Statistics and matchups can only take you so far but there is no doubt India’s batting is distinctly less than what it has been portrayed as a sum of its individual parts. KL Rahul, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suryakumar Yadav, Hardik Pandya and Dinesh Karthik—as much as the names represent oomph, numbers and heavy strike rates in the IPL and bilateral tours, the batting isn’t exactly living up to its reputation at the T20 World Cup.
Not everyone can score every day. Kohli mounts a nerve-wracking chase one day, another day he falls to a stupendous catch. Pandya plays the perfect supporting act against Pakistan, he gets lured into a bouncer against South Africa. Percentage returns leading to a decent levelled out average, that’s how most batters make the cut these days. Barring of course Yadav—who quite frankly is hitting the ball better than anyone in the tournament—everyone is subject to this topsy-turvy nature of life. But Rahul and Karthik? Are they pulling down this batting unit?
When asked about Rahul before the South Africa match, batting coach Vikram Rathour had said: “Two games, I don’t think that’s a good enough sample size anyway. He’s been batting really well and he’s batted really well in the practice games also, so we’re not looking at any such thing at the moment.”
This is the updated report on openers: Rahul has scored 22 at an appalling strike rate of 64.70. India’s openers have scored 7, 11 and 23 so far. That’s a sample size of three matches out of a possible five group stage matches. And India haven’t qualified for the semi-finals yet. Rahul has been bowled, trapped leg-before and caught at slip, all tell-tale signs of a man with a serious problem with his fourth stump line. Can India really afford to continue with him when someone of the calibre of Rishabh Pant is waiting to be unleashed in a country where he has got two Test hundreds?
The pitches India play on next—Adelaide and Sydney—aren’t as pacy as Perth. So, there is always a case of wait and watch since Perth mandated more horizontal shots which Aiden Markram thought was necessary. “Look, I think on a wicket like this, you’re going to end up playing more as a result of bad shots than on other wickets just because of the nature of the bounce. It’s a tough shot to play when there’s extra bounce.,” said Markram.
“But ultimately, if a team keeps bashing at that length, in T20 cricket, you as a batter also need to make a play,” he added. “That’s probably the reason that both teams took the short balls on tonight because if you don’t, you’re unfortunately not going to score at a rate that’s quick enough.”
There can be another argument that Rahul needs all the support he can because he is the present and future of the team. But to keep shielding Karthik—who failed to score even against fast bowlers—makes even lesser sense. Scoring seven runs in two innings at an even more appalling strike rate of 41.17, Karthik just doesn’t make the cut anymore. Without these two, India’s batting has boiled down to the returns and the good fortune of just four players, rendering the entire plan very fragile.
As a batting unit, India have also not always been sure which permutation has worked best for them. As long as rotation was a reality, they played a number of middle-order combinations. But this is the T20 World Cup. And India gave away their concern over batting by bringing in Deepak Hooda for the South Africa game while maintaining that they weren’t looking to change their eleven.
Ultimately, it came at the cost of Axar Patel, which meant Ravichandran Ashwin didn’t find a partner to share the load with when South Africa were going hammer and tongs. The change didn’t benefit much given that Hooda’s batting made no difference at all.
This again brings back the limelight on the extent India are willing to go to keep Rahul and Karthik on. Karthik had retired from the South Africa game complaining of back pain so it remains to be seen if India are willing to risk him anymore. But in all likeliness, Rahul may get a longer rope at breaking this streak of low scores.
