NEW DELHI: IT was thought that the I’s were dotted and the T’s crossed. But the last five ODIs have thrown that particular theory out of the window. India, who suffered their first home series defeat in 40 months, still have work to do if they are to depart for England with the tag of favourites firmly around
their neck.
The most worrying aspect about the loopholes — a sub-par middle-order propped up by an other-worldly top three and the 10 overs from the fifth bowler — is they have been tangible to the outside world for a very long time. Yet, the team management has not been able to plug those gaps.
It’s not for the want of trying but, perhaps, too many people have been hired and fired at the first sign of bat not meeting ball or ball flying into the stands. The following numbers back that assertion. Since the beginning of January 1, 2018, Virat Kohli and the team management have tried at least seven different bowlers in the capacity of using them as the fifth bowler multiple times. They have had varying levels of success (or failure) but with less than 80 days to go for the World Cup, nobody is quite sure of which way the pendulum will swing.
The bad news is that the bowler most often trusted to fill that quota in the said time period — Kedar Jadhav — is now leaking more runs.
Between January 1, 2018 and January 1, 2019, his economy rate was 4.12 in the seven matches he bowled. Since January 2? In the 11 matches, it’s ballooned up to 5.95, with a strike rate of one wicket almost every 58 balls. Not the stuff to fire up one’s imagination. This isn’t to criticise the 33-year-old — his main job is as a batsman who can roll his arm over if and when the team deems it necessary.
But the management’s haphazard ways in trying to solve a problem comes through fully when analysing the middle-order malaise. At least 11 batsmen have walked in at No 4 or No 5 since the beginning of last year. And the results to show for this experiment? Nothing but confusion.
It’s been so scattergun that India have tried everybody from Suresh Raina to Ajinkya Rahane — two batsmen as different as chalk and cheese — to address it. During the ODI leg of the Australia tour in January, Kohli went on record to say they had identified this as a problem position.
“(...) the No 4 position, again, has been sort of an area which we want to solidified,” he had said then. “Anyone who bats at four will have to take responsibility for the World Cup, whoever it might be.”
After backing Ambati Rayudu to make the No 4 position his during the home tour against West Indies in October, the position is perhaps back in the market after five months of constant head-scratching.
“We are very clear about what we want to take to the World Cup. Except for one position, everything looks settled. We tried out a few players in certain positions and when you do that, you expect them to take responsibility and respond to the pressure.
“Going ahead, we have to do better in these pressure situations,” the captain had said on Wednesday night after the series defeat in New Delhi.
Kohli didn’t explicitly say it but one need not be a betting man to figure out what he
had said.