Has IPL affected India’s chances at the World Cup?

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 commences in England and Wales from May 30 which is barely a couple of weeks away. The Indian cricket team will leave for England on May 22, just a week before the World Cup begins!

With the two-months-long and hectic Indian Premier League (IPL) tournament just concluded, the priority of clinching the most coveted trophy in world cricket, the World Cup, seems to have taken a backseat.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has appeared quite serious when it comes to managing the workload of players. However, the past couple of months have been quite challenging for the players on account of tough scheduling for the cash-rich T20 tournament. The tight scheduling of matches including double-headers every weekend, training, extensive travels, etc for two long months have definitely taken a toll on India’s World Cup bound players.

The injury to Kedar Jadhav, who is considered as an integral member of Indian Cricket Team is a huge blow to India’s World Cup hopes. Jadhav suffered an injury in his left shoulder during the IPL match against Kings XI Punjab in Mohali on May 5. He missed the remainder of the IPL post the injury and it has cast doubts over his participation in the upcoming World Cup. According to ICC rules, India can make changes to their provisional squad by May 23.

Also, the form of some of the crucial players of Indian Team has got the nation worried. Players such as Kuldeep Yadav, Vijay Shankar, Kedar Jadhav (before getting injured), Dinesh Karthik, have just had a very disappointing IPL tournament. Their confidence and morale would have taken a major hit, which is not a good sign for India heading into the World Cup. Hopefully, the format change and wearing the Indian colours will get the best out of them.

Kedar Jadhav

Currently, most of the International teams participating in the World Cup are playing and preparing for the World Cup.

- Pakistan are currently touring England for five ODIs.

- West Indies and Bangladesh are currently playing tri-series in Ireland.

- Australia recently played New Zealand in three warm-up matches.

- Sri Lanka will feature in two ODI matches against Scotland.

The above matches are in addition to the two warm-up matches scheduled for the participating teams a week before the World Cup. On the other hand, India who leave for England just a week before the World Cup begins, will only get to play two warm-up matches against New Zealand and Bangladesh and head directly into the World Cup event.

India definitely does not have much time to prepare in England conditions and it needs to adjust from the T20 IPL mode to 50 overs format pretty soon. One can only hope that the lack of preparation does not end up hurting India’s chances at the World Cup.

The timing of the IPL has left India with quite a few concerns to address before the mega event. However, the nation is still very much hopeful that India can win this edition of the World Cup in England and Wales.