Adapting to conditions is the key

Getting used to their new surroundings will be India’s first challenge, according to former Australia batsman Mike Hussey. “India just need to get its confidence going in English conditions,” Hussey said. “Sometimes it’s not easy to adapt to the conditions straightaway as we saw with Kohli a few years ago in the (2014) Test series, he did battle over there. It’s how quickly they can adapt from subcontinental conditions to English conditions – that will be the challenge.” 

The 2017 Champions Trophy could very well be the international swansong of India legend MS Dhoni. A year ago he declared he intended on playing on until the 2019 World Cup but that looks a long way away now. He will be a key player for India, able to contribute handy runs down the order and is still a trusted keeper.

A poor run with the bat against Australia in March was backed up by another lean run in the IPL by captain Kohli. The prolific right-hander has scored runs like clockwork in the past three years but his purple patch may have finally ended. Kohli is surrounded by a power-packed batting order, but if India are going to defend their 2013 title they will need their skipper leading from the front with plenty of runs.

But Mike Hussey, who has seen India from close quarters as he was playing in the IPL for long, feels India has the team to go the distance in Champions Trophy: “They’re a class outfit. They’ve got some many good players all the way down the list and they’ve been high quality players for a long period of time now. They boast a young squad but they’ve played a lot of cricket,” noted Hussey. 

The Australian picked Virat Kohli and Ravi Ashwin as the Indian mainstays. “But India has got some other guys like Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who’s been in great form in the IPL. Umesh Yadav – he’s just getting better and better every year as a quick. They’re going to have a really good attack and they’ve got class in their batting all the way down. Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Ajinkya Rahane and Kohli – they’re all class players,” Hussey said.

SQUAD: Virat Kohli (c), Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Ajinkya Rahane, MS Dhoni (wk), Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Hardik Pandya, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Manish Pandey

BEST RESULT: Winners - 2002 (shared with Sri Lanka), 2013