India winning the five-match ODI series against West Indies was never in doubt, only the margin was speculated. A 3-1 verdict is impressive, but it could well have been 2-2 had the visitors not read the wicket wrong and collapsed for their lowest ODI score (104) against India in the last game.
The way the West Indies started the ODI series after losing the two Tests, they looked good to run India close and they did that by tying the second game and winning the third. After getting routed by eight wickets after scoring 322 runs in the first match, they fought back well. The scoreline in the end doesn’t show the closeness till the fifth game.For the Indians the series was more an exercise to fill a couple of slots for the World Cup next summer. Also, the five matches were used to test the fitness of bowlers, who needed a serious workout after being sidelined by injuries in recent months.
At the end of it all, the national selectors found a left-arm seamer Khaleel Ahmed who could be in England next year. He is in the T20 squad for Australia and should surely consider himself a certainty in the ODI squad too. Had the Test squad been selected after the ODI series against the Caribbean, he could even have been fitted into it.
The other two who look good are Ambati Rayudu at No 4 with his arsenal of strokeplay and Kedar Jadhav at No 6 or 7. Importantly, both are also good fielders. They will have to keep sustaining their performances till the World Cup and the tour of Australia will be crucial for them. They would be looking over their shoulders for Hardik Pandya’s return to the side.For now, Rayudu and Khaleel are the two men have grabbed opportunities in the series. Unless something dramatic happens by way of loss of form, the World Cup squad is more or less firmed up. Both Jadhav and Pandya can do the all-rounder’s job, giving the captain the option of playing an extra spinner or a medium-pacer.
If the ODI series was all about Kohli and Rohit, the squad for the T20s sparked a debate over the dropping of MS Dhoni. Rarely a stalwart gives selectors the opportunity to drop him. Chief selector MSK Prasad, facing a rampaging social media, offered the politically correct explanation, that this is not the end of Dhoni’s T20 career and that they were only looking at the second best between Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant!
Looking at the batting stats of Kohli and Rohit, statisticians may say that at least in this series, Rohit’s big hundreds helped India win big and only one of the three centuries in a row by Kohli was in a winning cause.
Kohli and Rohit are in a sideshow of their own. Kohli’s 38 hundreds saw India win 31 of those matches while India won 16 of the 21 times Rohit hit centuries. If Kohli’s first 17 hundreds saw only one loss, Rohit’s last 11 hundreds resulted in the team’s victory. This explains why the two are match-winning batsmen and also shows how little the middle-order gets to bat and no one gets adequate chances to cement the place.
Finally, Kohli put to rest the talk surrounding Dhoni’s position. He discounted what he calls “the variables,” seen around, saying his predecessor is very much an integral part of the side and he is sitting out only to test Pant. Dhoni proved he is not done with a lightning stumping and a spectacular catch after the team was named.(The writer is a veteran commentator and views expressed are personal. He can be reached at sveturi@gmail.com)