India vs England, ICC Cricket World Cup 2019: Virat Kohli and Co out to further dampen hosts' semi-final qualification hopes

June 30. Ever since the 2019 Cricket World Cup began, there was only one date to look forward to. You would be mistaken if talking about the final at Lord’s on 14 July. That is important yes, but first up, everyone was –or is –talking about this last day of June. From the very start of this tournament, it has been about India and England, hasn’t it? [caption id=“attachment_6905631” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Truth told, India doesn’t really need to change anything. AP[/caption] England –the hosts, the best side in ODI cricket for the last four years, and the team that changed the 50-over format’s pace. India –the perennial favourites in any world event, the only bowling attack with two wrist spinners, and the team with Virat Kohli and Jasprit Bumrah. From the summer of 2018, when the Men in Blue toured England (and lost 2-1 in the ODI series), every Tom, Dick and Harry envisaged a World Cup final at Lord’s between these two sides. How could they not? And so, this tournament began, going through its league-stage motions. People asked if they had seen a finalist already when England thumped South Africa in the opening game (yes, that early!). People again asked if they had seen the other finalist when India thumped Australia ten days later. People then wondered if they would see the World Cup winners as early as 30 June, when India and England clash at Edgbaston. Four weeks is a long time though, whether on or off the field. And how the tables have turned for England –they have gone from a table-topping, potential-champions side to an outfit that is struggling to break a losing streak, one endangering their whole World Cup campaign. By now, you must be familiar with what they need to do? If not, well, they have to win both their remaining games. Win one, and they will be dependent on Pakistan, which is much like predicting English weather –rain or sun, no one knows. To say it is a tough road for England then would be an understatement. All the more, because their first stop in this arduous path to the semi-finals is this clash against India. No, it is no longer the marquee clash between two pre-tournament favourites. This game now only has the billing of a match-up between one team on the verge of implosion and the other starting to resemble a thundering juggernaut. At this point in time, India can do no wrong. To the naked eye, this might not seem the best plausible statement about their batting problems. But hey, this Indian line-up has messed things up twice, and yet they are the only unbeaten team in this tournament still. Of course, there are two different ways to look at this point of view. The first, well, more clinical attacks like Australia and New Zealand will punish India’s batting deficiencies harder than Afghanistan and West Indies did. After the win over West Indies, KL Rahul was in a pensive mood. He has had three innings batting at top of the order now – he has a half-century and two poor dismissals. This is a batsman who has waited for such consecutive opening opportunities to knock at his door, and when the moment has arrived on the biggest stage of all, he is wasting them one by one through dubious shot selection. Rahul’s innings have had direct impacts on how India have finished theirs; when he scored a half-century against Pakistan, they put on 330-odd. Alternately, when he fell cheaply, playing wrong lines or reverse sweeping, India struggled to cross 250. Against both Afghanistan and West Indies, they were three-down in the 27th over, heaping pressure on Kohli to anchor the innings. In both matches, they lost too many wickets in the middle overs. Combine this with MS Dhoni’s slow approach (albeit he finished well in Manchester) in overs 31-40, and you arrive at the Vijay Shankar versus Rishabh Pant debate once again. One school of thought says this Indian line-up needs more firepower (read Pant); the other says what is the probability Pant would have misfired on those slow, spin-friendly surfaces? So when Kohli said, in the pre-match conference, that there is ‘no need to tinker’, it gives pointers about any possible changes in the batting line-up. No, is the answer you are looking for. Truth told, India doesn’t really need to change anything. And this is where the second aforementioned point emanates. Against both Afghanistan and West Indies, this bowling attack came to the fore. Bumrah is in a class of his own, Mohammed Shami is living a dream, the wrist spinners add spine to this attack, and Hardik Pandya completes it. The fact that Kedar Jadhav has only bowled one over in India’s last four matches says a lot about Pandya’s evolution as the fifth wheel in this bowling line-up. The underlying point is simple. India’s bowlers have worked over-time in the last two games and delivered four points, edging the team closer to semi-finals. With a point needed to guarantee qualification, Kohli doesn’t need to ‘tinker’ with the options available to him (read Jadhav or Shankar). Perhaps, he has completely identified with Dhoni’s idea of leadership wherein the more bowling resources at your disposal, the better. There is also the matter of second-use wickets, and it will be the second time running where India will play on a pitch where a game has already been played. Kohli will thus not want to disturb his combination, given the possible slowness of the Edgbaston pitch. Not to mention, it is a point already highlighted by Jonny Bairstow in that ranting presser a couple days ago. For all the latest news, opinions and analysis from ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, click here