World Cup 2019: Opinion - Time now for India to experiment by opting to chase targets

India is the only unbeaten team in World Cup 2019 after playing in 6 matches. In their sixth match at Manchester yesterday, India crushed a hapless West Indies side by a walloping margin of 125 runs. India now need one more win in the remaining 3 matches to secure a semi-final spot.

As far as the tournament is concerned, the last week has been a successful week for the players who have been recently slotted into the playing XI. Mohammed Shami, Haris Sohail, Kemar Roach, and Jason Behrendorff made all the difference to the fortunes of their respective teams.

As far as Team India is concerned, they should address their biggest worry associated with their brittle middle-order. Though Kedar Jadhav, MS Dhoni, and Hardik Pandya scored vital runs in the last two matches, the No. 4 predicament has once again come back to haunt India.

Apart from the middle-order muddle, there is yet another issue which has not surfaced so far in the tournament. In the last 6 losses that India suffered in ODIs, 4 came while chasing.

Fortunately for India, they had chosen to chase only in their first match against South Africa. In that match, Rohit Sharma’s century ensured that there were no hiccups in chasing a modest total. Kohli was lucky to win the toss against Australia, Afghanistan and West Indies while Pakistan dug their own grave by choosing to chase against India.

The lack of opportunity for India to chase down targets either by choice or design has created a concealed weakness in India’s prospects. If India is compelled to chase in a crunch game, they might crumble as they did against Australia in the semi-final of the last World Cup.

As such, England has lost its last two matches against Sri Lanka and Australia after sending the opposition in. Hence, England might look to bat first against India on Sunday irrespective of the conditions if they win the toss. That should stretch the Indian batting, more so in the absence of Shikhar Dhawan at the top and Bhuvneshwar Kumar in the lower-order. But it should be a proper workout for the Indian batsmen to assess their potency while chasing.

On the other hand, if Kohli wins the toss against England, he might not wish to risk by opting to chase. If India could go past England and secure a place in the semi-final, then Kohli might look to experiment in the matches against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

Unlike the previous World Cups in Australia and India, the chasing teams in England have a fair chance to compete with the wicket expected to assist the bowlers in the morning session. But as we go further deep into the tournament, the weary nature of the wicket should bring the spinners in to play.

In such a state of affairs, batting first would be a definite advantage. But any team worthy of being champions should be equally adept at chasing in unfavourable conditions. Pakistan proved that against New Zealand.

At this juncture, India would be better off being exposed to batting second in the league stages to equip themselves to such eventuality in the knock out stages. But will Virat Kohli take the risk to experiment by choice?