Let us talk about Rahane at number 4 in ODIs. Rahane has come out in the open and has said that he should have played at No. 4 for India in ODIs and especially in the 2019 World Cup. Rahane had been a dependable (though this is debatable of his dependability any longer) No. 5 in the test team for a longtime. Did he really have the credentials to bat at No. 4 in the ODIs? Was he really consistent enough and quick enough to bat at that position? Was he given a decent run in the team?
Rahane’s comments
Rahane not only feels that he should have been playing at No. 4 but he says that he wants to comeback into the One Day team. Rahane’s words
“I was actually thinking I will be there in the World Cup batting at No. 4, but it is gone now. You cannot think too much about it. My goal, my aim, is to come back into the ODI team, do well in white-ball cricket which I am really confident about. I don’t think too much about it [the World Cup], [but] yes, especially when I was playing county cricket when World Cup was happening…as a player everyone wants to be a part of the World Cup team, especially when you know you have worked really hard, your record in the past was really good”.
Yes, it is true that the Indian team really struggled to find a reliable number 4 for more than 4 years. Again, this is debatable because the candidates were many. We will look at that in another article. Fortunately or unfortunately, the team management did not feel that Rahane was a good fit at No. 4. Infact, Kohli went on record saying that Rahane was the team’s third opener. Rohit & Dhawan were performing well. Rahane was their backup. It means that only if one of them has an extended run of low scores will Rahane be in the team as an opener or if one of them wasn’t playing. Natually, Rahane’s ODIs chances were few and far between.
Numbers game
Rahane opened the innings in about 54 games in which he has three hundreds and 15 fifties. It will be 18 games in which he had performed as an opener including four of his 15 fifties that he scored in the last four innings when he had opened the innings. It essentially means that he failed in close to 70% of the games. For an opener, that is a high failure percent because the team would have got off to a bad start in 70 games out of 100.
Rahane’s problem has always been his consistency. It can be in ODIs or it can be in tests. His good knocks are frequently interrupted with a string of very low scores. Most of the time, it is below 15. For about one year, between January 2017 and February 2018, he had a very good run with 8 scores of 50 and above and one above hundred in 15 games. Apart from that, he has been very much inconsistent.
Rahane’s performance in England
However, the crucial aspect that we are trying to focus is India’s Number 4 at the 2019 World Cup that was held in England. Contrary to Rahane’s performance in other parts of the world, his performance in England is pretty decent eventhough he had only opened the innings in all those games. He has also scored those runs at a decent enough strike rate which leads us to the question whether Rahane would have been the ideal No. 4 at the World Cup? Especially, considering the players who were selected to play at that position. Shankar, Pant, Karthik & Pandya. Would we have won the World Cup itself with a reliable middle order batsman who has performed decently albeit as an opener in England? These are questions for which we will never know the answer.
Fault lies with the management
The blame must be placed squarely upon the shoulders of Kohli and Shastri. They first wanted him to be the third opener and later Kohli said that Rahane will be a good candidate for number 4. This must have really confused Rahane and he would not have known whether to consider himself as an opener or a middle order bat. Having said that, Rahane cannot complain of not playing too many games. He has played 90 games which is a very good number of games to decide about a player.
Conclusion
Now, the team have gone past Rahane and have finalised Shreyas Iyer as the middle order batsman with Rahul to follow at No. 5. Rahane has had his chances and he has blown it. There are other players who are waiting to get into the playing eleven. Shubnam Gill, Manish Pandey and a few others in first class cricket. I do not think that the selectors will have to go back and bring in Rahane because by the time the next ODI World Cup comes around, Rahane will not be any younger.