Team India - A SWOT Analysis

There’s been so much debated about team India. Cricketopinions gives you another angle to choose from.

Strengths: The most harnessed strength of the Indian cricket team is its batting. We have had some of the world’s best batsmen in our team for some years now – Sunil Gavaskar, Sachin Tendulkar, etc. But it is consciously that the word harnessed is used.

That is because the Indians’ playing conditions, physique and strategic abilities really promote the growth of spin bowling in the country. Although there are sufficient spin bowlers playing first class and list A cricket, there is no youngster whose future in international cricket is guaranteed. There was a time when India played with four spinners who started operating sometimes even from the fourth or the fifth over. Unfortunately, it was not often that the four of them all played a match together. Therefore, spin is also India’s strength.

Weaknesses: The most prominent weakness of the Indian team is its fielding. Although we have had good fielders like Jadeja and the Yuvraj in recent times and Solkar and Venkat earlier, there has not been one team where the spectators can count on any given player in the team to pick up that ball soaring high in the air. This of course is a controllable weakness which I believe will improve with the generations.

Another weakness is that although we have a very strong batting, if it collapses, it collapses wholesale. It is not like the Australian team where on can assume that even after the fall of Hayden, Ponting and Hussey, Clarke and Symonds will still do the job for you. We have very capable batsmen all the way to number seven, but somehow, if there are a few wickets lost early, one is pretty sure that there will be no recovery.

Opportunities: India has had some good pace bowlers but never a strong pace line up. Nevertheless, this seems to be improving. There are a lot of aspiring and more importantly promising pace bowlers in the junior ranks around the country. Some of them have already come towards the apex. Assuming that their bodies hold on and that they don’t suffer early burnouts what with the sharply increasing amount of junior cricket, India has a good fast future.

Threats: The Indian cricket set up is starting to give too much importance to the junior levels of cricket. Let alone early burnout, a promising under thirteen cricketer who probably even represented his state could get bored of cricket (after all a recreation) after that junior level with the coaches squeezing out all the juice from him. Another looming but long term threat is that India may soon lose out in the cricket arena with the growth of the ‘minnows.’

At this stage analysis and future planning is crucial and should be given a great amount of importance. - BS