Asia Cup 2018: 2 things India would want to achieve from this series
The cricket juggernaut rolls on for Team India. After a tiring and long tour of England and Wales, they will be headed to the UAE for the Asia Cup. There is just a gap of a week between the end of the Test series in England and the start of the Asia Cup.
There certainly would be player’s burnout, and possibly even viewers would also not show that much of an interest in this series as it’s been scheduled rather haphazardly. But such is the nature of the way the modern games are scheduled, and one hopes this series would have some entertaining and close encounters.
India are the current Asia Cup holders and most certainly would want to retain that trophy in their trophy cabinet. The last installment of the Asia Cup was in the T20I format where India defeated the hosts Bangladesh at the Sher-E-Bangla Stadium, Mirpur by eight wickets.
Keeping the fact that the ICC Cricket World Cup is nine months away, and with India left with 23 ODIs to play before the biggest tournament in the ODI format starts, India would want to use the Asia Cup as a platform to solve some issues that’s been plaguing them.
With the workload and the recent injury scares, Virat Kohli has been rested for the Asia Cup. Rohit Sharma will lead a well-balanced Indian team when they start their title defence on September 18, 2018.
Here’s looking at what India would want to achieve from the Asia Cup, 2018.
#1 An end to the number 4 position dilemma
India have been plagued with the issue of who to play at the important number 4 position slot for a very long time. Numerous players like MS Dhoni, KL Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey have been tried but to no avail.
This tournament gives them a chance to decide on one player who can handle the responsibility and persist with that batsman right up to the World Cup. There has been far too much chopping and changing, it’s time the selectors and the team management decide on one player and provide him adequate support.
Looking at India’s recent performances in the ODI format, it certainly is a good idea to have the experience of MS Dhoni at the number 4 position. With MSD taking a lot of balls to get himself in nowadays and with the likes of Dinesh Karthik and Hardik Pandya lower down the order, it seems a good move to play MSD in that position leading to the World Cup, 2019.
To his credit MS Dhoni has had a successful run at the number 4 position- 1230 runs in 27 matches at an average of 55.40 with one hundred and 11 fifties. With MSD taking too much time to get going, he would cripple the innings if he comes in at his usual number 6 position.
With the selectors clearly stating that the stalwart is most definitely in their plans for the World Cup, it’s high time they assign a fixed responsibility to him and stick with that decision. He would add solidity to the middle order and would allow the likes of Dinesh Karthik, Kedhar Jadhav and Hardik Pandya to come in and express themselves.