On Sunday, India looked in fine form against World Cup defending champions Australia. The men in blue went on to win the match by 36 runs. If India goes on to win this tournament, it will be the their third time in 12 attempts. How does the current squad compare with the Indian sides that have competed in previous editions, and how do they stack up against other teams?
The historical comparison To compare Virat Kohli’s side with Indian teams of the past, we used the ICC’s ODI rankings. The tables depict the nationality of batsmen and bowlers who were in the top 15 before each of the 12 editions of the World Cup. For instance, in the batsmen’s table, under the 1996 column, the third row is coloured blue to indicate that an Indian batsman was ranked No. 3 heading into the event.
Indian batsmen: High on quality, less so on quantity India entered this World Cup with two batsmen ranked in the top five — Virat Kohli (No. 1) and Rohit Sharma (No. 2). This is the second such instance of two Indian batsmen figuring in the top five. The other was at the 2011 World Cup — Kohli (No. 2) and M.S. Dhoni (No. 5). In all the other editions, India had either one or no batsman in the top 5.
No country has ever entered a World Cup with more than three players in the top five. England (1975), West Indies (1987) and Australia (2007) had three of the five best batsmen.
When the top 10 is considered, the picture changes slightly for India in 2019. Kohli and Rohit remain the only ones; none of their colleagues join them. In 2011 and 2015, India had four and three batsmen respectively in the top 10. When you consider the top 15, Shikhar Dhawan joins the list, making it three Indians. In 1996, 2011 and 2015, India had four players inside the top 15.
India’s 2019 squad is therefore rich in ranking quality — never before have two Indian batsmen occupied the top two spots. But previous squads have had more players in the top-10 and top-15 mixes.
Indian bowlers: High on quality and quantity
With Jasprit Bumrah topping the bowling charts in 2019, this is the only time India is entering a World Cup with a No. 1 bowler in its arsenal.
Only once before has India had a bowler in the top 5 — Kapil Dev (No. 2) in 1992. This edition, three Indian bowlers — Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav (No. 7) and Yuzvendra Chahal (No. 8) — feature in the top 10.
India entered the 2007, 2011 and 2015 editions without a single bowler in the top 10.
India and other contenders in 2019
To compare India’s squad with its rivals’, we used player records from the end of the 2015 World Cup to the last ODI before the start of the 2019 event. In this four-year period, we used batting averages (runs per innings) and strike-rates (runs per 100 balls) for batsmen, and strike-rates (balls per wicket) and economy-rates (runs per over) for bowlers.
The scatter plots have four quadrants. Quadrant 4 (highlighted) in both the plots feature the elite players at this World Cup. Quadrant 1 has players who have been in less-than-average form in this four-year period.
Four Indians — Kohli, Rohit, Dhawan and Kedar Jadav — are in the elite quadrant. No one is in Quadrant 1. Dhoni’s strike-rate and Hardik Pandya’s average have prevented them from featuring among the elite.
Jasprit Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal feature in the elite quadrant, with Mohammed Shami missing the cut by a small margin. Hardik Pandya is in Quadrant 1, while Bhuvaneshwar Kumar is between Quadrants 1 and 2.
