India need to course correct for ODI World Cup in South Africa

Batting woes in the Perth ODI versus Australia shows India have plenty to sort for the 2027 tournament

- Somshuvra Laha

India’s ODI superiority since the 2015 World Cup, though admirable, has come largely on the subcontinent or subcontinent-type pitches with the help of a few hacks.

Be it the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 World Cup in England, the 2023 World Cup in India or the 2025 Champions Trophy in the UAE, the slowness of the pitches always allowed India to stack their teams with as many slow bowling allrounders as possible.

There have been two marked upsides to this strategy. It added more depth to the batting and allowed India to breeze through the middle overs economically while pegging back their opponents by taking wickets regularly.

But it took just one match in vastly different conditions at Perth for that strategy to be called for a relook on the bowling front. Going in with Washington Sundar and Axar Patel severely curbed India’s wicket-taking ability because the Perth pitch neither assisted a lot of turn nor was it double paced to create doubt in the Australian batters’ minds.

There weren't many runs to defend in the first place, particularly because Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma fell cheaply at the start. And while not much should be read into one failure after a hiatus of nearly six months,