CHENNAI: Combinations are meant to be changed. A team that plays different formats in different conditions has to be flexible in terms of choosing personnel or strategies and be ready to tweak things around as and when needed. The way the international cricket calendar is drawn, sides that do well over a period are those with options and alternative plans.
The idea behind experiments is to ensure that the team does not find it difficult to cope when confronted with the unexpected. If these changes carried out on a trial basis prove to be counterproductive and upset the balance, they should be aborted. There are plenty of examples in world cricket of successful gambits and moves that misfired.
Although just one match old, the decision to push Virat Kohli down to No 4 from a position he made his own doesn’t seem to be a sound one. Not just because he has batted at No 3 in 182 of the 242 ODIs he has played or made 81.78 per cent of his career runs there. It’s because that’s where he serves the team the best. Batting first or second, India fare better when Kohli is in that position. And no plan is prudent if it means you sacrifice your most effective player.
There are talks that Kohli will be back at No 3 in the second ODI against Australia on Friday. It will be a welcome move because shifting your most productive batsman to No 4 to accommodate three openers is bizarre. It showed the captain as a selfless individual willing to forego a position he himself likes batting in, but was it going to benefit the team? Yes would be an unlikely answer considering the impact Kohli has had batting there. Other than averaging 63.39, he has redefined the role of a No 3, especially
while batting second.
It’s possible that KL Rahul will score runs at No 3 and yet, without taking anything away from him, it can safely be said that it will take a long time for him to become the force Kohli has. With due respect to Rahul or anybody else’s ability and skills, it’s difficult for them to match Kohli when it comes to dictating the pace of the innings, setting things up and finishing the job. It may or may not happen on Friday, but he will be back at 3 sooner rather than later.
The less dwelt on flip side of this experiment is the plight of the player being groomed for No 4. Struggling without a specialist in that position until the end of the World Cup, India saw Shreyas Iyer score some runs against less-fancied opponents. Pushing the youngster down the order and denying him a chance to perform in a role he was getting used to is not the best way of conveying to him that he is important in the team’s scheme of things.
While it’s true that in modern cricket batsmen have to be ready to bat any number, it’s also important to help one understand what the team wants from him. Batting at 4 and 5 may not look hugely different as challenges from the outside, but a player should know what’s Plan A as far as he is concerned. Here today, there tomorrow and who knows where the day after can make an individual doubt his role. If experiments lead to this, they should stop.