In 2024, the focus will be trained on the T20 World Cup, to be co-hosted by the United States and the West Indies. India’s only success in the competition came in the inaugural edition in South Africa in 2007, months before the first edition of the Indian Premier League. It’s ironic in a way that despite boasting the most vibrant and thriving T20 franchise tournament in the world, India have made only one subsequent final, in 2014. It is, however, worth remembering that the dynamics of franchise cricket are totally different from those at the international level, and that for all their experience of the pulls and pressures of the 20-over game, there is no substitute for playing as a team, which the IPL by its very nature does not facilitate.

Do India have it in them to break their jinx at the T20 World Cup? For sure. Without a shadow of doubt. But can they do so? The answer to that isn’t as straightforward, and that has to do with India’s record in knockout games at global tournaments in the last several years.

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While the official word from different captains and coaches revolves around one bad day at the office and the failure to execute plans on the day that mattered, it is impossible that the baggage of past failures doesn’t accompany the players who have come up short at the crunch in the past. Against that backdrop, the prospect of a youngish team comprising many personnel who haven’t endured heartbreak previously going all the way isn’t far-fetched.

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India have only three internationals, at home against Afghanistan in mid-January, before the North American adventure in June. They have embarked on an excellent run since the end of the 50-over World Cup, crushing Australia 4-1 at home and bouncing back to level a three-match series in South Africa after the opener in Durban was washed out. Both results were eked out under new captain Suryakumar Yadav, by a distance the best T20 batsman in the world at the moment. Suryakumar only got the job because Hardik Pandya, expected to helm India’s challenge at the World Cup, is currently unavailable through injury. But the 33-year-old Mumbaikar has done enough in his seven games as skipper to warrant a serious look for a longer stint at the top.

A profusion of fearless attacking batsmen, headlined of course by Suryakumar with Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan, Yashavi Jaiswal, Tilak Varma and the irrepressible Rinku Singh in tow, is a formidable proposition which assumes even more menacing hues with the imminent return of Pandya. The pace department will be fortified when Jasprit Bumrah is back for the shortest format to team up with Mohammed Siraj, while there is a plethora of spinning resources with the two wrist-spinners, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi, competing for impact if not a place in the playing XI. There is no reason not to expect this bunch to go all the way in a tournament that will feature 20 teams for the first time, but India must quickly decide who their captain will be—Rohit, who hasn’t played a T20I since the last World Cup in November 2022, Pandya, who has been out of commission since 19 October 2023, or Suryakumar, the stand-in incumbent who has led with imagination and poise and who is batting as if it’s the easiest proposition that there ever has been.

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