DUBAI EXPO: INDO-PAK BLOCKBUSTER

Last dance begins today under Kohli and Shastri

- VENKATA KRISHNA B

IN many ways this is the last dance for India under this regime. After the T20 World Cup, their head coach Ravi Shastri will make way and so will his trusted lieutenants, Bharat Arun and R Sridhar (bowling and fielding coaches). More importantly, Virat Kohli will not continue as captain in the format — possibly white-ball cricket altogether — after the edition. Here they are chasing that elusive world title.

Despite the overwhelming success across all formats, teams are judged on their performances in global events. It is that desperation that has made the BCCI bring in MS Dhoni as a mentor for the event. But all of it shouldn’t hide the fact that they are among the very best teams in the format. Since the last edition of the T20 World Cup, they have won 17 of the 25 series they have played. They drew three and prior to the defeat with an under-strength XI against Sri Lanka in July, the previous series defeat was in February 2019.

Yet, in some sense, they have not necessarily played the sort of cricket that one usually associates with the shortest format. They have done it at times, playing aggressive, high-risk cricket, and as they head into the World Cup, they now have a team that can actually play that sort of cricket on a consistent basis. It is a luxury that Kohli has seldom enjoyed as captain in ICC events. At the 2017 Champions Trophy, he carried two aging middle-order batsmen who were past their prime. At the 2019 50-over World Cup, he went without a No 4 and when it mattered the most, it ended up being the hole that ultimately capsized the ship. Although the fault was primarily the team’s, they were reasonable excuses.