ICC Champions Trophy 2017: Why the tournament is strategically important for Team India

The next few days will mark a relatively new phase of Indian and world Cricket. With a long home season and a swashbuckling IPL behind us, the focus is now on the international cricket, especially, the ICC Champions Trophy. CT is a mixed bag if we are to consider the attentions and remarks that it has drawn of late.

While some ex-cricketers have raised questions about its meaning and rationality, others have lauded the concept and supported India’s participation even during the days of uncertainties (over the ICC revenue sharing debate).

Regardless of the differing views about the tournament, for cricketing reasons alone, it is crucial for India to approach it methodically. We analyse the reasons why Champions Trophy is immensely strategic for team India.

As the below statistics shows, India as a team has a bitter-sweet CT record. In terms of success rates, India’s 71.42%-win rate is the best enjoyed by any teams though across years.

Era	Played	Won	Lost
1990s	2	1	1
2000s	17	9	5
2010s	5	5	0
Overall	24	15	6
Success Rates	71.42%

Adapting to the format

India has played a lot of cricket in the last few months, predominantly, Test matches and T20s (IPL included) mostly in home conditions. It must be said that India, with Kohli at the helm, has done remarkably well in Test matches and in limited few ODIs.

The fact, however, remains that Team India has not been exposed to ODI format in challenging circumstances much of late. Not that it would create teething trouble, however, getting accustomed to the ODI format in overseas conditions may be testing.

Numbers suggest that India has played only 11 ODIs in last one year against just a limited set of opponents such as Zimbabwe, New Zealand and England. Interestingly, India’s last multi-nations ODI event participation was more than two years ago in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 in Australia and New Zealand.

India's limited exposure to ODI format in recent times

Series	Number of ODIs	Opponent	Time	Captain
Bilateral Series in Zimbabwe	3	Zimbabwe	June 2016	MS Dhoni
Bilateral Series in India	5	New Zealand	Oct 2016	MS Dhoni
Bilateral Series in India	3	England	Jan 2017	Virat Kohli

A comparative analysis of the other top-tiered teams suggests that their ODI exposure both in terms of quality and quantity in last one year has been way more than that of India.

Teams with great ODI preparation

Team	No. of ODIs	Major Oppositions
Australia	29	New Zealand, Sri Lanka, South Africa, West Indies, Pakistan
South Affrica	23	Australia, Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand
England	22	Sri Lanka, Pakistan, India, West Indies, South Africa
New Zealand	23	India, Australia, South Africa

With relatively less amount of ODI exposure recently and a new leader in command, India, hence, has its task cut out to adapt to this format. Considering these, Champions Trophy would be quite a challenge for India.

A team in transition

In the fast pace of the game and in the heavily packed schedule of Team India, one may apparently forget that this is a team which has got a new leader and is still undergoing a transformation. Virat Kohli is just 3-match old in ODIs as India’s full-time captain after MS Dhoni’s stepped down.

Champions Trophy, in that regards, opens a new phase in Indian Cricket.

Besides a young leader, India has a bunch of youngsters in its arsenal. There are as many as 4 Indian (Hardik Pandya, Jasprit Bumrah, Kedar Jadhav and Mohammed Shami) players who have played less than 50 ODIs and have very less or no experience in playing either in English conditions or on big stages such as the ICC Champions Trophy.

CT would be of enormous importance for these players who-- if deliver to their potential-- can be forces to reckon with in the coming days.

With a sufficiently strong reserve bench, we must also not forget that there are a couple of seniors on the team who may not have much international career left in them going ahead. Therefore, Champions Trophy is vital for both the youngsters and the seniors.

The young guns may take it as an opportunity to cement their place in the squad and for the experienced campaigners, it is going to be a test to show their class and value.

A chance to establish supremacy

Events such as Champions Trophy are great platforms for Cricket superpowers like India to exert dominance. After a lot of experiments with the tournament over the last few editions, ICC has possibly got the tournament in its most competitive format.

Currently ranked 3^rd in ODIs, India would face some quality opposition in arch rival Pakistan, competitive Sri Lanka and a heavyweight South Africa in the group stage alone. Getting exposed to such amount of quality oppositions in one tournament is otherwise impossible in today’s cricketing scheme of things.

For a team with many young talented players under an aggressive leader, these challenges should come as opportunities to make a mark in the global arena.

This becomes imperative especially because India has blown hot and cold in ICC Champions Trophy in the past. Though the team has reasonably good overall success rates, India has had early exits from the tournaments as well.

India not only has the title to defend but also points to prove in terms of consistency in this edition of CT.

India’s progression in Champions Trophy across years

Warm-up for Cricket World Cup 2019

The venue of ICC Champions Trophy this year is of immense significance. The fact that the next CWC will be held in England and Wales as well makes the Champions Trophy experience very valuable for all teams.

CWC-19 – which will be played almost in the same conditions, amongst the same competitive teams, across the same set of venues that of Champions Trophy – is something all teams will have on their radar.

In 2017, we are already half way through towards the next biggest cricketing extravaganza, Cricket World Cup 2019. It can hence be mentioned that the Champions Trophy this year will act as the dress rehearsal in many ways for the coming CWC.

Champions Trophy can be a great preparation for the upcoming World Cup

In terms of quality of cricket, Champions Trophy is harsher and demanding than the CWC. The tournament means serious business from day-1 and any slack or lacklustre show may cause early elimination. As a team determined to excel in such a tournament, India must set the priorities high.