World Cup 2019: 3 areas where the 2011 Indian squad had an edge over 2019 Indian squad

Favourable and familiar playing conditions

Yuvraj Singh

The 2011 World Cup was played in India and the Indian team was well-versed with the playing conditions. The Indian batsmen have always been great players of spin and the Indian armory in 2011 consisted of spinners like Harbhajan Singh, Ravichandran Ashwin, and Piyush Chawla. These three spinners played crucial roles in all the matches and gave India the edge over some of the other teams like New Zealand, England, and Australia who struggled to capitalize on the spin-friendly pitches. India also had handy part-time spinners such as Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, and Yusuf Pathan. Yuvraj Singh was fantastic with the bowl along with his batting heroics. Yuvraj Singh picked up 2 wickets each in the final and the semi-finals. His peak bowling performance was against Ireland where he picked up 5 wickets.

India will miss the spin-friendly pitches in England. If the recently concluded series between England and Pakistan gives us any idea of what things might be on offer, the pitches will be anything but spin-friendly. The spinners of both sides were easily dispatched and posed no real threat with the white ball.

Even India’s tour of England last year displayed a similar tale for the Indian spinners. The Indian spinners were successful in the test matches especially during the last two or three days of the test matches. But the Indian spinners struggled to create any dominant impact during the one-day matches. The English batsman hardly struggled to read Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal as the pitches had very little to offer to the Indian spinners.

Spin has always been India’s strength and seam and swing has always troubled India. The Indian batsmen will have to be prepared to play against plenty of quality pace bowlers. If the recent warm-up fixture between India and New Zealand is considered, facing seam bowling seems to be a challenge as the Indian top order was dismantled quickly by the New Zealand seam bowlers and India was bowled out for 179. In fact, India lost all 10 wickets to New Zealand seam bowlers.

It will be interesting to see how India will adapt to the England conditions. India does have a formidable seam bowling line-up to rise to the challenge. The line-up consisting of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar is definitely promising and the additional contributions from Hardik Pandya and Vijay Shankar will be vital.

Considering the amount of cricket India has played in England in the past two years with the England series last year and the Champions Trophy in 2017, it will be disappointing to see if India arrives at the scene under-prepared to face this challenge.

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Indian cricket team representing the nation in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup is nothing short of talent. A young energetic side will be hard to keep silent. The World Cup will be long and excruciating with 9 league matches and 2 knockout matches if the ‘Men in Blue’ want to raise the trophy. The young side should cope up to this challenge and keep their energy high.

Indian fans can not wait for the boys to take the field on 5th June. Whether that is the Shikhar Dhawan’s blistering starts to the innings, Virat’s batting exuberance, Pandya’s hard-hitting, or the Dhoni’s finishing, the Indian fans are all set to watch India dominate and hopefully win the tournament for the third time.