In T20 WC 2024 has two major Question | For Virat & Rohit
This year marks the selection of the nation’s leader and the men who will lead it forward, whether they choose to follow the winds of change or remain in power. It is also the year that Indian sports must make difficult choices in their pursuit of medals and trophies without having the option to vote.
Would Virat and Rohit play in the T20 World Cup?
Giving Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma possibly one last chance to win the T20 World Cup is not about sentiments. However, there’s no need to search farther than them. As the leading run scorer in the competition, Kohli produced one of the greatest T20 knocks ever by an Indian batsman. He had a successful IPL but hasn’t played a T20I since India’s 2022 World Cup quarterfinal elimination. Both the 639 runs scored and the slightly sub 140 strike rate rank him second in his career run total. If anything, he appears to be in no mood to slow down and has only improved his T20 game.
Rohit hasn’t exactly drawn attention with his recent T20I appearances. However, his unrestricted play during the ODI World Cup serves as a trustworthy barometer of his attitude and approach. He is the kind of cricketer who should not only be judged by his figures in a certain format, but also by his recent form, even in other formats. Without a doubt, Rohit set the pace for India at the 50-over World Cup and was the poster child for their gung-ho mentality. Even if a number of openers have shown promise in recent T20Is, with Sai Sudharsan being the most, Rohit stands head and shoulders above them all thanks to his body of work, much like it does with Kohli.
Selecting both puts you at danger of being called a conservative. However, has prudence not paid off in the T20 World Cup? The Australian team that won the 2021 World Cup in the United Arab Emirates is an excellent case study. Though they were an allegedly elderly and exhausted group, their expertise and wisdom paid off handsomely when it mattered most. A youthful, exciting squad may win bilateral series and provide you with short-lived excitement, but the great names, the former masters, are what you need for the major tournaments; they are motivated to make a major impression before they fade into the distance.
Sandip G.
Should India send a sizable delegation to the Olympics?
Out of the 26 competitors competing in their respective disciplines, just two Indians, discus thrower Kamalpreet Kaur and Neeraj Chopra, made it to the finals. This does not include race walk competitions, where only straight-forward finals typically occur. This could present a negative image of Indian sports and inevitably strengthen the case for or against sending all eligible athletes to the Games in the first place.
But statistics and data aren’t everything in sports. Even with his national record-breaking effort, steeplechaser Avinash Sable was not able to secure a spot in the finals. Similarly, the men’s 4x400m quartet gave it their all to break an Asian record, but they were not selected for the final. In summary, the headline in The Indian Express stated, “Fastest in Asia but not quick enough.” Can these athletes’ strong performances just be disregarded since they were eliminated before reaching the finals? Naturally, no.
The most pointless pastime for “sports experts” is crystal ball gazing. There isn’t a single athletics preview that predicted Olympic newcomer Neeraj Chopra to place in the top three. Achieving Olympic qualification in a quantifiable sport such as athletics is no easy task.
In athletics, there is minimal space for chance or outside influence due to the two-tier system consisting of rankings and qualification standards. It would be unjust to deny any athlete a spot based only on their prediction ability because every athlete deserves a spot. Athletes cannot reproduce the experience they get from such high-profile tournaments in any kind of training environment.
The only time this rule should be broken is if there are any injuries or health problems. In order to qualify for the Games and be labelled as an Olympian, an athlete must be completely fit and not conceal any injuries, according to the federation’s absolute right. Having said that, every track and field competitor who has earned a spot in the Olympics ought to be traveling to Paris.
Amsan Andrew
Shooting trial: Proven performers or current form?
It’s inevitable that the subject of form vs pedigree will come up after two Olympics in which no medal was visible. India had a highly regarded team of young shooters at the Tokyo Olympics who had never experienced failure. What happened next was the surrender of a fifteen-person team that was expected to win several medals.
India will hold four Olympic trials before Paris, as proposed by former national rifle coach Joydeep Karmakar. Speaking to The Indian Express about his expectations for the trials, Karmakar expressed his belief that treating the Olympic trials as a competition of a higher caliber than the Olympics themselves would produce a level of shooter capable of handling the demands of a competition in which India has faltered in the previous two editions.
Yes, the points system would still exist, with certain athletes receiving bonus points for winning World Championships and securing quota spots, but the percentages and bonuses would not be as severe as they were previously. If you successfully complete three of the four trials, you will be guaranteed a spot at the Olympics. Give up in May and witness an Indian competitor compete for a medal in July/August in Paris.
As long as the quota wasn’t earned at a World Championship, it makes reasonable to give a shooter’s form more weight in May than quota winners. Consider Rudrankshh Patil’s situation. A gold medalist from a World Championship in the current Olympic cycle would be denied a berth on the squad, which would be absurd given the difficult conditions of winning a gold that is only surpassed in the Olympics’ competitiveness and competition. It may be argued that in this specific case, form need not be taken into account.
But other from that, given how disastrous Rio and Tokyo were, does a nation with such depth in its rifle squad and promise in its pistol team have anything to lose by giving form a shot?
Shashank Nair
Is Lakshya Sen better off playing an aggressive role?
Lakshya Sen faces an uphill battle to qualify for the Olympics after a season marked by 11 first-round exits from 22 international events and a defeat to an underappreciated opponent at the Nationals. Even though his defense-heavy approach was spectacular with dives and quick pickups, it was always going to be physically taxing over time. Is the situation so bad that he must change to an offensive mode?
Sen’s shots have become somewhat predictable at times, and opponents can read him quite well. His lack of offensive variety from the back is seen as careless body language, although it’s more of a technical than a temperamental problem. It is obvious that, before his usual impatience sets in, he will have to find offensive weapons to end the endless rallies.
The issue with the transition is that he has been unable to kill the bird by being sucked into pointless exchanges because of his lost timing on smashes due to the shoulder ailment. While Vimal Kumar has realized the urgency of his disorganized qualification campaign and will be returning to Malaysia, India, and Indonesia for events, Anup Sridhar is hard at work.
He must place in the top 16 during the next four months to qualify for the Paris Games, which can be a challenging process given the pressure. Only a few strong performances in Canada and Japan indicate that Sen’s lead-up is a complete chaos, which is understandable why his team is concerned.
In the Asiad team finals against China, he was at his most brave when facing Shi Yuqi. The victory in Canada, where he used a confident offensive approach to defeat both world champion Kunlavut and top Chinese young player Li Shifeng, boosts optimism that this method will pay off. Furthermore, he is a proven big occasion player who can put on a spectacular show in Paris. If only he is eligible.
