Will India be able to defend its ICC Champions Trophy?

India defeated hosts England in a rain-curtailed 20-over match affair at Edgbaston, Birmingham to clinch their second ICC Champions Trophy in 2013. India also shared the trophy with Sri Lanka at Colombo back in 2002. The Indian team has already touchdown to London to defend their Champions Trophy starting from June 1.

The Champions Trophy is a tournament where only the top 8 teams compete against each other to determine the real king of the jungle. Therefore, there are no minnows to run over any team for some easy points in the tournament. Indians have their task cut-out as they are pooled in against top-notch teams such as Pakistan, South Africa, and Sri Lanka.

Recent Fixtures and Results

Indians have not played many ODIs in the recent past. They have concentrated on Test matches and T20s off-late with the grand home season against New Zealand, England, Australia and Bangladesh. Indians are freshly coming off a long season of the IPL to get their fifth gear going.

In between these Test Series, India played New Zealand and England in eight ODI matches cumulatively, winning five of them and losing three. These ODIs were played in October and January. Keeping in mind India sent a second string squad against Zimbabwe, India essentially played only eight one-dayers since January 2016. Indians essentially have no match practice in the form of the game before going into the tournament.

There might be high chances of players being rusty as this form of the game requires a special skill set to hone by constant match practice. Virat Kohli’s strategies will also be put into test as he has usually specialized creating attacking fields in the Test matches or defensive ones in T20s. The ODI format needs a perfect blend of both forms of field settings to create necessary pressure at different points of the game.

Multi-Lateral Tangle

Looking at India’s performance post their performance at Champions Trophy in 2013, India has had a knack of losing games at crunch situations of the tournament and have failed to deliver the knock-out punch to seal trophies at major ICC events.

If we revisit ICC World T20 of 2014 held in Bangladesh, India did all the hard work to progress into the finals but could not deliver on the given day as Yuvraj Singh struggled to time the ball and post a competitive total on the board. Sri Lanka went on to win the Championship due to match winning efforts from Sangakkara.

One year down the road, India reached the semi-finals of the ICC World Cup 2015 in Australia by defeating top teams such as South Africa, Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh before facing a comprehensive defeat against the home side. Again, it was a case of ‘so-close-but-yet-so-far’ for the Indians as Indians won all the seven matches they played prior to the one against Australians.

Going back last year, India hosted the ICC World T20 at home and were the favourites to win the trophy as they defeated Australia and Bangladesh in a dramatic fashion but faced defeat in hands of a resurgent West Indians, as they gave away the match to Lendl Simmons by bowling repetitive no-balls on the big stage. Looking at the past records of the Indians, it is no brainer to connect the dots and infer that the team is struggling to deliver the knockout punches to clinch titles, doing all the hardwork during the initial stages of the tournament.

Status of Top-order

If we look at the squad of India, KL Rahul’s absence should be a massive blow to them. Shikhar Dhawan makes a comeback into the Indian lineup in place of Rahul. He has frequently been in and out of the side lately which gives an impression that Dhawan is not considered amongst the regular in the playing XI. It would be interesting to see how he performs in the tournament he owned the last time around. That said, Shikhar Dhawan has held the reputation of being a big-tournament player.

Considering the hectic schedule of the season, it is not a surprise that many of the players are not in perfect shape fitness wise or form-wise. Rohit Sharma played the IPL after a long layoff due to an injury. Rohit too makes a comeback into the Indian squad after a long time and on the big stage. Sharma would feel the heat during the initial stages of the tournament but would feed off the confidence he gained after captaining his side Mumbai Indians in their successful campaign.

Virat Kohli has been iffy post his double-hundred against Bangladesh. One has an impression that Virat Kohli has exhausted his arsenal after hitting those marathon innings and captaining the Indian side simultaneously. His lackluster IPL is a prime example of it. The shoulder injury did not help his cause either.

Middle-order

The onus then lies on Mahendra Singh and Yuvraj Singh yet again to provide solidarity in the middle order. Their mammoth partnership against England in the second ODI is a testimonial of the fact that the quintessential duo still has what it takes to finish games for their side coming in at 4 and 5. Kedhar Jadhav had a dream series against England in January. He brought up his ton in the 1st ODI with a match-winning partnership with Kohli with the team in peril.

He single-handedly threatened to chase down the total set by the English side in the third ODI to cement his place in the CT squad. The new-look Hardik Pandya is expected to play the role of a finisher who gives his captain the cushion of playing four bowlers. Dinesh Karthik and Ajinkya Rahane are expected to warm the benches until the time the team requires their services.

Spin-Twins

Ravichandran Ashwin pulled out of the IPL citing a sports hernia injury. There are no second thoughts about Ashwin’s ability with the ball in the Tests. But in the series against England, he picked up only 3 wickets in the series and remained wicketless in couple games. His economy rates had been around 6.5 throughout. But together with the ever-so-accurate Jadeja, they ensure that the spin department is in safe hands while increasing the depth in the batting order.

Pace Attack

Indian boasts one of the finest pace attacks in the competition. Indians have a sorted their death bowling issues with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah in the squad. They can also attack the batsmen in the swinging and seaming conditions of England, with Umesh Yadav and Mohammad Shami. The pace battery has been in fantastic rhythm throughout the season