Indians Still Can't Find Right Mix To Calm The Middle-order

Chetan Narula identifies an area where the Indian national team are falling behind as they seek to build an all-conquering squad in the limited-overs game

Yuvraj Singh. Manish Pandey. Kedar Jadhav.Hardik Pandya. Virat Kohli. MS Dhoni. KL Rahul.Dinesh Karthik. Shreyas Iyer. Ajinkya Rahane. Ambati Rayudu. Vijay Shankar.

These 12 batsmen have batted in the middle-order for India since the 2017 Champions Troph, and at some point or another, all of them trialled for the vital number four spot. That’s 59 matches; in varying conditions across India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, Australia, New Zealand, the UAE and South Africa.

Do the maths – that’s also, on average, five innings per batsman among those named above. It is too small a metric to judge who is good enough – or not – to anchor the Indian ODI innings at number four. And it is no surprise that there is no firm contender for this batting slot at present because the Indian team management have adopted a revolving door policy.

This is also precisely why they are facing a selection headache ahead of April 15, when the Indian team for the 2019 World Cup will be announced. Just how did they get here?

It began in January 2017, when the captaincy changed hands. Kohli took over from Dhoni and started planning for the World Cup. The Champions Trophy was coming up, and he wanted to use it as a dress rehearsal. Yuvraj Singh came back into the squad, and straight into the playing eleven, at Manish Pandey’s expense.

Was it a short-term move, given Yuvraj’s dismal return (105 runs in five matches) in the Champions Trophy? It is difficult to say, but when the selectors duly announced beginning of ‘experimentation’ for the 2019 World Cup in Sri Lanka, Yuvraj was duly dropped and has since remained out of contention. More over, it was the trigger for this never-ending merry-go-round.