Can Team India conquer the last Champions Trophy crown?

MS Dhoni will lead a relatively young team to the Champions Trophy 2013

It was a great finish to the Indian Premier League (IPL) despite the fixing saga that has dented the image of the tournament to a great extent. The star-studded Mumbai Indians team has finally lifted the IPL trophy under their young captain Rohit Sharma. Cricket fans have been so engrossed with the IPL for the last seven or eight weeks that they ignored the other cricket matches happening across the globe.

Now that Team India’s next international fixture is the upcoming Champions Trophy 2013 in England, the focus and attention shifts to the country in which the game was invented. It is always exciting to watch cricket in England, especially in the conditions where the contest between bat and the ball will be even as the wickets there provide an equal opportunity for the batsmen and the bowlers to dominate each other.

The Indian selection committee had picked the squad for the Champions Trophy a month before the start of the tournament and that must have given the players adequate time to erase any technical flaws in their game to adjust their playing style as per the conditions in England. However, all the players in the squad have been playing in the IPL which probably is not the best way to prepare themselves for England. We all know that the amount of swing the bowlers can extract on the English soil which could make batting difficult in bowler-friendly conditions. It’s essential for the team to have technically well-equipped batsmen who can adjust to the conditions and score runs at a free flow.

Some of the most experienced batsmen of the Indian team have retired recently and a few are out of form and hence, they could not be a part of the squad that is touring England. The likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Rahul David have retired and they were amongst the very few batsmen who could adjust quickly and play very well on the English soil. Remember India included Rahul Dravid in the ODI team in the 2011 England tour as many players struggled to score runs. Players such as Virender Sehwag, Gautam Gambhir and Yuvraj Singh have been left out due to their poor form. Considering the team that India has got, it’s going to be a challenge for the batsmen to perform well in the Champions Trophy.

Some of the batsmen who have been selected in the Indian squad for Champions Trophy have hardly played any ODI cricket in England. The opening pair of Murali Vijay and Shikar Dhawan has never played an ODI in England whereas Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik have played only one ODI and six ODIs respectively in England. Though Suresh Raina is experienced and is an ODI specialist, his technique against the short-pitched deliveries and his ability to play in swinging conditions has always been under question. The two batsmen on whom India can rely in the Champions Trophy are Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Virat Kohli, the two most experienced campaigners in the current squad and can play under different conditions.

Though the batting line-up looks partially impaired, India’s bowling department looks strong and shows a lot of promise. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has been in great from and his bowling style suits the English conditions. The comeback of Umesh Yadav strengthens the pace department. Ishant Sharma looks like an improved ODI bowler. His recent performance in ODIs against Pakistan and England early this year and his role as a key bowler in the Sunrisers team in IPL have been commendable instances of his growth. Irfan Pathan has been trying to fit in to the position of an all-rounder since some time. His ability to swing the ball would be an added advantage. We have to wait and see how Vinay Kumar, Amit Mishra and Ravichandran Ashwin perform under English conditions.

India enters in the Champions Trophy 2013 edition with a slightly weaker batting line-up and with some improved bowling resources that suit the English wickets. As Team India is going to face tough opponents South Africa, Pakistan and the West Indies at the league stage, it is going to be a challenge for the relatively young and inexperienced Indian batting line-up to combat fast and fearsome bowlers such as Dale Steyn, Morne Morkel and Junaid Khan. As the ICC has already announced that this will be the last edition of the Champions Trophy, the Indian cricket fans would wish to see India emerge as the winner in the prestigious tournament. Only time will tell how Team India fares in Champions Trophy.