By Kushan Sarkar

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Former Indian skipper and top-order batter's Virat Kohli's artistic sixes against Pakistan united fans from Kashmir to Kanyakumari in an otherwise underwhelming year for Indian cricket, which started with a promise of transformation but ended with the commencement of another problematic transition period. Indian cricket in 2022 was primarily chaotic and messy, both on and off the field. The only saving grace was a ₹48,000 crore Indian Premier League (IPL) media rights deal, indicating what market forces aspire the cricketing ecosystem to be. But, at least for the men, it was a saga of disappointing results on the field.

It started with a Test series defeat in South Africa, leading to a dejected Virat Kohli stepping down from captaincy in the longest format. His relationship with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) bigwigs was fractured after being sacked from ODI captaincy, and he wanted to leave on his terms.

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It happened in January, and as the year ends, Kohli's illustrious heir and current captain, Rohit Sharma, finds himself shunted from the national T20 captaincy. In an expected change of guard, all-rounder Hardik Pandya emerged as a new leader of the national Twenty20 (T20) team as Rohit paid the price for another semi-final exit in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 following the defeat against England.

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It is the England team, which across formats, is changing the grammar of cricket with an amazingly aggressive approach known as 'Bazball', a name which is set to attain cult status in years to come along with the golden generation of English players led by Test skipper-cum-all-rounder Ben Stokes and wicketkeeper-opener Jos Buttler.

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They played cricket in such an entertaining style that the Indian team's "ideas cupboard" seemed bare in comparison. The Indian team looked good during bilaterals but came a cropper at the global events. It has yet to be determined when the trend will be bucked. Some of the bilateral series needed more context, and hence Kohli's 71st and 72nd international hundreds in dead rubbers versus Afghanistan (T20) and Bangladesh (ODI) didn't have a lot of currency.

While Kohli's straight six off pacer Haris Rauf and his 82-run knock will forever remain a poetic nostalgia, the archaic approach of India's senior batters, including that of skipper Rohit and keeper-opener KL Rahul, stuck out like a sore thumb during the T20WC. It also was noticed that head coach Rahul Dravid's decision-making had left a lot to be desired.

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From rushing a half-fit pacer Jasprit Bumrah for a T20 series against Australia that aggravated his lower-back stress fracture to not thinking of using wrist spinner Yuzvendra Chahal at the global event and dropping a performer like left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav from a Test after a match-winning show, Dravid could never actually convince anyone that he is a shrewd tactician.

In Rohit's case, his batting form dip also became an issue, although he was the only one among the top three who had tried changing his game as per the needs of modern-day white-ball cricket. Rahul was the most disappointing of the lot. By the end of the year, it became clear that the Chetan Sharma-led panel's wish of seeing a potential national leader in him had crash-landed as he lost his T20 vice-captaincy to Suryakumar Yadav and One-Day International (ODI) deputy's role to Pandya.

Shreyas Iyer's consistent run in Tests and ODIs, young keeper Rishabh Pant emerging as the current team's most prolific Test match game changer and Jammu's tearaway quick Umran Malik entering collective conscience were some of the positive signs. Opener Shubman Gill realising his potential at the highest level and young keeper-opener Ishan Kishan giving a glimpse of his phenomenal talent was also a good sign, looking forward.

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The year also marked the end of the international careers of pacer Ishant Sharma and veteran keeper Wriddhiman Saha, two skilful players who had served the national team with distinction before being told that their time was up and Indian cricket was moving past them.

Ditto for veteran opener Shikhar Dhawan, a prolific ODI player, has now been shown the exit door. At 37, another comeback doesn't seem imminent. Chetan's selection committee, which showed a lack of foresight, was sacked by the BCCI after the team's poor show in the T20WC. However, in 2023, Chetan may be seen working as a selector, this time possibly under a well-known seamer from Karnataka, if he still needs to reappoint as chairman once again.

Mithali Raj and Jhulan Goswami, who set a benchmark in the women's game and earned respect for the national team on the international stage, ended their respective glorious journeys in women's cricket. While some batters could fill Mithali's void, finding Jhulan's replacement will be difficult if the team's performance under Harmanpreet Kaur is an indication.

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Save Renuka Singh Thakur, none of the other players has looked ready for international cricket, and a testimony to that is Shikha Pandey's return to international cricket after 15 months. The removal of Ramesh Powar, again due to differences with the team's star senior player, left a sour taste in the mouth.

At the administrative level, former captain Sourav Ganguly's tenure in the BCCI ended in acrimonious circumstances despite the Supreme Court allowing him an extension in the role of President. In his two months in office, the new chief Roger Binny has remained more of a "quiet contributor", according to BCCI insiders. Come 2023, the 1983 World Cup hero would perhaps need to make more tangible off-field contributions so that the class of 2023 can sing in unison, "It's coming Home."

(With inputs from PTI)

Amrita Ghosh

Bengaluru, in