ICC Champions Trophy: Performance analysis of the Indian squad
After a thrilling conclusion to the IPL, the Indian bandwagon now moves to England as focus shifts to the ICC Champions Trophy where India will defend their title. When the Indian squad was finally announced, the selectors did not provide the eagerly waiting fans with any surprises by choosing a tried and tested squad.
India find themselves in a group of death with Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka. While the opening clash against arch-rivals Pakistan will be fuelled by emotions, there will be no easy games against South Africa and Sri Lanka either. The pressure will be on the Indian batsmen, as for the first time in many years, India might be going into an ICC tournament with its bowlers in better form than the batsmen.
So, here is a snapshot of the performance of every member of India’s squad.
Opening batsmen
The opening partnerships between Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma were largely responsible for India winning most of the matches in the previous Champions Trophy. The duo had two century and 50+ partnerships each in 5 matches with the final reduced to a 20-20 affair due to rain. So it is imperative that these two lay a solid foundation with good opening partnerships.
Shikhar Dhawan
With KL Rahul injured, it was easy for the selectors to pick Shikhar Dhawan. However, the Delhi left-hander has played only two ODIs in the last 12 months. He got injured in the Kolkata Test against New Zealand and then missed the following ODI series. He only featured in two ODIs against England this year and was dropped in the third ODI.
Dhawan entered the previous Champions Trophy in 2013 with the same indifferent form, but then played like a man possessed in the tournament notching up 2 hundreds and a fifty in 5 innings at an average of 90.75. He has generally played well in England.
The southpaw was prolific in the recently concluded IPL ending up as the third highest run-getter of the tournament with three 50s.
Record in England
Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 50s | 100s |
9 | 518 | 74.0 | 98.10 | 2 | 2 |
Rohit Sharma
Sharma has played 5 ODIs in the last 12 months, the last being against New Zealand in November 2016. He struggled in that series with a paltry average of 24.60 and only one score above 50 before getting injured in the last ODI of that series.
He made his comeback in the IPL this year but failed to get going ending up with 333 runs at a lowly average of 23.78. Even though out of form, the Mumbai batsman, nicknamed ‘hitman’, looks set to play in all matches.
Record in England
Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 50s | 100s |
7 | 229 | 38.16 | 71.33 | 3 | 0 |
Ajinkya Rahane
Rahane is unlikely to get a look in unless there is a spectacular slump in Dhawan’s form. He has played in 6 ODI matches in last 12 months but has not really set the stage on fire. He has mustered 144 runs at an average of 24 and a strike rate of 69.23.
Rahane had a decent IPL scoring 382 runs at a strike rate of 118 in 16 matches. Unfortunately, it will not be enough to get selected for the final playing XI.
Record in England
Matches | Runs | Average | Strike Rate | 50s | 100s |
9 | 350 | 38.88 | 87.50 | 1 | 1 |