The BCCI has recently announced a 15-member provisional squad for the 50 overs World Cup. As hosts, India are expected to do well in the tournament. Many are hoping against hope that India will be able to end their ICC Trophy drought for over a decade and win the World Cup. The last time India won the World Cup was in 2011 under the leadership of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and their last ICC title was the Champions Trophy. In the last 50 overs World Cup played in 2019, India lost in the semifinals to New Zealand.
Since the announcement of the squad, opinions have flown thick and fast about the composition of the team. There has been widespread criticism for the omission of Ravichandran Ashwin and Yuzvendra Chahal. Experts and cricket lovers have all pointed out that India will miss a right-arm spinner during the tournament.
There are three left-arm spinners in the Indian side. They are Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel, both left-arm orthodox spinners and then there is ‘Chinaman’ bowler Kuldeep Yadav. Among the three, only Kuldeep has the ability to spin the ball away from a left-handed batter, the stock delivery for the two others is the ball that comes into the left-handed batter. It is a well-known fact that left-handed batters prefer playing left-arm spinners as the find it easy to play the incoming delivery.
In this backdrop, there are four teams that can cause problems to the hosts for the abundance of left-handed batters in their squads. Let us take a look at the teams that can turn out to be headaches for India.
New Zealand
In the last 50 overs World Cup, India had lost to the Kiwis in the semifinals. This time they will also be a tough nut to crack. New Zealand have six left-handed batters in the side and all are first XI players. They are Tom Latham, Devon Conway, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner. All the six are very capable with the bat and have been successful in the past against India in sub-continent conditions.
Australia
Australia also have five left-handed batters in their squad. They are David Warner, Travis Head, Alex Carey, Ashton Agar and Mitchell Starc. Even though Agar and Starc are bowlers mainly, they can wield a mean willow. The exploits of Warner, Head and Carey are well known. There will always be apprehensions as to how the Indian left-arm spinners will fare against such a star-studded batting line-up full of left-handers in the World Cup.
England
The 2019 World Cup winners will come into the World Cup also with five left-handed batters in their squad. They are Ben Stokes, Moin Ali, Dawid Malan, Sam Curran and David Willey. The first four among the five are aggressive in nature and have the capacity to change the complexion of a game in a matter of few overs. Experts are of the opinion that the Indian spin attack may face problems against such a batting line-up.
Pakistan
Arch rivals Pakistan also have four left-handed batters in their squad. They are openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq, and Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Nawaz, both of whom are aggressive middle-order batters. In the absence of a spinner who can take the ball away from them, Pakistani batters may also cause problems to the Indian spin attack in the World Cup.