In the end this campaign was a dud because of the squad selection in the prelude to the WC. It's telling that most posters here have forgotten about how awful it was barring
@icyman. They hedged their bets too heavily on certain players who did not end up in the squad or did not contribute at all after being selected. This includes the likes of
- Avesh Khan. This guy was supposed to be our backup to the first choice attack and would have almost certainly made the WC despite being so poor and mentally shot had it not been for his injury/fever that meant Arshdeep finally got a good run of games to prove that he can handle the top level. Let me remind everyone that Arshdeep, the current darling of the Indian setup and everyone's new favourite was on the fringes of this side behind Harshal, Avesh (even Umran and Krishna at some point) in the prelude to the WC and it took a very specific turn of events for him to finally be the first choice pacer in the WC. Yet it was obvious to most fans even back then that this bloke was special and had the numbers to back it up even in his limited appearances. The fact that it took so long for him to be a first-team player should be telling of how favourites and non-favourites are treated in this setup.
- DK vs Pant. I can't believe that this continued even in the WC. DK would get a string of games, then Pant would randomly get a string of games and then we'd go back to DK... but hold on Pant's the first choice now. This resulted in neither player being comfortable enough to play well in the end. I said this weeks or even months ago, it doesn't matter who you pick as long as you stick with them in this scenario. This also affected Hardik's role to an extent and arguably Jadeja/Axar's too.
- Shreyas Iyer. This man played too many games for someone who was only a reserve option in the end. This is indicative of India accepting that they wanted to win bilateral series as he is a good option but he was never going to bat ahead of the top four that India was planning to use especially with his short ball weakness in Australia. Why even play him for that many games if that is the case? Wouldn't it have been prudent to give him a few lesser games and have someone else who can cover multiple roles be given chances instead?
- Hood Hood Hooda. The man's success came at number three. His best performances in recent IPL history have been with him in the top order or coming in to bat early. Why was he suddenly seen as a middle order option after that? I wanted him in as he was offering a fresh approach to the side but if it was to be known that he would only be misused I'd have rather had someone else. He's been terrible for years at SRH in the middle order. Why did no one realise that in the setup? And if he was selected to be a bowling option, I'm not seeing it either. I don't remember him bowling a single ball in any important game. I don't rate his technique at all either, I believed he would be found out against better bowlers (especially pacers) and that was proven true.
- Harshal. The backing this bloke got was unreal but one injury to Bumrah and he's out of the picture. He wasn't in good form prior to that either and tactical reasons meant that him playing would have been unlikely in any case. However this also had the ripple effect of Ashwin playing instead of Chahal to strengthen the batting at eight and us having no aggressive spin option in any WC match. Our spinners were sitting ducks throughout the tournament. Surely there should have been some thought given to the usefulness of Harshal in the likelihood of this scenario happening?
- I'm not even going to talk about KL being in after a long injury layoff and then promptly disappointing everyone barring the odd game. In any other setup he would have been subject to scrutiny and be told that he has to buck his ideas up or else lose his spot. Here though we'll not only reward him with more games but also make him the next captain.
- The batting strategy being changed after months of practicing aggressive cricket also had an impact. Whether that was due to conditions or the pressure or simply because it suited the current top trio better, it was a dismal failure in the end.
As @aspirin noted, this was a doomed squad that ultimately did as well as it should have reaching the semis. We did not deserve to go to the final and I'm glad we had a shocker of a semi-final that will at least put some pressure on the current setup (although I doubt changes will happen).
@wasteyouryouth's new look squad is good but I fear there will not be much changes to this tried and tested setup. As I've remarked earlier, it feels like certain players are just not going to be subjected to the same level of scrutiny that others are.
