Does India need to stay away from all format players?

An all-format player is often a luxury for any cricketing side. A player who could play Tests switch to T20Is and find the right balance to play ODIs is a rarity in many international cricket teams. There is already an overflowing abundance of cricketers in India on top of that there are many players who play all three formats. In this article, we will take a look if India needs to stay from all format players and look to groom one or two format specialists.

Playing 3 formats is a boon or a bane?

Having an exceptional 3 format player makes the selectors’ job pretty easy as there is one automatic selection whenever the national team plays a game. India over the years has developed many players to be three-format players like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, Ravindra Jadeja and many more. 

There is no doubt over the abilities of these players as they have proven that on their day they could prove to be a match winner be it any format of the game. There is an argument that playing all three formats hinders these players’ ability to switch swiftly from one format to another. For example, the Indian cricket team played the World Test Championship Final against Australia right after the Indian Premier League 2023 (IPL). 

Jadeja, Ajinkya Rahane, Shami, KS Bharat and Shubman Gill were even part of the IPL 2023 finals between Chennai Super Kings and Gujarat Titans which was concluded in the early hours of 30th May. Gill who was facing a white ball in IPL and striking in excess of 150 was playing the likes of Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland with the red Dukes ball in their hand just 8 days later.

Switching from one format to another

Switching from one format to another is not easy and some of the greats struggle to do that. Even the selectors often pick a player in the team for one format based on form in another format. For example, Surya Kumar Yadav who is considered to be one of the greatest if not the greatest T20 batter of current times was picked for a test match against Australia. 

Surya played in the first match of the Border Gavaskar Trophy 2023 in India, in the solitary innings he played he just scored 8 runs off 20 balls. He was dismissed playing a drive as Nathan Lyon went through his bat and pads. Some would argue that it was a positive move at that time as the Indian team was struggling to find a like-for-like replacement for Rishabh Pant who is known for his aggressive Test batting. Surya following that test match played three ODIs against Australia. He was dismissed for three golden ducks in a row.

Kohli and Rohit too played shots in the WTC Final that they could have avoided if they had not been playing T20 cricket for two months. On the first day, the lack of bowling practice was also evident as Mohammed Siraj, Shardul Thakur, Umesh Yadav and Shami could not maintain their line and lengths. Bowling four overs in an IPL game and bowling more than 15 overs in a day in test cricket are very different.

What is the solution?

One basic solution is to develop specialists for a format. James Anderson and Stuart Broad are prime examples of one-format specialists. Anderson and Broad only play test cricket for England. This helps England a lot as they have two relatively fit bowlers at their disposal when playing test cricket. This also prevents injuries to players who are required to play other formats. This does not mean that Anderson and Broad play every test match but because they play test cricket only it allows other bowlers like Mark Wood to play alternate test matches. 

Cheteshwar Pujara is the prime example of this but he too has failed lately in test cricket. The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) also needs to find a way in which these players are rewarded for their loyalty to one format. It will be unfair to ask someone like Kohli or Rohit to give up their IPL contract worth more than 15 crores per season.

What can India do to solve this?

In the 16 years of IPL, one thing has become more and more evident India will never be short of young and talented players. Even in this year’s IPL, we saw young stars like Rinku Singh, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Ruturaj Gaikwad and others that they are capable of playing against quality players. What India needs to do is that they need to take a hard look at these players and replace some of the senior players from at least one format. What this will do is help the senior players to perform better in the two formats they play. 

Both Rinku and Yashasvi look like they can start playing T20I cricket for India. The inclusion of these two for example will help India to have KL Rahul play in ODIs and Tests where he has performed much better as compared to T20Is. India’s premier fast bowler, Jasprit Bumrah has also missed a lot of cricket due to injuries, it will be ideal if BCCI can ask Bumrah to give up at least one format. BCCI with all the money they earn needs to find a revenue model in which players giving up lucrative T20 cricket or skipping a part of IPL are rewarded financially.

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