Has India found a settled batting order?

Ajinkya Rahane is suited to batting against the new ball in the shorter format of the game

“Despite a complete game at Chennai, India still have some issues to settle with the batting order.”

After a valuable contribution from Ajinkya Rahane in the fourth match against South Africa, everyone feels that the batting order is settled, and the Mumbaikar is the right batsman at four for India in one-dayers. However, they fail to look at another aspect which gave Rahane the flexibility in performing the way he did at Chennai.

He walked in inside the first ten overs after the wicket of Dhawan, and one mustn’t forget that Rahane is always suited to bat in the first ten overs when the ball is hard and new. He has the perfect technique to play the new ball and also has the capability to construct an innings when he comes out to bat in the first ten overs.

That’s exactly what happened at Chennai, as Rahane added 104 runs with Virat Kohli for the third wicket, which laid a solid foundation for Suresh Raina and MS Dhoni to press on the pedal towards the back end of the innings.

But does it mean Rahane should continue batting at four in ODIs? What would be his role if the top three had laid a solid foundation? Could he be as effective as he was in the Chennai ODI? If not, should Rahane be promoted as an opener? If Rahane is promoted, who will be India’s number four batsman?

There are plenty of questions for India to answer. In the case of Rahane, he is ideally suited to open the batting for India. Since he has the technique to play the new ball, he can be handy in overseas conditions too.

He got a fantastic hundred at Birmingham in 2014 and followed up with another superb ton against Sri Lanka at home. In both those innings, he scored at a decent pace, which clearly shows his skills at the top of the order.

While his one-day career average revolves around 31, his average as an opener is 40 in the last 12 months, where he emerged as India’s best batsman in overseas conditions.

Since Shikhar Dhawan has looked out of sorts following the World Cup, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to promote Rahane to open the batting along with Rohit Sharma. He, along with Rohit, would form a good opening pair.

If he’s given a fair amount of chances at the top, Rahane will come out on top as India’s opener. He’s such a high-quality player, and therefore, it is imperative that India gets best out of him in limited overs cricket.

Another aspect which makes Rahane’s promotion imperative is his inability to construct innings straightaway in the middle overs, and also his inability to switch to second gear under pressure.

An ideal example would be the match against Bangladesh at Melbourne – where he wasn’t keeping the scoreboard busy and finding it difficult to accelerate. Once the pressure got to him, he mistimed a lofted shot off Taskin Ahmed and got dismissed.

Even in the World Cup semi-final against Australia, Rahane was clearly uncomfortable and was not able to cope up with the required run rate which was continuously rising.

If Rahane is promoted as an opener, it is important for India to find a new number four batsman. Ambati Rayudu has made decent contributions in his limited chances, but he doesn’t have the class in him to be a permanent middle order batsman.

Therefore, it wouldn’t be a bad idea for India to look at someone like Manish Pandey as a proper middle order batsman.

He is someone who has the ability to rotate the strike well against the old ball, and also has the capacity to be a destructive batsman towards the end of the innings. He has the raw talent in him, and once set, he can win matches for India single-handedly. However, what he needs is support and backing from the team management and the captain.

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to try Manish Pandey after the Australia tour. With India set to play in sub-continent conditions for the next one year, this would be the right time for the Men-in-Blue to try a new face in the squad.

To conclude, it would be a bold decision to drop Dhawan and promote Rahane as an opener, along with blooding a new face. Will the team management and selectors do it? We’ll have to wait and watch.