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2022 was a forgettable year for the Indian men's cricket team. The calendar year saw a series of problems surface (and resurface) and a case of the same old story repeating in another ICC event.
While the Men in Blue were ruthless across the bilateral white-ball series', they failed to cross the semi-final hurdle at the T20 World Cup. On top of that, they lost a Test series in South Africa despite taking a 1-0 lead before going down in the rescheduled fifth Test against England in Birmingham.
An impending transition is on the cards in Test cricket, while a lot has been left to be desired in the shorter formats as well. In short, everything that could have gone wrong at the wrong time did.
It is now up to the players and the management to ensure that 2023, which will come with major assignments such as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the ODI World Cup, and a potential World Test Championship final, doesn't see an encore.
On that note, let's assess three worrying takeaways from 2022 as far as Team India are concerned.
#1 The musical chairs around captaincy
India's first match of the year saw Virat Kohli miss the Johannesburg Test against South Africa due to a back spasm. KL Rahul stepped in as captain for the game. Kohli then returned in Cape Town, only to resign at the end of the match.
It was a sign of things to come with the Men in Blue fielding as many as seven different captains across formats for various reasons ranging from sudden injury to workload management. Oh, this does not account for Dinesh Karthik, who led India in a warmup game against Northamptonshire.
Hardik Pandya has been named captain of the T20I squad to face Sri Lanka and will also deputize for Rohit Sharma in the ODIs, despite Rahul being named in the 50-over squad. Whether this is a sign of things to come is unknown at this point.
If anything, the last squad announcement of 2022, which carries more questions than answers, is a poetic summary of the year gone by and the cacophonous captaincy ball being passed around.
#2 Lack of clarity in selection
Bengal seamer Mukesh Kumar was picked in India's ODI squad for the series against South Africa despite his modest List-A numbers. His performance in the Duleep Trophy went a long way towards him getting picked but he was then left out without getting a game.
Mukesh is now part of India's T20I squad to play the touring Lankans next month. Ruturaj Gaikwad, who was the Player of the Tournament in the recent Vijay Hazare Trophy, is part of the T20I setup but not the ODI squad.
These are just two of many such confusing selection strategies that defied conventional wisdom in 2022. On the back of India's semifinal exit at the Men's T20 World Cup, the Chetan Sharma-led panel was shown the door.
They will remain in office until a new committee is appointed, but avoiding this case of mixing formats while keeping the selection in mind is imperative for whoever takes charge.
#3 The frequent rate of injuries
While the taxing schedule was by no means relenting on the Men in Blue, the frequent rate of untimely injuries throughout 2022 stalled their progress.
Losing Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja to injury ahead of the T20 World Cup was as hammering a blow as it could have come. Aside from that, skipper Rohit himself endured his fair share of injuries which began towards the end of 2021, with a hamstring injury forcing him out of the South Africa tour.
A combination of hamstring and back injuries kept Deepak Chahar out for a good part of the year and also pulled up just three overs into the second ODI in Bangladesh.
After the match, Rohit spoke about not pushing half-fit players back into the side from the National Cricket Academy (NCA) and it clearly summed up the can of worms that had opened up in terms of the players' fitness.
That is something that India will hope goes with 2022 and doesn't spill over into the new year.
Can India's men's team put a forgettable 2022 behind them and dawn the new year on a positive note? Let us know in the comments section below!
Also read: Best India Test XI from 2022
