The year of Rohit Sharma’s tryst with World Cup destiny

The 1996 World Cup was traumatic for Indian cricket fans. The year 2023 comes with opportunities to change that. India's cricket itinerary seems to have been planned by school academics. In February, Australia tours India for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. The main act of 20th century will be the white-ball 50-overs World cup, which will conclude late November. Rohit Sharma and coach Rahul Dravid will play in it. They have played 5 senior 50 over World Cups but have never been World Champions. Dravarid missed the cut in 1996, sparkled in 1999, played the final in 2003 and was the skipper for disastrous campaign of 2007.

The last few ICC events have shown that the light-weight national selectors haven't quite lined up a cracking unit of potential world champions. The BCCI hasn't been able to address this root problem. Hardik Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah haven’t been playing well. Rohit Sharma is probably at the fag end of his international career. There will be a 10-team full blown home-and-away IPL this year. Foreign T20 leagues with teams bought by IPTL owners will kick off. Two of the most successful IPT teams - Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings - now have a presence in leagues outside India.