India is playing great cricket but needs to get their team composition right
The Indian team under Virat Kohli is on a roll having won all the ODI series that they have played since 2016. The only disappointment was losing to Pakistan in the Champions Trophy Final in England in 2017
One of the contributing factors has been the aggressive leadership and form of Captain Kohli. The openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan have had a major role to play in the victories. India’s bowling has been brilliant with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Chahal, Kuldeep Yadav forming a potent bowling attack.
The only area of concern for India has been their middle order. During the last few years, India have tried Yuvraj Singh, Kedar Jadhav, Manish Pandey, KL Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Suresh Raina and Dinesh Karthik in the middle order. Except for Kedar Jadhav who was regular with the Indian Team until he was down with Injury, none of the players enjoyed a regular place in the team. The one name in the middle order who has enjoyed that luxury has been of course MS Dhoni whose form has dipped in the recent years. Dhoni’s strike rate has dropped and he struggles to finish games off which he used to do so effortlessly in the past.
India needs to seriously get the composition of their middle order sorted out considering that the world cup is just a year from now. They need to identify the right players who can bat at positions 4, 5 & 6 and persist with them. On current form, K L Rahul seems the best bet at number 4 and enjoys the captain’s confidence. Number 5 & 6 seems to be a problem at the moment. Suresh Raina’s problems with the short ball are very obvious and every other team knows this weakness now. Manish Pandey appears to be a better choice (in Kedar Jadhav’s absence) and has done reasonably well in the chances that he has had including a century in a winning chase against Australia in Australia. He needs to be persisted with to help him gain confidence. Kedar Jadhav’s strength is his ability to bowl spin in the middle overs and get a few wickets. It remains to be seen if he can come back to regain his place. Now comes the big question. Is MS Dhoni still good enough to retain his place in the team? His fitness is beyond doubt and he is as solid as ever with his wicket keeping. The problem appears to be in his batting. The big shots are clearly not coming off including the famous helicopter shots. He did show glimpses of his legendary big hitting during the recent IPL. But in the few matches that he has played in England during this series, his form has been patchy.
The good news is that there are quite a few options available. Dinesh Karthik is in good nick and his experience comes in handy in tough situations. There is also young Rishabh Pant who has impressed everyone with his fearless display of batting. There are also talented players like Ambatti Rayudu and Sanju Samson who can be considered. Also, one wonders why Ravindra Jadeja has been overlooked in the ODIs. He has the ability to bowl tight, take a few wickets and is a good aggressive lower order batsman, apart from being one of the best fielders in the team.
India needs to make some tough choices now if they want to have a settled team before the world cup.