Team India’s got middle-order woes, and it’s bad

There is no point of boasting of a bench strength when it is difficult to find players for the middle-order

The T20I series loss in the West Indies has exposed India's struggle in limited-overs cricket. With the ODI World Cup scheduled to begin in less than two months’ time, the results in T20Is may not be significant, but it has laid bare India's batting vulnerability down the order.

It is a shame that India's batting ended at number seven in all the five T20Is, and had no one who could do the big hitting in the death overs. With the T20 World Cup scheduled for June 2024, India needs to bolster its batting depth either by picking the right players for the number eight and nine positions, or ask the bowlers to improve their batting.

India coach Rahul Dravid admitted to the men’s team’s lack in batting depth. "Finding depth in our batting has been an area we are trying to address. We are trying to do the best we possibly can but that's certainly an area we can look at..."

Leading up to big tournaments, it is the preparation and finding the missing blocks that makes the difference. But this doesn't hold true to the Indian men’s cricket team management, who were on an experimentation mode in the three-match ODI series in West Indies, where they juggled with players in the Playing XI.

India now has two ODI series — the Asia Cup and a three-match home series against Australia before India’s first match at the ODI World Cup on October 8. But before that it must announce an initial squad of 15 players on September 5. By the looks of it, the Ajit Agarkar-led selection panel has its work cut out to pick the right squad for the marquee tournament.

The problem area appears to be the middle-order with no clarity on the return of Shreyas Iyer and KL Rahul from injuries. Also, Suryakumar Yadav's performance in the ODIs has been ‘really bad’, which has added to the selection woes. His bouncing back to form in the T20I series with scores of 83 and 61 would prompt the selectors to show faith in the Mumbai batter.

From 26 ODIs, Yadav averages 24.33, and had scores of 19, 24, and 35 in the recent three ODIs against West Indies. In March, he was dismissed for three successive first-ball ducks against Australia.

Yadav’s batting and stroke play ability in the T20s is well-known and needs backing to come good in the 50-over format. Tilak Varma is another talented player who has made enough noise in the T20I series in West Indies to be considered for the ODI World Cup. Though without any ODI games under his belt, Varma in his current form, technique, and approach to batting according to the situation, deserves to be fast-tracked to the ODIs. The Asia Cup and the series against Australia would be ideal to blood the 20-year-old.

Varma would make for a logical choice in the middle-order for the ODI World Cup, rather pushing down the order proven opening batters such as Ishan Kishan, Shubman Gill, and Ruturaj Gaikwad. Kishan has already made his case strong for the opening spot by slamming three fifties in the ODI series against the West Indies. Moreover, he provides the left-right opening combination with Rohit Sharma.

In July 2022, BCCI secretary Jay Shah said that there would be "two national teams ready at the same time”. Where are we at that? There is no point of boasting of a bench strength when players are too difficult to find for the middle-order. This situation could have been avoided had the selections been done from domestic cricket, and not just the Indian Premier League (IPL).

If KL Rahul returns for the ODI World Cup, then he becomes the first-choice wicketkeeper and would make a perfect fit in the middle-order along with Virat Kohli. Then the choice would be between Kishan and Gill for the opening spot.

When the 'too much experimentation' approach in the West Indies ODI series came under criticism, Dravid defended it and said this is the only series to try out before the ODI World Cup. Hopefully, the experiments and learnings have worked, and India would get to see a more focused approach in terms of team selection and game plan in the upcoming series.

The wait for an ICC trophy is a decade old now, and the fans will no longer buy the ‘rise of Indian cricket’ story because of the IPL cash-flow. Despite all the lambasting, the BCCI seems unperturbed which is apparent from the lacklustre buildup to the ODI World Cup with no buzz around the big event. Would it have been the case even before an IPL?

There is a perception that the BCCI and the players don't give two hoots to the results in international cricket because of the IPL’s success. They would have to do some heavy lighting to change this perception. The Asia Cup and ODI World Cup gives them that chance. Indian cricket fans are right in seeking accountability when the team flounders.

(Sattwik Biswal is a sports journalist with more than 15 years of experience.)

Disclaimer: The views expressed here are the author's own. They do not necessarily refect the views of DH.