The evening of Tuesday 30th April was very important for the Indian cricket team and its fans. The Board of Control for Cricket in India announced Team India for the T20 World Cup starting after a month. Most of the faces who were expected to be selected got a place in the 15-member squad. Still, like every time, there were 2-3 names which were discussed a lot when they were not selected. Shortly after this announcement, the reality check of Team India’s squad was also done and this was done by the same players who were not selected.
The most talked about issue was Rinku Singh and KL Rahul not getting a chance in the 15-member Indian team under the captaincy of Rohit Sharma. Rinku not being selected in this too is really a surprise for everyone because she was being groomed as the finisher of Team India. At the same time, the opinion regarding Rahul’s selection remained almost the same and there was already a possibility of his not being selected.
Face reality after selection
Well, shortly after the selection, Mumbai Indians and Lucknow Super Giants faced each other in the 48th match of IPL 2024 in Lucknow. Four players have got a place in this World Cup squad from Mumbai Indians – Rohit Sharma, Hardik Pandya, Suryakumar Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah. Apart from Rahul, leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi was also a contender from Lucknow but no one was selected. Everyone’s eyes were on this match because everyone wanted to see whether Rahul and Bishnoi would take out their anger on Rohit-Hardik’s Mumbai for missing out on selection.
Even though both of them did not play a big role single-handedly, they together with their team gave a reality check to Team India. Mumbai batted first and Rohit Sharma, Suryakumar and Hardik failed completely. Rohit scored 4 runs, Surya scored 10 runs and Hardik was out without opening the account on the first ball. That is, in the World Cup, the three main faces of Team India’s batting order together could score only 14 runs. Such performance of all three will really be a matter of concern for Team India, which also includes captain Rohit Sharma himself.
Whereas Rahul could not play any big innings but by scoring 28 runs he helped the team recover from the setback in the first over. He also took 2 catches. Whereas Bishnoi bowled economically and spent only 28 runs in 4 overs and got the wicket of Ishan Kishan, who was heading towards a big innings for Mumbai.
Performance of Rohit-Hardik, Surya not special
Coming back to the three batsmen, whose performance this season has not been anything special. Rohit Sharma started the season in a good way and played some excellent innings as soon as he arrived, but he has been seen failing in the last few matches. Whereas Surya, the best Indian T20 batsman, has failed every time except in 2 innings this season. As far as Hardik is concerned, he has failed on every front this entire season. Apart from one or two innings and strong bowling (2/26) against Lucknow, he has not been able to do anything special. Now the fans will only hope that all three of them return to form in the World Cup, otherwise the news will not be good for Team India.
