IN the last few years, a few things have remained constant in Indian cricket. One among them is their ODI batting line-up. In fact, nothing has changed when it comes to the top three. Rohit Sharma, Shubman Gill and Virat Kohli remain India's best batters and numbers back it up. Gill leads the tally with 1442 runs at 68.86 average followed by Sharma (1441 runs at 50.39), Kohli (1261 runs at 60.04), with Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul completing the top five. That list was essentially India's top five in 2023 when they cruised to the final.
Cut to now, the top three remain the same while head coach Gautam Gambhir has tried to make some moves in the middle. And with good reason. One of the issues with India's top-five, despite the surplus of runs, was that they were all right-handers. Gambhir likes a left-right combo in the middle and has tried to infuse it every chance possible. Yashasvi Jaiswal played whenever someone was injured, Ishan Kishan has come up the ranks with Iyer and Rahul moving down one spot in recent times. There have been occasions where they have tried Axar Patel and Washington Sundar too, especially with Hardik Pandya still not back to full fitness.
Over the last 12 months or so, the team management - skipper Gill and coach Gambhir with the other members of the coaching staff - have remained flexible and experimented when it came to the No 4-6 positions. Rahul, despite not being a big fan of the move, thrived at No. 6 while batting at No 5 once in a while when the situation demanded. Ravindra Jadeja has batted at No. 5 on occasion in the subcontinent, but it seems like the veteran has fallen out of favour in the format.
Then there is Pandya, but there is little confidence on when he will return to the side and whether his body could endure a full World Cup. Last time, when the all-rounder got injured, it threw off India's balance and they had to make do. But at the time, the World Cup was in India and they were relatively successful till the final. This time, with the World Cup to be played in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, India are not taking any chances. While the experiments continue, there seems to be a clear pattern and winner emerging - Kishan.
In the last few series, whenever India went in with just five bowlers, Kishan has walked out at No 4 with Iyer moving one spot down and Rahul coming in at No 6. And Kishan has grabbed his chances with both hands. In the three innings he came in at No 4, Kishan has 140 runs to show at 46.66 average and 141.41. The sample size may be limited, but there are also other factors. The growth in stature, maturity and leadership of Kishan is visible every time on the field. It is also why he has been quietly elevated to vice-captain for the last two ODIs when the Test regulars leave for some red-ball based prep.
And it is testament to the work he put in during the time away from the Indian team. Kishan was a reserve opener-keeper during the 2023 ODI World Cup and only played the first two matches which Gill missed due to dengue. Even now, as India look to build a squad for the 2027 ODI WC, he ticks all boxes for a reserve keeper who can bat anywhere in the top five.
It is why despite Rahul's ridiculous numbers at No 5 since July 2024, he has been asked to move down one spot. The issue, however, is that when Kishan and Rahul play, India may be able to field only five bowlers. And the headache would only grow when Pandya comes back.
But until then, and in the next 12 months, India would continue to experiment and rotate to ensure their middle-order batters have enough and more game-time. Because, come the World Cup, India will need both Kishan and Rahul at their best