New India assurance with the Nidahas Trophy

CHENNAI:A big yawn. That’s perhaps the response that an average India fan might muster after being asked about his or her expectations from the Nidahas Trophy; a T20I series that many — Twitterati in particular — seem to be construing as a bland aperitif that needs to be gulped down before moving on to the smorgasbord that they really want (read the IPL and tour of England).

They can’t be faulted, though. Facing off against the No 8 (Sri Lanka) and No 10 (Bangladesh) teams for what might earn them a couple of rating points (India get on­ly one if they win all their four le­ague matches) sounds li­ke the opposite of tantalising. Th­e­re’s no Virat Kohli, no MS Dhoni, no Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Ja­sprit Bumrah; heck, there’s no Hardik Pandya either. Not to me­n­tion injuries taking more sheen away from whom many would deem as relatively-dull op­p­onents.

Then, there’s the flip side; one that might spark a glimmer of hope for those aficionados who ke­ep their eyes on the larger sch­e­me of things. Two completely new T20I faces, and four others who are yet to witness first-hand more than 80 overs at the elite le­vel; a four-match (perhaps five) sandbox that is ripe for the Men in Blue to experiment their hearts out.

Former India pacer L Balaji too was in agreement with that perspective. “It is a great platform for guys who’ve proven their worth at the domestic level. It’s quite heartening to see the increase that India’s talent pool has witnessed in the past few years; one that’s considerable as compared to the ‘90s.

“Among big teams that are in a phase of further improvement, you tend to see guys missing out despite getting national call-ups because there’s no space for them. This series isn’t like that. While retaining their core to a certain extent, they’ve ensured that quite a few guys might go on to get some opportunities; a situation where some new talent could emerge for India.”

This potential for extensive tinkering elaborated upon by Balaji further segues into the bigger picture, considering the nature of the players in the mix. A few Google searches are more than adequate to winnow out the fact that Rishabh Pant, Washington Sundar, Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar, and Jaydev Unadkat are players who can take to the shortest format like a fish to water, courtesy their skillsets.

If Pant is coming with a 32-ball century (second-fastest in T20s) and a solid reputation of being a willow-wielding marauder in tow, Vijay and Hooda too have enough domestic (and IPL for the latter) exploits to make a case for their big-hitting prowess.

Both Unadkat and Washington have earned their shortest-format stripes with the Rising Pune Supergiant; not to mention the former clinching the Man of the Series award last December, during India’s home T20Is against the same men they’ll face when Tuesday arrives.

Armed with this extensive reeling off of trivia, many wouldn’t find it a stretch to conjecture that this series may be yet another milestone marker in India’s path towards trying to carry forward their dominance in other formats into the 20-over scheme of things. After all, for a country that has the most robust T20 cricketing league in the world, aka the IPL, India is yet to assert in T20Is the magnitude of authority it has exuded in other formats in the past few years.

“England weren’t a great 20-over or 50-over side before the last World Cup, and look at where they are now. Experimentation has played a huge role in them getting where they are now. You have to develop a new culture for that, and India is taking those steps. This experimentation is definitely the way forward.”

Seven Players in the India contingent who have featured in less than 10 T20Is. Two of them (Vijay Shankar and Deepak Hooda) are yet to play in one 24 Wickets taken by Yuzvendra Chahal in T20Is since start of 2017, the most by any bowler in this period

rahul.ravi@newindianexpress.com