ANALYSIS
Follow UsThe regime has changed. Country's favourite coach is at the helm along with a five-time IPL winning captain as the leader of the pack. While the wait to see Rohit Sharma leading the ODI side will continue, the strategy and tactics during the three-match series against South Africa with Rahul Dravid as the coach will lay the groundwork for the World Cup in twenty months’ time.
Taking the lessons from the heartbreak of 2019 and 20-odd ODIs since, there are exactly four lingering issues. Not all of them will be answered in the three games but we are sure to get a glimpse of the mindset of the think-tank towards addressing them. Let’s tackle them not in the order or priority but in chronological order of batting position.
1) Nailing down Rohit’s partner
Objectivity suggests that there should be no question marks on Shikhar Dhawan continuing to be Rohit’s partner at the top. An average of 52.08 to go with a strike-rate of 92 since after the 2019 World Cup only establishes his right further. But, sometimes things can take a trickier turn.
Rohit’s absence from the series against South Africa means an empty spot at the top of the order. Since the colossal mismanagement of the middle-order in the 2019 World Cup, India have given a longer run to KL Rahul at number five. He has answered back with an average of 63.7 and a strike rate of 114.4 at that spot. However, on four instances since then when Dhawan has been out injured, Rahul has taken the opener’s slot.
While being a regressive step, what this informs is that India have not completely moved on from seeing Rahul as a potential opener. Now, being the captain of the team in South Africa, even Rahul would want to move to the position which is more rewarding in ODIs and where he has been more successful in the other two formats.
If India open with Rahul in South Africa, it will be a case of a downright shootout between him and Dhawan for when Rohit comes back. On the other hand, if India keep Rahul down the order where he has been a sort of a phenomenon in ODIs, either Ishan Kishan or Ruturaj Gaikwad – with the odds tilted towards the latter - will have a chance to establish themselves as India’s third-choice opener for the World Cup. This will also seal Rahul’s fate of being a middle-order batter in ODIs for the time being.
2) Finalizing the middle-order
India played an ODI series in South Africa a year and a half before the 2019 World Cup. The team they fielded in the first ODI then was the same they fielded in the first match of the 2019 World Cup, except for a solitary change: the batter at number four. In the team largely settled well in advance of the tournament, the number four spot became a circus. India went on to try nine different players at the spot in the next 39 innings. This came back to haunt India in the semi-final against New Zealand.
Since then, barring an injury, Shreyas Iyer has been the sole owner of the spot, batting there in 12 of the 20 innings and scoring at a healthy average of 42.1. He is highly likely to take back his spot now that he is back fit. However, it will not be that straightforward.
When Iyer was recovering and most players were in England preparing for the Test series, Suryakumar Yadav batted at five in Sri Lanka. In his typical treat for the eyes manner, he finished the three-match series with an average of 62 and a strike rate of a whopping 122.8. Now, if Rahul moves to the top, Surya’s place at five is all but certain. However, if Rahul bats at five, Iyer will be facing tough competition to what seemed his rightful place. But unlike the days before the 2019 World Cup, this is a rather happy headache for India.
3) The sixth bowling option
While statistically, the biggest headache for India is something else, the lack of a sixth bowling option is strategically the toughest issue to solve. None of the five batters discussed above and the two undroppables not discussed above – Virat Kohli and Rishabh Pant – are of any use with the ball. In the squad for ODIs against South Africa, the sole player earmarked as an all-rounder is Venkatesh Iyer.
Iyer made his name as an opener in the IPL. Since then, he has done whatever he could from his end to help the national side and become the able replacement for Hardik Pandya whose back issues have limited his cricketing progress. Iyer batted in the lower middle-order in the latest edition of the Vijay Hazare and bowled more frequently. Iyer will have to make giant strides to replicate the domestic success at the international level. And even if he does succeed, it will not solve the outstanding issue for India.
Consider this: if India play Iyer at six and see him as a sixth bowling option, that will imply having to play Ravichandran Ashwin at seven, a place one spot too high. This will effectively make India’s tail lengthy and will force the batters at the top to play with extra caution. This will also mean that India will have to sacrifice either Dhawan at the top or both Iyer and Surya in the middle-order because Rahul and Pant have their places sealed.
On the other hand, India can go in with just five bowling options and play Iyer at seven. But, this implies that Iyer has to bowl all 10 overs and can be a big gamble.
For India, six bowling options can be a reality only when Ravindra Jadeja comes back and takes his spot at seven. Either or both of Ashwin or Shardul Thakur to follow depending on the conditions will then provide the batting depth. But this issue will remain unresolved during the South Africa series.
4) Lack of wickets upfront
Post the 2019 World Cup, India’s bowlers have had the worst economy rate among the top-ten nations. Both pacers and spinners have individually been more expensive than their contemporaries. While this might look like a collective failure of the bowling unit, the essential problem lies with the lack of wickets upfront.
Bowling in the first 10 overs, Indian pacers have taken only seven wickets in 21 innings. A balls per wickets record in this phase of 169.7 is almost three times the side next worse among the top-10 units: South Africa (59).
And it is not been the case of inexperienced bowlers failing to make their mark. Jasprit Bumrah has not taken a wicket in the powerplay in his last nine ODIs. The same is the case with Shardul Thakur. Bhuvneshwar Kumar has struck thrice in eight while Deepak Chahar has struck once in four innings. These are the four pacers who form the core of India’s white-ball attack leading up to the World Cup. They need to come out of their wicket-less rut soon.
