Three seamers. Two of them, Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube, bat like specialists. The other, Jasprit Bumrah, is a human marvel, who has already shown that greatness is by no means incommensurate with unorthodoxy. Three spinners. Two of them, Varun Chakaravarthy and Kuldeep Yadav, are bluffmasters, their disguises indecipherable to microscopes. The other, Axar Patel, could pass off as a batsman. India’s permutation against UAE was as irresistible as it was intimidating, and a potential template for the World Cup defence at home next year.
The game against UAE was simply a testing ground; the combination is not set in stone and could alter, depending on conditions, opposition, fitness and their functionality against stronger adversaries. But the formation India deployed against the UAE is a frightening blueprint, furnishing them with a ferocious, elusive balance, neither compromising on their batting depth nor diluting the multi-dimensionality of their bowling, thereby making an already supreme force more supreme.
Till No 8, India have batsmen that could define games. Of the 11, six are capable of bowling the full quota of four overs. At least two others, Abhishek Sharma and Tilak Varma, could contribute with an over or two. India’s head coach Gautam Gambhir is an admirer of all-round prowess, inspired by the two World Cup winning teams he was part of, and he has his dream granted. He and the team management has slotted the pieces into and out of place in a careful and deliberate line of progress towards an eventual aim of title-winning balance. Winning combinations comprise the right players and not always the best players. The right components have been employed at the right time.
If that ball was good, the catch was even better 😍
Dube & Samson combine for #TeamIndia‘s 6th – watch #INDvUAE – LIVE on #SonyLIV & #SonySportsNetwork TV Channels 📺#AsiaCup #DPWORLDASIACUP2025 pic.twitter.com/WPiF6tqJkl
— Sony LIV (@SonyLIV) September 10, 2025
The top-order is stacked with firepower, the middle-order has savage enforcers, the lower-order has remorseless six-hitters. Any one of them could finish games. Enough to dread and deflate most bowlers. The bowling is almost otherworldly, forged in an unreal fire. Bumrah is ethereal, a tessellation of uniqueness, skills, wit and desire. Hardik, when fit and fiery, nags batsmen with slippery pace, dexterity of using different lengths, especially with the skid he purchases from hard length. His variations, like cutters, are grossly understated weapons. Him taking the new ball is not an indication of India’s desperate juggle act to fit in an extra spinner, but because he is genuinely proficient at that. Only injuries had denied him a more permanent new-ball role. Shivam Dube might not rankle with pace or befuddle with variations, but he showed he can be resourceful, is steadily improving and could be the reliable third act. Rarely trusted as a bowler, he has not bowled in 11 of the 36 games he has played, and bowled the full quota only twice, he has quickened up, has become more disciplined and is cleverer in using different angles.
Changes Dube has made
Under bowling coach Morne Morkel’s guidance, he has begun to bowl wider of the crease more regularly to the right-handed batsmen. The angle exaggerates the angle of the balls that he seams away, or holds the line. The strides of his run-up are shorter than it was before. “Because of those two-three things, my bowling is getting better. My pace is also improving and I am getting confidence,” he said in the press conference after the UAE game, where he grabbed three wickets for four runs. “As an allrounder, I am always prepared for four overs of bowling. Whenever I get an opportunity to bowl three-four overs, I am ready for it,” he added.
He might be the most dispensable fast-bowler among the three, but he is the central piece for the combination clicks. Great individuals help, of course, in winning games. But what actually wins tournaments is the rest, those who allow the great individuals to flourish. Dube could play this role. If either of his faculties fail, the team management would be tempted to remove him, and there is no like-for-like replacement. The balance will fall apart. India would be forced to make two changes. An extra batter, say someone like Rinku, as well as a fast bowler, which could be at the expense of a spinner. The casualty, in this scenario, could be Kuldeep or Varun, as Axar can bat as adroitly as a specialist. One of them will be benched if India decide to blood an extra seamer, invariably the unfortunate Arshdeep Singh, India’s highest wicket-taker in this format. On faster, bouncier conditions, he would be an automatic choice, but in Asia, India can afford to ignore him for the all-round verve of Dube.
But when one of Kuldeep or Varun is compromised, India lose a slice of their impenetrability, a fragment of dread. They become less of an unstoppable force, and more of an efficient unit. Whereas others such as Washington Sundar assures productivity with the bat as well as thrift with the ball, or Abhishek and Tilak could rip in with a few overs, no spin pair in the world possess as many tricks and layers as Varun and Kuldeep. An unorthodox finger-flicking leg-spinner and a left-arm wrist-spin virtuoso who foxes batsmen in the air as well as off the pitch. Both are incredibly difficult to pick off their hands, run-up or action. Both are unearthly accurate and offer personalised form of high‑end deception. Unless they themselves err, or endure a bad day, the leeway for boundaries is less for batsmen. Both bleed less than seven runs an over, and pick a wicket at less than 15 runs. Varun strikes with every 13th ball he bowls; Kuldeep once in 12 balls. It’s a travesty if one misses out because they do not have the means to bat fast.
Axar, the orthodox outsider
Among them, Axar is the orthodox outsider. But his virtues can’t be extolled more. One of the unsung architects of the 2024 World Cup triumph, his reliability gives Kuldeep and Varun the freedom to experiment and be expansive. At the back of their mind, they know Axar is there to keep an end tight, break a partnership or offer a piece of advice from his immense experience. The captain knows they can throw the new or old, semi-old or semi-new ball at them, need not feed him with any specific instructions but yet produce what the team needs. He, certainly, could bat anywhere in the order, could be the aggressor or the accumulator.
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But for this combination to stick, Dube would be required to fulfil both the roles dutifully. Put on the big-hitting shifts as well as the invisible medium-pace overs. And then the combination will work clockwork, wielding both intimidation and impregnability.
