent with the new-ball, he was suddenly one of the best death bowlers in the world. We had always marvelled at his in-swinger, we had oohed and aahed at his out-swingers, but bouncers? Yorkers? This was an entirely new beast. An entirely new Bhuvneshwar Kumar.

England is over.

But Bhuvneshwar is ready to ride once again, and will be itching to reinforce just how good he has become.

M.S. Dhoni

Still the man

M.S. Dhoni.

The man.

The myth.

The legend.

We all know about the legend. The World Cup winning Captain who sealed the deal with a six. That shot. That moment. It was the indelible moment of that World Cup campaign. 1983 had Kapil Dev's running catch. The class of 2011, Dhoni's six. But then there are many stories one can tell whilst talking about the legend of Dhoni; the 2013 Champions Trophy victory perhaps the least interesting of them.

There is the World T20 triumph; a young Dhoni in all of his long-haired glory who turned what was shaping up to be India's annus horribilis after the humiliation of the World Cup exit, into a celebration of youth and all of its seductive allure. Without the 2007 World T20, there may never have been an IPL; certainly, not the IPL we know today. There was the Commonwealth Bank series victory in Australia. And there were countless moments when Dhoni snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, taking the match to the very last over, one gunslinger against another; a duel he inevitably won. Perhaps snatched is inaccurate; he never looked like he was anything but in control of the situation.

The myth, then. The myth is fading. His identity has changed. The gunslinger is ageing. He still wins his fair share of duels, but there is something different about Dhoni in these situations. It would have been sacrilegious to even use the word at the height of his powers, but these battles are now competitive. He is no longer Captain Cool; that particular myth has been consigned to the shadows by Virat Kohli's Captain Angry. Except when Virat Kohli asks him to captain during the death overs. But he has proven himself mortal. We are now realizing that the Ice-man was only ever a man.

The man, Dhoni. That is what we are left with. Erstwhile Captain and tactician. Middle over floater. A declining force. Still a match-winner, no doubt. But a different kind. He can no longer bludgeon attacks into submission. No longer are doors smashed in with sledgehammers. He now picks locks with wires. As his skill-set has evolved, so to must his role. He must move to number-4 where he can control the middle overs with his fast running, and unparalleled ability to read the match situation.

This was shaping up to be a fairly nondescript series for M.S. Dhoni. Whether it was the man, the myth, or the legend, nobody was going to drop him. Least of all because nobody had yet successfully mounted anything even approaching a challenge. Even at his absolute worst, M.S. Dhoni was far and beyond the best wicketkeeper-batsman in the country.

And then the fifth Test match against England happened.

Rishabh Pant happened.

Until that moment, Pant had flattered to deceive. He seemed like nothing more than hot air. Over-hyped. Overrated. In over his head.

Smash. Over-hyped? Not likely.

Bang. Overrated? Adam Gilchrist certainly rated him.

In over his head? Surely you mean over the fielder's head?

Fifteen fours. Four sixes. One-hundred-and-forty-six deliveries. One-hundred-and-fourteen statements.

As far as the selectors were concerned, it was a Test match innings in name only. Rishabh Pant is going to be a part of India's next limited overs squad. That isn't a prediction, that's a spoiler.

Where does that leave M.S. Dhoni? He is in no immediate danger of losing his spot; not now, and not for the World Cup. He is still Dhoni, and Pant has yet to prove himself in limited overs cricket. But for the first time since Dhoni himself staked his claim, there appears to be a worthy usurper for India's limited overs wicketkeeping gloves.

M.S. Dhoni will want to prove that he is still the man.

He is not done adding to his legend.

Rohit Sharma

Still the Lord of this castle

India's Captain has nothing to prove in One Day Cricket. 3 double centuries is a pretty emphatic way to silence doubters. It seems like an open and shut case. It's simple, silly.

But nothing to do with Rohit Sharma has ever been simple. Apart from how he easy he makes batting look. Perhaps that is why he is revered and reviled in equal measure; there are those of us that are enamoured by the grace with which he bats, the beauty of his strokeplay. That is also why he has his detractors. They claim that he has been given too much rope, that he doesn't even look like he's trying, and that other players would have been discarded long ago. But look at all the pretty shapes he makes with the rope we cry. Yes, yes, it looks like he isn't trying, but that's the whole point. Well, of course, you'd discard lesser players, but Rohit is special.

And then he plays a shot so beautiful that you want to watch it on a loop for the rest of your life, and then, and then, and then he gets out? He gets out. And the detractors pounce, whether it was four five or hundred, and the admirers look at each other and say that it was a very good five, and the cycle goes on. On and on and on. Like listening to classical music, only for your CD to get scratched just as it was getting really good, just as you thought that you could lose yourself to it. It was a perverse cycle; us Rohit fans with our hopes dashed no matter what he did because he always seems to promise more, the Rohit detractors, frothing at the mouth, enraged after every failure because it never broke the status quo.

The status quo. Rohit Sharma will always be picked. The status quo. That is the status quo. That was the status quo.

Because he wasn't picked for the Test Series in England, was he? He wasn't even in the squad. He said that it didn't bother him, but it must have done. It had to have done. Because if it didn't, what his detractors say about him must be true. Or mustn't it? Maybe he compartmentalizes better, maybe at 31 years of age, he has accepted that his Test career is over. But still. To not even be picked in the squad? To not be called up as a reinforcement mid-series? It must have rankled just a little bit.

And so he finds himself as Captain. And, star batsman. With a Kohli shaped hole to fill. Maybe it's as simple as that. Maybe he just has something to prove because he's Captain. He enjoys captaincy; the IPL has proven that. And in the absence of Kohli, he must shoulder the weight of the batting order too. It makes sense that he would have something to prove for those reasons alone.

But with Rohit, it is never that simple. So I'll let you decide why he has something to prove, if he has something to prove. And I? I shall just watch him bat.