5 areas of concern for India's T20 team

#2 World Cup preparation?

Any preparation is good as long as it results in a victory. So, let's look at what preparation did the teams do for the World Cup wins in 2007 and 2011? India hardly played any T20 cricket before the World Cup in 2007. Most of the seniors at the time opted out of the tournament. IPL didn't exist. No one knew what to expect from the format or the tournament. Except for a few, most players had represented India in one format or the other. It was also MS Dhoni's first assignment as a cricket captain. So, India went into the tournament with practically zero preparation. And came victorious.

Look at the 2011 victory, it was the same side playing together for a few years preceding the World Cup. Except for Virat Kohli, Ravichandran Ashwin & Suresh Raina, who were new, even they were in the squad in the preceding years & playing as well. So, hardly any preparation in the 2011 victory as well. Settled side, players playing in the same role for years, everyone knew what to do, and everything fell in place on the night of 2nd April 2011.

As a selector, you got to know your best XI. We have already seen what overpreparation does in the World Cup 2019. India has a stellar tournament in IPL with 14-16 games with the highest level of competition against the best of players from across the world. One would think, it would be enough to identify the best XI. Does it require to try out so many players in the name of preparation?

It also raises questions when the Bumrahs and Pandyas return, what happens to these players. Will these new players make way? And when would the retuning players prepare? The main contention is why is the India cap being distributed so casually? Preparation is best with good old preparation camps. Only the best XI in the country should represent the country, whichever format. Period.