The Victorious Indian Cricket Team

I have been quite critical of the selections on the Indian Team ever since they have reached the soil of South Africa. The first two tests were a disaster we came close but didn’t go on to win because of batting lapses. The third test in South Africa saw the characteristic that each bowler in the Indian team was showing by picking 20 wickets oen more time. But this time on a difficult pitch Batting was more difficult. With Pujara, Rahane and Kohli playing important knocks India went on to win the 3rd test.

Now let’s come to ODI’s. The team is said to be preparing for the 2019 World Cup. The current position of squad leans like this.

1. Rohit Sharma
2. Shikhar Dhawan
3. Virat Kohli
4. Ajinkya Rahane
5. Shreyas Iyer/ Hardik pandya
6. Hardik Pandya/ Kedar Jadhav
7. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
8. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar
9. Kuldeep Yadav
10. Yuzvendhra Chahal
11. Jasprit Bumrah

Though the team has won the series I have a problem with the squad. Now if we look into the series we can see that in all games the batting weight has been lifted by the top 3 with Rohit Sharma looking good in one innings and Virat Kohli taking most of the Brunt. The middle order remains relatively untested.

The squad has 3 number 11 batsmen in Kuldeep, Chahal and Bumrah. With Hardik Pandya’s failure with the bat the woes in middle order seems long. With the team asking M.S.Dhoni to bat always in the number 7 position. He isn’t having the time nor the people to bat along with him.

Let us take a worst case scenario of what happened against pakistan in the Champions Trophy. In case the first 3 falls cheaply we have a Dhoni in middle order but who else is going to build the innings along. We need Ajinkya Rahane to be on top notch and even if he falls down. We are literally hoping for a miracle with lower middle order. Now this is where the one of the spinner duo of Ashwin and Jadeja has to be taken. We know that both the spinners have been axed without a big reason. They were actually rested and then dropped along. At least Ashwin got to play the tests in South Africa. But Jadeja has been sidelined for a long time now.

The batting capability and the experience in england and Big tournaments like Champions trophy in England seem to favor the two finger spinners but who is to say what is on the mind of coach captain duo of Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli. The way they have selected the test squad was surprising but when they finally roped in Bhuvaneshwar and Rahane they won a test match maybe they need such a losing streak of 3–4 games to get some sense to build a team that works together rather than being dependant on the top order batting powerhouses.