T20 World Cup 2020: The ideal top 6 for India
The countdown for the next edition of T20 World Cup, which is scheduled to be held in Australia in less than a year, has well and truly begun. Most teams have started to identify players who will be part of that squad and are looking to give them as many chances as possible to stake a claim in the final 15.
Virat Kohli’s India will be playing a three-match series against the West Indies from next week, followed by another three-match series against Sri Lanka at home. They will then travel to New Zealand, where they play five matches.
India have 11 T20Is and of course the IPL to try out all the fringe players before settling on the final squad.
The Men in Blue have been dominating other teams in Test and ODI cricket, but have not been as successful as they would like in the shortest format. There are a few concerns, especially at the top of the order, where they are failing to gain much-needed momentum in the powerplay.
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The waiting approach might work in ODIs, but in T20Is it is putting too much pressure on the middle order to strike the ball out of the park right from the word go. While most teams are looking to maximize the powerplay even by compromising some early wickets, India have been looking to preserve wickets, like they do in the 50-over contests, and go big in the final few overs.
This strategy of holding back has backfired on a few occasions, especially on wickets that are slow and not conducive for strokeplay.
So what should India's ideal batting lineup be for next year’s T20 World Cup in Australia? Here is a look at the best possible options:
Openers
Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul
As mentioned earlier, one of India’s problems in T20 is at the top. And that is why KL Rahul needs to replace the left-handed Shikhar Dhawan to partner Rohit Sharma.
We all know that Rohit takes a little bit of time at the start, but catches up once he gets going. The problem with Dhawan is the pacing of his innings; more often than not he gets stuck with the same pace, and becomes one-dimensional with his strokeplay.
Rahul, as we saw in last year’s IPL, can be more attacking and has a lot of different shots to take advantage of the powerplay. He can play the perfect foil to Rohit at the top of the order.
The West Indies series is the right time to play Rahul at the top of the order now that Dhawan has been injured and been replaced by Sanju Samson.