While most of the ICC-2019 World Cup teams from various nations are having or are going to have training camps soon for the biggest event, India continues to have only the Indian Premier League (IPL-2019). Good…
That Virat Kohli continued as captain of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) even after the most embarrassing proceedings when it comes to the team’s performances has an obvious reason. Being a superlative cricketer and also being the captain of the India team, Virat, was the main attraction of IPL-2019. Thus, despite the painful defeats, he still had most of the commercial time on the air along with some of his non-performers, and cricket pundits, the media, or the viewers maintained an appetizing element of suspense that could represent a return of his franchise yet, and who knows ..! For similar reasons in terms of money and glamour, Indian cricketers simply couldn’t leave the IPL midway, while many of the other international cricketers had already left or were leaving for training or preparation camps. of their respective countries. Ideally, a camp should last for a month, and most countries followed it with all seriousness. However, the last IPL match scheduled for May 12, 2019, the India team did not have fifteen days to prepare with the ICC-2019 World Cup starting on May 30, 2019 in England and Wales. Also, so far there was no word on whether there was actually going to be an Indian camp or not.
IPL has been an enigma in several ways. Many cricket pundits and some sportswriters believed that the competitive IPL provided good match practice for the next international tournament. This was a very controversial topic. The format of T20 is completely different, as bowlers are not allowed to bowl more than 4 overs each, and batsmen are desperately trying to bowl sixes or fours with the little time available. How will you provide good practice for scoring and holding England’s fast throws in ODIs or 50+ matches? Furthermore, stalwarts like Sourav Ganguly continued to make controversial statements mixing T20 with the ODI format. Ganguly, freaking out over a match-winning tackle from Rishav Pant recently, said this world cup was not the end of the road for him, there will be more to follow in at least 15 years to come, adding to the staggering Hype created during Pant’s non-selection for the World Cup-2019. A few days later he said that Virat Kohli’s form in this IPL was not an indication for the next World Cup. Well, it was all a matter of convenience to parse IPL as intended, as is clear from those comments. On the day or rather the night that RCB was finally eliminated from the tournament, some members of the media were quick to add that now Virat Kohli should concentrate only on preparing for the World Cup.
God forbid, the IPL might be the biggest hurdle to the World Cup when it comes to the India team’s performance in that event. The bonanza of competitive clubs is no match for the international event where the pride of the nation is far more important than money and glitz. On the other hand, if some players had benefited from the IPL, they were all from rival teams. For example, Australia’s Warner and Smith thrived just after returning from serving a one-year suspension for the ball-handling scandal, good batting practice and now prep camp on top of that; Some of the Caribbean cricketers also benefited greatly from this tournament, some of them made it to the World Club team and now they will have the training camp as well. Only Indian cricketers had played like maniacs on flat and slow domestic courts with no way out, and now they will go to England without any preparation in terms of physical conditioning. And also, they would definitely be destined to face the superstars created by this IPL on rival teams in the next international event.
Either way, Team India remains the heavy favorite to lift the World Cup-2019, and we believe in that positivity as well. If Virat struggled in the IPL captaincy, he will have Dhoni and Rohit on his side at the World Cup. However, we still lament the possible lack of any preparatory camp for India to land in revived England without the IPL hangover. And then, this time, the ICC World Cup will be played round-robin with each of the 10 teams playing each other once, and the top four teams reaching the semi-final stage. This promises to be a cricket super rivalry saga with the first match taking place on May 30, 2019. Happy cricket times to all the lovers of this game.
