Tough times ahead for India team management

NEW DELHI: Virat Kohli is fit and available for selection but perhaps for the first time in over a decade, the former India captain’s presence in the playing eleven could be a point of discussion in the cricketing circle.

The T20 World Cup in the UAE last year was an unmitigated disaster and it was largely due to India’s archaic batting philosophy at the top of the order. The runs scored did not come at a good pace. It was debated if KL Rahul, current skipper Rohit and Kohli are the ideal No. 1, 2, and 3 in the shortest format and the answer received from most quarters was not exactly in the affirmative.

A good 10 months down the line, the India team management again finds itself at crossroads with another T20 World Cup edition set to commence in October. If India repeats its top-three in the Asia Cup (in the UAE in August-September) and the T20 World Cup (in Australia in October-November), one of Rishabh Pant, Suryakumar Yadav and Dinesh Karthik will find it tough to stay in the playing eleven.

Rahul and Kohli are back in the side to claim their positions, which they have owned for years, but a big question looming in the horizon is whether their spots in the first eleven in T20Is have become untenable? Since the T20 World Cup last year, Kohli has played only four shortest format matches spread across nine months, scoring 17, 52, 1 and 11.

The Chetan Sharma-led selection committee felt that the champion batter’s indifferent form across formats was too small a sample size to take a definitive step. The bigger question is whether the team management will let Kohli play his own game, which is to build the innings and accelerate after getting set.

It is to be noted that the team’s philosophy has changed and even skipper Rohit has tweaked his game upfront. In fact, since the England series, Rohit has been scoring at a healthy pace with Pant and Suryakumar as his opening partners.

Then, there is the fast-rising Deepak Hooda, who has scored a hundred as an opener although it was against minnow Ireland. Hooda has shown his class at No.3, but will not be a starter going into the Asia Cup as of now. However, his tight off-breaks and steady fielding will keep him in the mix.