Happy Holidays, everybody! Hope everyone is all warm and cozy in their own houses with their friends and/or relatives! Why don’t you sit back and relax with Cricket Huddle? We have our magical State of Cricket podcast to keep you company! Today, we talk about how Indian cricket doesn’t really seem to be improving much. There’s a lack of innovation and it seems like familiarity/continuity is the main basis of how the rosters are being picked. Let’s take a look at what our crew had to say about this regression.

There is a big similarity to England of the early 2000s, way back before the “Bazball” innovation we see now in 2022 and going into 2023. Players would have to go through a rigorous county cricket setup in order to even represent the national team. By the time some of them had the opportunity to represent their country, they’d be on the wrong side of 30. Nowadays, we do see the promotion of good/young talent, especially in the white-ball formats. With the introduction of something like a Bazball, maybe other countries will be inspired to do the same instead of focusing so much on seniority.

It seems like the whole world is moving on while India stays stuck to the past… Young blood cannot fully immerse in the India setup because of the “respect” given to senior players first. When you look at a country like India and the amount of talent it has, there are so many choices, almost as if they’re spoiled for choice. It’s due to this that we have to see the tough domestic cricket toilers like Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal constantly miss out on selection. At least they seem to be changing their ways little by little. If you look at the last three India team selections, you can see names like Kuldeep Sen, Yash Dayal, and Shivam Mavi entering the national team for the first time. However, none of this ultimately matters if said players don’t actually make their debuts.

It’s sad to see the overdependence on out-of-form, past-their-prime players who supposedly “deserve another chance at a World Cup”. If you have that kind of thinking, don’t be surprised when you don’t end up winning in key moments. If you want to win, you have to innovate, even if it means shaking up your current way of thinking. Even if it means possibly going against your coach. We also discuss how three particular players (Ishan Kishan, Sanju Samson, and Suryakumar Yadav) are the key pillars for India to avoid going backwards during the 2023 World Cup. We also go hard on Lokesh Rahul’s captaincy skills and decision-making, because someone has to! The selectors may keep backing him but we’ve seen enough.

If you are interested in the rest of the conversation, please check out the links below: