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2024 yearender: A cup high, a home low

BySomshuvra Laha
Dec 31, 2024 06:28 AM IST

In many ways, the 2024 T20 World Cup win became the final piece of the puzzle that would cement India as the undisputed leader of the game

In the 13 years, two months and 26 days since April 2, 2011, India’s relationship with the cricket World Cup had become a one-way street of unrequited love. The Champions Trophy 2013 was a much-celebrated follow-up of the ODI World Cup win but the absurdly high count of near-misses thereafter injected a strain of nervous uncertainty whenever India were in the knockouts. The last straw came on November 19, 2023 at the Narendra Modi Stadium when Australia silenced India in front of 100,000 boisterous fans. In the final of an ODI World Cup where India simply looked unbeatable, that defeat was probably the hardest to swallow.

After the World Cup triumph, India fell to a humiliating 0-3 defeat at home by New Zealand.
After the World Cup triumph, India fell to a humiliating 0-3 defeat at home by New Zealand.

Occasional misery is the raw end of the deal an average cricket fan must accept. But the despondency that had built up across three ODI and five T20 World Cups where India were knocked out in a final (2014) and four (2015, 2016, 2019, 2022) semi-finals had peaked in the aftermath of the defeat in 2023. For a country whose sporting spectrum more for years began and ended with cricket, not winning a World Cup was starting to seriously rankle. A line in the sand had been drawn, with the future of multiple careers hinging on India’s performance at the 2024 T20 World Cup.

It was probably providence that India’s white-ball resurgence was to come halfway around the world, in the final hour of June 29 when Anrich Nortje’s limp slog off Hardik Pandya prompted Rohit Sharma to fall to his knees and look up at the Barbados skies with gratitude. It was South Africa’s game to lose, especially after Heinrich Klaasen bludgeoned his way to a 27-ball 52, leaving them a comfortable equation of 22 from 18 balls. Enter the sensational Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh though, and that equation revised itself to 16 from six. What followed was a moment of calm brilliance rarely witnessed at this level. Running along the boundary rope, Suryakumar Yadav pouched the ball meant to be hit for a six by David Miller while somehow keeping his feet inside, and lobbing it back into his own hands to complete a scintillating catch that snuffed out South Africa’s hopes.

In many ways, the 2024 T20 World Cup win became the final piece of the puzzle that would cement India as the undisputed leader of the game. Unexpected, however, was how long it had taken. The preparation couldn’t be entirely faulted here. Throughout this phase of heartbreaks, BCCI had bolstered the Indian Premier League, raking in unprecedented money but also quietly hoping it would eventually throw up an eleven that could finally bring home the Cup.

What worked occasionally at the franchise level though wasn’t throwing up favourable results at the international stage. A case in point was the 2022 T20 World Cup where India flopped largely because of guarded batting from their top three — Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and Virat Kohli — while other teams were focusing on milking the first 10 overs. First to admit their tactic was wrong, Sharma had atoned for it adequately during the 2023 ODI World Cup. But the T20 middle-order badly needed enforcers, and so out went KL Rahul, making way for Rishabh Pant at No 3, Yadav at No 4, Shivam Dube at No 5 and Pandya as the failsafe option at No 6. India’s bowlers had always proven to be high-pedigreed at this level but not without this recalibration could they have broken the shackles of cautious batting.

At the heart of this makeover was the conviction of sticking with Kohli as opener (he opened for RCB too during this year’s IPL, presumably in preparation for this role) despite a string of failures, till he finally came good in the final with a measured 59-ball 76 in what was to become his (as well as Sharma’s) final T20I appearance. Life, however, once again caught up with Kohli during October’s series against New Zealand where he averaged 15.5 as India plummeted to an unthinkable 0-3 defeat, raising serious questions of their batters ability to play the turning ball with New Zealand’s spinners accounting for 37 wickets.

Rarely have India suffered a capitulation of this degree at home. Barring the second-innings hundred from Sarfaraz Khan and 99 from Pant in Bangalore, India’s batting went completely off the boil. Sharma’s batting and captaincy was heavily criticised, and by the time the humiliation was sealed in Mumbai, India looked a shadow of the side that started the year by winning a Test in Cape Town, a fortress for South Africa. The defeat in Hyderabad notwithstanding, England proved to be no match for India in a five-Test series at the start of the year, mostly because of their insensible batting as the hosts breezed to a 4-1 win. New Zealand, in contrast, proved to be more than armed to give India a reality check they were not at all prepared for.

Looking back, October wasn’t exactly a forgiving month for Indian cricket overall as the women’s campaign at the T20 World Cup in the UAE, too, collapsed almost simultaneously. An opening defeat to eventual champions New Zealand meant India were straightaway put under pressure to win the rest of their group league matches. Pakistan and Sri Lanka were overcome without breaking much sweat, but Australia held on to their nerve to win by nine runs and knock India out of the World Cup. With the one-dayers in Australia too lost 0-3, this year has given the India women very little to cheer about other than a 3-0 series sweep of the West Indies at home in ODIs after beating them 2-1 in the T20Is.

The men’s team’s struggle continues Down Under though. After winning the first Test in Perth, India have now lost two and escaped with a draw in the rain-affected third Test to trail the five-Test series 2-1. India still have everything to play for in the fifth Test in Sydney beginning on January 3. A win will help them draw the series and retain the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, and better still it will keep alive their chances of qualifying for the WTC final to be played at the Lord’s in June.

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