Lack of consistency & role clarity continue

The team management might want to reflect and reboot soon as they try to test their bench strength before WC

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IT'S that time of the World Cup cycle. The period where every move, tactic and ploy a team makes goes under the radar, where every game is an opportunity to iron out the wrinkles in the combinations and pool of players before going into the global event. When the Rohit Sharma-led Indian side landed in the Caribbean that is what was expected of them as well.

Two games into the three-match series (they have lost the second after winning the first), it seems like they have made no headway at all. If anything, it almost feels like they have turned the clock back to 2019. After the semifinal defeat against New Zealand, the then captain, Virat Kohli had said that it is hard to admit when "45 minutes of bad cricket put us out of the World Cup". However, there was more to it. And the most important of all was the mismanagement of the No. 4 slot in the batting order.

Since 2017, they had used 12 players in the position before leaving the one (Ambati Rayudu) who batted the most there for the World Cup.