Positives and negatives for India from their win against Windies in 1st ODI

As Rohit Sharma finished off the first ODI with a huge six over long off, one was left to wonder what was new for India in this match? In other words, with this convincing win, whether the problems of the past have simply disappeared or whether this win, brought about by the individual brilliance of a couple of players, has masked the inherent weaknesses of this Indian team.

Before going into the discussion on the subject, for record's sake, India won the first one-day international against the West Indies at Guwahati by 8 wickets and 47 balls to spare. The Indian chase was a one-sided affair with Kohli and Rohit adding 246 runs for the second wicket in 31 overs. Kohli scored 140 off 107 balls with 21 fours and 2 sixes while Rohit Sharma remained not out on 152 off 117 balls with 15 fours and 8 sixes.

Now let us discuss the positives and negatives of this win.

Positives

Rohit and Virat were involved in 246 runs partnership

# The batting form of the top order has been a big positive for Team India in this match. Though Dhawan failed, both Kohli and Rohit Sharma continued their good form with the bat and made a mockery of what was supposed to be a stiff chase at the innings break. All the West Indies bowlers were treated with disdain as both Rohit and Kohli launched into the attack. For the West Indies, it was only a matter of time once Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli got going.

# In his brief stay at the wicket, Ambati Rayadu showed his batting prowess with a cameo of 22 runs off 26 balls with one four and one six. A sign of good things to come.

# When all other bowlers of both the teams went for plenty, Chahal showed his control over his line and length and finished with figures of 3 for 41 off 10 overs. He got the important wickets of West Indies’s most experienced player Marlon Samuels and the skipper Jason Holder. It is pertinent to note that all of Chahal’s last 6 wickets in ODIs were either bowled or LBW.

Negatives

Apart from the above positives, the rest of the happenings in the first ODI were either lack of opportunities or not so positive episodes. Here is the list of a few:

#1 Failure of the Fast Bowlers

The fast bowlers were rattled by the aggression of the Windies batsmen

On a good pitch, the three Indian fast bowlers were battered by Powell, Hetmyer and Jason Holder. Hetmyer was devastating in his innings of 106 off 78 balls with the help of 6 fours and 6 sixes. He was unstoppable as he reached his century with a flat six over covers off Mohammad Shami.

When Hetmyer was going all guns blazing, there was nothing the three Indian fast bowlers could do by way of variation except for banging the ball short. Thankfully for India and for the fast bowlers, after reaching his hundred, Hetmyer got out in the 39th over itself. A bit more of Hetmyer would have taken the Windies score past 400.

Shami was the most expensive of the lot as he was thrashed for 81 runs in his 10 overs. Umesh Yadav went wicketless giving away 64 runs and Khaleel Ahmed took just one wicket. But for Chahal’s efforts, the target would have been really difficult even for Rohit and Virat.

The failure of the three fast bowlers has not solved India’s problem of identifying support bowlers for Bhuvi and Bumrah.

#2 The spin dilemma

Which spinner to play? A new dilemma for Team India

Kohli was left with no other option except to select Jadeja based on his all-round show in the Asia Cup. But that has created a new problem for India in the spin department. Now the Indians have a left arm spin bowling all-rounder in Jadeja and the two wrist-spinners to choose from.

They cannot afford to play all the three spinners everywhere. In places like Australia, New Zealand, and England, where India are touring next, having more than one spinner in the team would be a luxury. The new dilemma for the team management is to choose which one of the two spinners to play.

If they decide to choose both the wrist-spinners at the expense of Jadeja, that would weaken the batting line up. On the other hand, if Jadeja is chosen, either of Kuldeep Yadav or Chahal should lose out. With the return of Jadeja into the India team, the team management is placed in a precarious position to decide whether to go on an all-out attack or to go with a more balanced team.

#3 Incessant lack of opportunity to the fragile Indian middle-order

The fragile Indian middle-order hasn't got enough opportunity in the middle

The tremendous form exhibited by the top 3 in the batting order has denied the fragile middle-order adequate match practice. They are just doing their job finishing off matches on their own but in doing so, so consistently, have exposed the middle-order who are untested.

As a result, whenever the opportunity presented itself for the middle-order, they were found wanting as it happened in the tied match against Afghanistan and in the final of the Asia Cup.

In the first ODI against the West Indies, both Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli were so dominant that except for Rayudu, none of the other batsmen had a chance to use their willow.

There are two possible solutions to this problem. One is to change the batting order which is not at all feasible in this case as we are talking about the openers slot and the No 3 position. The other option is to win the toss and bat first in which case most of the batsmen are likely to get a hit in the middle.

The third unrealistic option is to pray for the top order to fail.

#4 The absence of the sixth bowler

Raina and Kedar Jadhav - The only two sixth bowling option

The first ODI against the West Indies thoroughly exposed India’s lack of options in bowling. Kohli had to keep on rotating the bowling with his five regular bowlers though they were thumped to all corners of the ground. Kohli didn’t have a Kedar Jadhav or a Suresh Raina in the playing XI to call upon to bowl a few overs.

This is a serious issue for India going into the World Cup as every other International team has a sixth bowler option in their line up. The Indian batsmen like Dhawan, KL Rahul, and Manish Pandey don’t bowl. Both Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are reluctant to bowl fearing injury. Kedar Jadhav, though not a regular bowler, took it upon himself to slog it out in the nets as a bowler.

For India, as of now, they have only two options out of which Raina is not preferred of late and Kedar Jadhav is injury prone.

#5 Selecting two wicket-keepers in the playing XI

Dhoni and Rishabh Pant - Which one to choose?

Teams like Sri Lanka and England are known to select two wicket-keepers in the team. Sometimes, Sri Lanka used to have 3 wicket-keepers in their playing XI.

The Indians have started doing this in recent times with Dinesh Karthik and Dhoni earlier and now with Rishabh Pant and Dhoni. One cannot expect the wicket-keepers to contribute with the ball and to be agile on the outfield. It narrows down the second keeper’s utility to the team.

As far as the newcomer Rishabh Pant is concerned, he will find it difficult to hold on to his place purely as a batsman. For Dhoni too, unless he contributes with the bat, he cannot prolong his career purely on the basis of his contributions from behind the stumps. It is a two-way problem for which there is only one solution. Now the time has come for the team management to decide either way keeping the interest of the team in mind.

Turning back, Team India haven’t learned anything new from the first ODI win against the West Indies. If at all anything, instead of identifying solutions for the old problems, the team management is confronted with more new problems which will give them sleepless nights.