How would you explain the dropping of Ravi Bishnoi from the playing 11 for the crucial Asia Cup 2022 Super Four match against Sri Lanka in Dubai on Tuesday?
Especially after he was the best Indian bowler in only the previous match, going at 6.50 an over when everybody else including the vastly-experienced Yuzvendra Chahal, India’s most successful T20I bowler, went for more against Pakistan.
ASIA CUP 2022: FULL COVERAGE | SCHEDULE | RESULTS
Veteran offspinner Ravichandran Ashwin was given his first game against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup, considering that the Lankans had three left-handed batsmen and that the ball going out for the left-hander would cause them problems.
While the question was not about picking Ashwin, the surprise element was in leaving Bishnoi out and retaining Chahal in the eleven. Chahal has picked up only four wickets in four matches in this Asia Cup including three for 34 on Tuesday. He went wicketless in the first two matches of the tournament in the Group stage.
India’s inability to pick up any wicket in the Powerplay against Sri Lanka left a lot to be desired of the current Indian bowling. Agreed that the bowlers including the experienced Bhuvneshwar Kumar had an off day, but it is in crunch matches like Tuesday that the players have to lift their performances and make things happen in India’s favour.
The Indian team gave veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Dinesh Karthik two matches in Asia Cup and kept him out in the Super Four stage. They played both Karthik and the first-choice wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant in the match against Hong Kong with Karthik’s presence hardly noticed as he was manning the outfield and was not required to bat.
Karthik’s vast experience and having been in crunch situations would have come in handy in the situation like Tuesday when Sri Lanka, needing two to win off the last two deliveries, stole a bye. Pant, with both his wicket-keeping gloves on, failed to bring down the stumps with a direct throw, and the resultant overthrow by bowler Arshdeep Singh gave Lanka the winning run.
Social media is abuzz with how Mahendra Singh Dhoni was missed in such a situation. Dhoni has always removed his wicket-keeping gloves and had a better chance of throwing accurately at the stumps and effect run outs. Karthik has also done that, tucking his wicket-keeping gloves behind inside his trousers and having a go at the stumps. But Pant chose to throw with his wicket-keeping gloves on, and missed the target.
One would wonder if the Indian team is still experimenting and not found a settled team as they get ready for the ICC T20 Men’s World Cup. Or if at all, when would the experimentations stop and when would they hit the track with a settled line-up and making minimal changes according to the opponents and the conditions.
A lot has been tried in the last few months including trying different players at the top of the order. Suryakumar Yadav has opened. Pant has opened. So too has Deepak Hooda who has also batted at No. 3 and also as low as No. 7. He was also not given a bowl in the two matches he played in Asia Cup only because India wanted to take wickets in the middle and hence pressed the other two specialist spinners to take wickets.
Skipper Rohit Sharma defended these decisions on Tuesday night after the six-wicket defeat to Sri Lanka has all but shut India’s chances of progressing to the final.
When asked when would the experimentations stop and how much of the squad is settled for the upcoming World Cup in Australia, Rohit said: “It is 90% to 95% settled. Only a few changes will happen. That’s about it. We wanted to try out certain things. If you look at the combination we have been playing before the start of the Asia Cup, we tried four seamers, two spinners with the second spinner being an all-rounder. But, I always wanted to try and find answers to what if we played with three seamers and two spinners and the third spinner being an all-rounder.
“When we are playing games like these and against quality opposition, we just wanted to try and see what happens here as well. In hindsight, the fourth seamer (Avesh Khan), who was here was not available for selection for the last game as he was sick. There were a lot of questions that we needed to answer. And, along the way, in the last three or four series we played, we have found the answers. There will be a time where we will draw a line and say this is the combination that we are going to play (in the World Cup). After this, we have two more series to play (against Australia and South Africa at home) and then the World Cup. Till the World Cup squad is announced, we can certainly try a few more things.”
On the other hand, the Indian team head coach Rahul Dravid said on the eve of the India-Pakistan Super Four match last Saturday that the constant changes that they’ve made to their line-ups were not really experimentations but forced changes.
When asked when the team would stop experimenting and play with a settled line-up going into the World Cup, Dravid had said: “I’m not really experimenting. I don’t really know why people feel we’re experimenting. If people get injured, I have to try out other guys and play other people. At times, when conditions dictate us to play different players, we’re just smart enough to do that. Sometimes, oppositions force us to play different combinations or use certain skill sets to be able to beat them. Then we do that. We’re not actively going out and looking at this as some kind of experiment.
“In the last 6-8 months, whether workload management or injuries or illnesses, we’ve had to rotate players and try and build that bench strength. For us, we thought that the Asia Cup was like that final piece. Sometimes, we have to react. (Jasprit) Bumrah is not here. Harshal (Patel) is not here, Jaddu’s (Ravindra Jadeja) got injured after the first game, so then this may not be our exact squad that goes to the World Cup. If Bumrah’s fit, certainly he’s a walk-in for us. As is Harshal as well. We have to play with the kind of squad we have at the moment. We are very clear about the kind of team and squad we want.”
Rohit also clarified why Pant was selected ahead of Karthik, and that the veteran Tamil Nadu cricketer, who is looked at as a ‘finisher’ and who has played that role remarkably well in the recent times, has not been dropped for form.
Rohit said: “It is very simple. We just wanted a left-hander to bat in the middle. That’s why DK is out. Not because of any form or anything. We wanted a left-handed batsman to bat in the middle and take the pressure off some of the batsmen. Unfortunately, it did not happen to him. By no means is DK out for poor form. We always said we want some form of flexibility in our group. We will keep changing these players every now and then depending on the opposition. Your (main) 4-5 players will play but one or two changes will keep happening.”
India certainly are a strong team on paper and also on the field. It is just about time to play with a settled combination and not try too many things, especially when Rohit is looked up as a captain who would win the ICC T20 World Cup title for India, as he has done as Mumbai Indians captain, leading them to five IPL titles.
Rohit’s T20I captaincy record is simply remarkable. He has led the side in 39 T20Is and won 31 of them (success percentage of nearly 80%), which is winning four out of every five games. His back-to-back defeats in the Asia Cup is the first time that he has lost two back-to-back T20Is in the same tournament.
Hopefully, this does not repeat in the weeks to come and especially in the World Cup as he is too good a captain who has given confidence to his team and made the dressing a happy atmosphere, even in defeat. Even Virat Kohli, on Sunday, acknowledged the camaraderie in the dressing room. And none knows it better than Kohli, who has been playing international cricket for nearly a decade and a half.
Get the latest Cricket News, Schedule and Cricket Live Scores here