Is India's top order rotation policy justified?

India have recently decided to follow a rotation policy for the top 3 batsman for the CB Tri-series. While not a new concept for India when it comes to the bowling department, it’s rare for the batsman to be rotated. Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, under flak for his team’s second continuous away debacle, seems determined not to let the trend continue. Essentially he and his team management’s idea, it’s quite interesting to consider this rotation policy that is being followed by the team.

The reason being given by Dhoni and the team management is that senior batsman at the top of the order need rest in the middle of a long and arduous tour. What is even more interesting is that Gautam Gambhir is being considered as one of those in need of rest, along with the likes of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag. Although one of the senior batsman in the team, Gambhir is just 31 years old, Dhoni is himself 31 and could use some rest himself. While Sachin and Sehwag at 38 and 33 deserve their rest, it is strange to see Gambhir being rested along with them. The argument could be made that Dhoni is the captain, and the absence of a reserve wicket keeper makes it difficult to rest him.

Not discounting his age, Gambhir is the man in form for India at the moment with scores of 92 and 91 in his last two games before the game against Australia in Sydney on Sunday. While rest on such a long tour is justified to an extent, is it wise to rest the only man scoring runs at the top of the order? Dhoni policy is sound in that he wants his youngsters in the middle order to the most games in Australia, but perhaps it should be only Sachin and Sehwag to be rotated and Gambhir in the form he is in could be played more consistently.

The rotation policy probably started for the first time by the Australians at the time of the famous 2001 tour to India, where they continued to rotate players so as to have a full squad ready for the next World Cup, but it did not always give good results. In India’s case, both the reasons and the results seem to be different. India has already been doing the same with their brittle pace attack for some time now and it would seem logical to rest players when there are two games being played every week for four weeks at a stretch. So, there isn’t much scope for a player losing his rhythm or form in that small period of time either. So its better for Team India to stick to the winning formula.