Indian team: Problems wrapped inside astonishing results

10 series down and not a single tournament defeat! This itself speaks volumes about a team which is capable enough of producing such astonishing results. Yes, we are talking about the Indian cricket team.

This T20 outfit has rightfully earned the title of 'invincibles' in the shorter format of the game post-2016 ICC World T20. This Indian team fears none and is yet to taste a series defeat on home or enemy turf.

Anyone from Rohit Sharma to Bhuvneshwar Kumar is competent enough to change the course of the match with their bat, and if this doesn't work, then from Bhuvi-Bumrah to Chahal-Yadav, the bowling duos are enough to change the course of the match with the ball.

Furthermore, this team is blessed to possess a bench strength, which a group can only think of. Yet, there are issues that have started to come up with in this extraordinary group of skilled players.

Are we saying there are serious issues with this prodigious team? Are we seriously thinking of finding an error or two in a team which is yet to lose a tournament? Indeed, we are!

Misguided leadership:

Loopholes are bound to be found, irrespective of how perfect a thing looks. A similar story is with this Indian outfit. The issues are surrounding Captain Kohli from all sides, and all he has to say is - “ We will look into it and try to seal the moments.”

True to the fact that cricket is played more on moments rather on long-term goals but to win those small moments, you need to build your team accordingly, which Virat Kohli has failed to do in the many years of his captaincy.

The captain is still to mark his crucial No.4 player and is unclear of what his team’s balance should be. KL Rahul has been made to look like a fool by getting demoted to no. 4, and he is yet to find his feet in a team which he has been part of for the past three years. Yes, three years!

Kohli's demotion or Rahul's presence in the middle order is not helping the team.

One thing remarkable about Rohit Sharma as a captain is that he is clear about where KL Rahul is going to play; either he is in the top three or he is out of the team. You cannot ask an opener to bat lower down the order!

Even Gautam Gambhir was compromised to the number three spot for the iconic duo of Sehwag-Tendulkar but not lower than that. Therefore, the question here is- Why does a team want a player like Virat Kohli to bat at number four and come in the 10th or 11th over for someone like Rahul? Why should the team compromise its balance and its player who has scored the bulk of his runs at number three?

An opposition captain would be really happy to see this star player coming in a situation where he faces fewer balls and gets out cheaply, consequently giving his team an advantage over the star player's team.

Nevertheless, if the skipper (Virat Kohli) has to look at this, then why will he want to have his team in such a complicated position? This is where King Kohli has failed to justify himself as a captain. He is not only playing down the team’s balance but also demoralising a player who hasn't scored a lot of runs by making him play in a position which does not suit him.

The problem of plenty or a bugbear:

Moreover, the captain is yet to mark his top 11 or 15 players who can consistently do the job for him. With Khaleel Ahmad in the mix, the team has lost a high performing asset to the bench in the form of Yuzvendra Chahal.

The bench, consisting of Umesh Yadav, Manish Pandey, Washington Sundar, Siddharth Kaul and Shardul Thakur, has not been rotated well. These players are only given opportunities when the series becomes a dead rubber. You don’t make players play in a no-result oriented game but in a game where their characters are truly tested.

The batting order is shaky; the team highly depends on the front three batsmen. The middle order is incompetent and, in the absence of MS Dhoni, inexperienced. With any one of the marked 11 players injured, this team does not have a backup player who is match ready.

This was glaringly visible in the ODI series against an inept West Indian side where the Kumar-Bumrah duo was recalled after the tie in the second ODI in Mumbai. If Virat Kohli thinks this as a good headache, then sadly the skipper is mistaken.

Lack of a sixth bowler:

The problem of plenty gives birth to the problem of lacking a sixth bowler. Predictably, this problem arises due to the team balance Virat Kohli prefers. The skipper has a fixed set of five bowlers which include Hardik Pandya as well. If even one of these bowlers is having a bad day or, god forbid, something happens to any one of them during the course of the match then such a situation leaves Kohli, and more so, the Indian team high and dry. Kohli has been a bit rigid in his approach as compared to MS Dhoni.

MS Dhoni had the luxury of having his sixth or seventh bowler in a match where his bowlers didn't fire

If one looks at the latter, captain cool had at least five bowlers at his disposal and if he felt something is not going right then he had Suresh Raina or Yuvraj Singh doing the job for him. Even in the 2016 ICC World T20, the captain had Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Yuvraj Singh and Virat Kohli at his disposal apart from his regular bowlers. Alas, such a luxury is missed by the current Indian skipper.

Impending problems:

The problems seem to have fallen in love with the Indian side. A headache for the Indian skipper will surely grow when Hardik Pandya and Kedar Jadhav return in January, but will that mean that the gates will close for KL Rahul or Krunal Pandya, who is up to the mark with his batting along with his bowling?

The latter also made his case courtesy of match-winning bowling figures of 4-36 against the resilient Australians in the third T20I at Sydney. What is his future in the side with Kedar Jadhav back in the equation and while Virat Kohli sees him as a rather unorthodox option?

Also, with Rishabh Pant being handed the gloves, will this Pandya-Jadhav return mean Dinesh Kartik is on the bench yet again? In the middle of all this, where will Yuzvendra Chahal fit? But if he is benched, how is the bowling combination going to shape up when the ICC Cricket World Cup is just months away?

With these problems arising in the camp, the query is- Will too many cooks spoil the broth?