There’s no trepidation now

Rohit & Co starting as World Cup favourites notwithstanding, the IPL has dulled visiting teams’ fear and unfamiliarity of encountering India’s heat, humidity and spinning tracks

Is the Indian Premier League (IPL) good for Indian cricket in the long run?  That question will be answered soon when we see if India has surrendered the advantage of playing at home in return for BCCI coffers that are full to overflowing. The IPL kicked off in 2008 and since then, despite India being the powerhouse of world cricket, on-field and in the piggy bank, they have only won one solitary World Cup in any format, T20 or 50 overs, in the 2011 tournament hosted in India.  Even more to the point, despite four T20 World Cups hosted in Asia since the IPL began, India have not won any of them, making a solitary final in 2014 in Bangladesh which Sri Lanka won.

Is it any coincidence that India’s cricketing generosity (is that an oxymoron?) has led to a situation where only one Asian country, Sri Lanka in 2014, has won a World Cup post-IPL?  Is this because the IPL has allowed cricketers from around the world to tame their fear of Indian (Asian) conditions and that has in turn robbed all the Asian teams of crucial home country advantage? Yes, Pakistan won the T20 World Cup in England in 2009, but considering that their cricketers have never been allowed to play in the IPL, that win is not a factor in this analysis.

The first few World Cups did not do the host country any favours.  It took till 2015 for Australia to beat New Zealand in Melbourne before the obvious advantage paid dividends. England then repeated the dose to the unfortunate Kiwis in 2019 at Lord’s, albeit in controversial circumstances. The Sri Lankans may argue that their 1996 triumph was technically a jointly hosted event, but given that many teams boycotted Sri Lankan venues because of the perceived terrorist threat, their knock-out wins were actually in Pakistan and India.

Will 2023 restore home country advantage to India or do players from non-Asian teams no longer fear the sapping heat, humidity and spinning pitches that India is renowned for?  That India start as favourites is not in doubt—the question is whether they now enjoy the sort of dominance in limited-overs cricket that Fortress India offers them in Test cricket?  My contention is that the IPL has dulled the fear and unfamiliarity of touring India.  It is no longer viewed with trepidation.

One key element is the dew factor. If there is dew at night, the toss becomes crucial because the bowlers will struggle to grip the ball at night and pitches are likely to skid on, nullifying the spin threats of India. Whilst dew is a factor all over the world, it is especially important if the spinners lose their potency late in the game.

With teams so evenly matched and knowing their opponents intimately, it might come down to which team is prepared to think outside the square. In India’s recent warm-up matches against Australia, we have already seen the impact that heat exhaustion and cramps can have on batsmen. Shreyas Iyer effectively gave his wicket away after an effortless century in Indore and then Mitch Marsh fell for 96 in Rajkot, also suffering dehydration and cramps. So, when are teams going to cotton on that there is an alternative to sacrificing a set batsman?

Let me take you to Brisbane in 2014.  Day 1 of the Test, Murali Vijay was in full flow, flaying Australia to all parts of the Gabba on a typically steaming humid afternoon. I was on-air at the time, commentating on the game and I made the (apparently) outrageous suggestion that instead of throwing his wicket away, Vijay should consider retiring hurt, only to return the next day, refreshed and ready to turn his 140 into a big daddy hundred.  Instead, he charged Nathan Lyon and was stumped by a country mile (later given out caught behind) and India went from 261-3 to 408 all out, eventually losing the Test by four wickets when Australia limped to a nervy 130-6.  So what was the upside to the exhausted Vijay ‘donating’ his wicket late on Day 1?

Fast forward now to Indore and Rajkot 2023. Iyer gets out in the 30th over, Marsh in the 27th with plenty of fresh batsmen waiting in the wings.  Would they would have been better off retiring hurt, taking on some fluids and then returning to complete their innings?  Purists would argue that when a batsman is set, retiring hurt disrupts their rhythm and flow but surely a suicidal sacrifice cannot be the better option.  This is the sort of innovative thinking that may split the difference—it may well put a new spin on what it means to cramp your style!

Clayton Murzello’s Pavilion End column will be back next week

Michael Jeh is a Brisbane-based former first-class cricketer
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