Express News Service
CHENNAI: Between September 2005 and May 2006, India went on a streak of 17 consecutive victories while chasing in ODIs under the captaincy of Rahul Dravid. It was a period when they often chose to field first — 12 of the 17 wins — irrespective of the conditions to get better as a team at chasing.
Which is why, when Rishabh Pant walked out to open the batting with Rohit Sharma on Wednesday, the decision had Rahul Dravid written all over it. However, shortly after the match, Rohit all but confirmed that Shikhar Dhawan will be taking the southpaw’s place at the top in the final ODI.
“I have been asked to do different things, so this was different. People will be happy seeing Rishabh open then, but yeah it is not permanent,” he said in the post-match presentation, adding, “We will get Shikhar back next game, and he needs some game time. It is not always the results. We wanted to try it one game.”
If Dhawan does return to his spot on Friday, India will have all of their established top three — Dhawan, Rohit, and Virat Kohli — in the playing eleven after almost a year. The dearth of centuries among them in the last 18 months has been discussed a lot, and India would want them back at their best, scoring big, going forward.
Meanwhile, the team management will also have a decision to make as either Suryakumar Yadav or Deepak Hooda will have to make way for Pant in the middle-order on Dhawan’s return. Either way, it was clear that India wants KL Rahul to continue to bat in the middle at No 4 or 5, depending on match situations.
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In the bowling department, Rohit had spoken about bringing Kuldeep Yadav slowly back into the scheme of things. With the series in the bag, India might field the wrist spinner in place of Chahal to maintain the balance of the batting order.
However, there might be very little change in the pace attack, possibly Deepak Chahar in place of Shardul Thakur, as Mohammed Siraj and Prasidh Krishna, the player of the match in the second ODI, have been impressive and had very little game-time so far.
“We don’t mind losing a few games trying out a few things. Because it is important to look at the long-term goals. We will see what works out well for the team combination,” Rohit had said on Wednesday. Going by the captain’s words and from what we have seen so far in the series, there could be a lot more experimentation in the coming months until they figure out their best possible team combinations.
Proven trio at top
With Shikhar Dhawan returning to the side, India will be happy to have their best top three batters in the format playing together after eleven months and they will want either Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli or Dhawan to put an end to the century drought in the top-order.
The return of Kul-Cha?
Although Rohit said that India will be keen to experiment a bit more and that he would want Kuldeep Yadav back in the scheme of things, it will be interesting to see if India are ready to play both wrist spinners as it would mean having Shardul Thakur bat at No 7.
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