The Number Four Conundrum. The Indian One Day team for a very longtime, were trying to find a player who will come in after Rohit Sharma, Dhawan & Kohli. They were looking for a player who will be able to score freely if the top 3 had set a wonderful platform or he will be a player who will be able to consolidate the innings incase the top three were unable to occupy a substantial part of the innings. More importantly, the team was searching for such a player for the 2019 World Cup.
When I think about this now, it is hard to believe that the Indian One Day team struggled for more than 4 years to find a suitable candidate for the vital Number Four slot because the number of candidates who will suit that position was certainly substantial than they searched for. I somehow feel that the team or more precisely Kohli, Rohit & Shastri, the management group, failed collectively to groom a player at the crucial spot.
Who were the potential candidates?
There were lot of players who could have easily slotted into the crucial number four slot. Rahul, Ambati Rayudu, Manish Pandey, Rahane, Shreyas Iyer. This is only to name a few. I am certain that there were far more potential candidates.
Lokesh Rahul
Everyone who has watched Rahul from the time he made his debut will know very well about this potential. Also, we know that he struggles when opening the innings. He is someone who likes to play freely. He is someone who can easily take the game away from the opposition. Witness all his innings from number 5 of late. He has batted so effortlessly that invariably India ends up with a score that is 15-20 runs higher than what was envisaged when he arrived at the wicket.
The mistake that the team management made was to consider him to be an opener and an alternate for either Dhawan or Rohit. They did not even think of sending him in the middle order. The fact that he is now playing in the middle order was not because of a plan on the management part. It wasn’t even that Kohli or Shastri realised that Rahul will be of much more value in the middle order.
It was because of an accidental discovery during the 2019 World Cup. He had to play at the crucial position of Number 4 because Vijay Shankar, the original incumbent to that position was injured before the first game. Rahul supported Rohit with a composed knock that eventually helped the team to defeat South Africa. In the very next game, he scored 11 of the last 3 balls which seems to have influenced Shastri and Kohli. That innings certainly made them change their rigid ways. Rahul in the middle order will win lot more games than at the top of the order.
Ambati Rayudu
The treatment meted out to Ambati Rayudu was something no cricketer must endure. Rayudu has had a difficult career so far. He was captain of the Indian U-19 team in the year 2004. He initially made his first class debut for the state team of Andhra. Rayudu was thought to be someone who will go onto to play for the Indian senior team and someone who will end up with lot of caps to his name. Unfortunately, fate seems to have had other plans for him.
He went onto to play in the now defunct ICL sponsored by the Zee group. All the players who were part of this tournament were subsequently banned and by the time Rayudu was allowed to comeback to the mainstream cricket, his best days were behind him. The ban ensured that he never played any competitive cricket for more than 5 years. This was quite harsh.
Eventually, he made his ODI debut in 2013 and became a regular only after the 2015 World Cup. He did average a healthy 45 and above albeit with the help of few Not Outs. He has quite a few successful games as well. So much so that, Kohli went onto comment that India have found their Number 4. He was beginning to shape himself and start contributing from the crucial number but after 3 successive innings failure against Australia, he was dropped. So much for Kohli’s announcement. He must have been persisted in the middle order. Maybe just maybe, he may have won that semi-final against New Zealand. He definitely would have proved much more valuable than the players who replaced him in the middle order in the World Cup.
Ajinkya Rahane
Rahane was one more player who was lost in the eventual line-up that India played in the 2019 World Cup. As argued before, Rahane has had a decent run in the one day team albeit as an opener. Rahane is a proper middle order batsman. Again, Kohli and Shastri muddled his thinking by publicly announcing that Rahane is much more suited as an opener than as a middle order batsman.
It was virtually impossible for Rahane to replace either Dhawan or Rohit because of their success at that position. He had to wait until one of them is not available. Inorder to suit the requirement for a middle order batsman in ODIs, he must have changed his game which seems to have affected his test credentials as well. Nevertheless, Rahane certainly would have fared a lot better than the players who eventually played in the middle order during the World Cup. Having said that, I do not fancy Rahane in ODIs any longer.
Manish Pandey & Shreyas Iyer
Manish Pandey is someone who will forever feel like a supporting actor. He made his international debut much before Rahul. He played a brilliant innings in only his third game against Australia to win the game. Guess his position in that game? Yes, it was NUMBER 4. Yet for some reason, he has only played a handful of games. Most of career, he has played lower down the order which means that he had to score runs quickly without the time to build an innings. If he feels let down by the management, he cannot be faulted.
Shreyas is someone who was identified as a potential Indian player long before he made his debut. Now that he has secured the middle order slot, let us hope that he continues to prosper thereby providing the team with a top-notch top 5.
Players who played in the World Cup at No. 4
Just look at the players who played at the crucial middle order position. Karthik, Pandya, Shankar & Pant. Shankar played a couple of good innings in the New Zealand series that just preceded the World Cup. He never ever had any great credential of batting in the middle order. Even for Tamil Nadu, he used to bat lower down the order. To play him in the middle order just because of a couple of decent performances was not only an injustice to players like Rayudu, Rahane, Manish, Shreyas but it was unfair on Shankar himself.
Karthik is someone who has been tried in various positions in all the formats and yet has proved to be a failure. He should not even have been in the original squad. His one innings in the Nidahas Trophy finals, seems to have tilted the scales in his favour.
Pandya was more of a circumstantial player at that position in which he was required to score quickly so it was alright but Rishab Pant should not have been considered for a middle order slot. He made a complete fool of himself in the World Cup. Kohli and Shastri chose the biggest stage in One Day cricket to experiment.
Conclusion
India lost the World Cup purely because of the failure on the part of the board and the selectors to select a proper team. Kohli and Shastri cannot escape blame for experimenting in the biggest stage. If only one of Rayudu, Pandey, Rahane, Shreyas had played in the World Cup, India could have won.
Who do you think should have played at the crucial spot of number 4 in the World Cup? Please leave your comments.