World Cup 2023: Shreyas-Shubman’s edge returned, Siraj’s ‘swing magic’ returned

World Cup 2023: Shreyas-Shubman’s edge returned, Siraj’s ‘swing magic’ returned… India received 5 positive messages before the match with South Africa

siraj shami gill shreyas sixteen nine

Team India Strength in World Cup 2023: Team India is seen in full glory in this World Cup, the players whose form was being questioned are now seen returning to their old form. Team India has received 5 big messages from the victory against Sri Lanka and before the match against South Africa on 5th November.

Team India World Cup 2023: When Team India was going to play against Sri Lanka in the World Cup on 2 November, some questions were also standing in front of it. Actually, the form of some players had become a headache for Rohit Sharma. The question before captain Rohit was that when will these players perform brilliantly in the World Cup. Not only did Team India thrash Sri Lanka by 302 runs at the historic ground of Wankhede, the players who were ‘out of form’ also became ‘informed’.

The performance of Mohammed Siraj, Shreyas Iyer and Shubman Gill against Sri Lanka proved one thing that now everything is ‘all is well’ in the team. There are now a total of 4 matches between the World Cup 2023 trophy and India. There are 2 league matches in these. After that there is the semi-final and final match.

On November 5, Rohit Brigade will play South Africa and then on November 12, Netherlands. After this there is the semi-final (15 or 16 November), then the World Cup final on 19 November.

After defeating Sri Lanka and before the match against South Africa, Rohit Sharma and company have received 5 big positive messages. 

1: Siraj looked lethal for the first time in the entire tournament 

On 17 September 2023, the final of the Asia Cup was played between Sri Lanka and India at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. In this match, the Indian team restricted Sri Lanka to 50 runs. The main hero behind this was Mohammad Siraj. Siraj did a dangerous spell of 6/21 in that final match. When Team India was coming to play in the World Cup, it was expected that Mohammed Siraj would maintain consistency, but his performance in the World Cup was not as expected from him.

In the opening match of the World Cup against Australia, he spelled 6.3-1-26- 1 (took the wicket of Mitchell Starc). In the next match against Afghanistan, he proved to be very expensive and remained wicketless giving 76 runs in 9 overs. After this, Siraj showed his strength by taking 2 wickets against Pakistan. He took 2 wickets in the match against Bangladesh. Siraj got one wicket against New Zealand. At the same time, once again Siraj remained wicketless in the match against England.

The way Siraj bowled against Sri Lanka by using the crease and trapping the Sri Lankan batsmen, it seemed as if he was the same ‘Siraj’ who was bowling in the Asia Cup final in Colombo. The movement of his balls was worth seeing. One of Siraj’s balls swung so much that even wicketkeeper KL Rahul got caught. Siraj bowled brilliantly (7-2-16-3) against Sri Lanka.

2: Mohammed Shami was the most consistent in the World Cup. 

‘If we get a chance, we will tell you…’, perhaps Mohammed Shami acted on these words and took 14 wickets in the three matches of the World Cup so far. These include taking five wickets twice against New Zealand in Dharamshala and Sri Lanka in Mumbai. Shami took 4 wickets in the match against England in Lucknow. Shami has been consistent after getting his chance in this World Cup. With this, he has become the highest wicket taker for India in the World Cup. Shami has taken a total of 45 wickets in 14 World Cup matches in 2015, 2019 and 2023.

Mohammed Shami’s journey in the World Cup has been like this 

22 October: VS New Zealand, 10-0-54-5
29 October: VS England, 7-2-22-4
2 November: VS Sri Lanka, 5 -1-18-5

3: Shubman Gill also returned to form

Shubman Gill could not play for Team India in the first two World Cup matches due to dengue. After this, he came to play against Pakistan on 14 October at Narendra Modi Stadium. This was also Gill’s debut match in the World Cup, where he could score 16 runs. Then on 19 October, Shubman Gill scored 53 runs against Bangladesh in Pune. On October 22, Gill scored 26 runs against New Zealand and on October 29, he scored 9 runs against England. Although Gill had scored 53 runs with his bat in Pune, captain Rohit himself was expecting an even bigger innings from him.

On November 2, Gill had come with the decision that he would make a splash at the Wankhede Stadium. After this he played an inning of 92 runs. Even though he missed the century, before the big matches of Team India, Shubman expressed that other teams should be cautious of him for the knockout matches.

4: Shreyas Iyer became a pinch hitter, showed excellent batting. 

The biggest worry for Team India till now was Shreyas Iyer. He was out on 0 in the first match against Australia. However, after this he was able to score runs in Afghanistan (25 not out), Pakistan (53 not out), Bangladesh (19), New Zealand (33), England (4). His weakness on short balls was visible. Iyer also returned to form against Sri Lanka and scored 82 runs in just 56 balls at a strike rate of 146.42. During this period his innings included 3 fours and 6 sixes.

5: Team India is not dependent on any one player

One of the biggest messages received from this World Cup is that Team India is not dependent on any one player. After the flop of Rohit Sharma (0), Ishan Kishan (0), Shreyas Iyer (0) against Australia, just as in the first match, KL Rahul (97) and Virat Kohli (85) lost 3 wickets for 2 runs. By winning, it proved one thing that Team India has come to the World Cup this time with a different intention. On October 14, Virat Kohli (16), Shubhman Gill (16) remained in trouble against Pakistan. In this match, Rohit Sharma (86), Shreyas Iyer (53 not out) and KL Rahul (19 not out) took the innings.

After Hardik Pandya got injured against Bangladesh on October 19, there was tension in Team India as to who would replace him..? But Suryakumar Yadav tried to compensate for them. He was unlucky in the first match on 22 October and got run out on the score of 2 due to a mistake with Virat. After this he scored 49 runs against England at a very crucial time. However, Surya (12) missed a big innings on his home ground in Mumbai.