MIRPUR: One of the more popular refrains in life is ‘Why fix it if it ain’t broke’. It’s this refrain the Indian team must debate going into its final Group 2 Super 10 fixture of the ICC World Twenty20 2014,according to International Cricket Council(ICC) Features And Specials.
India is already through to the semi-final, the first team to get there on the back of three wins based on a straightforward formula – win toss, stick the opposition in, restrict them to under 140, knock off the runs without fuss. The formula is simple enough in its conception; India’s execution has been exemplary, its spinners the driving force behind keeping opponents down, and Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli consistency personified with the bat.
India has won by seven wickets, seven wickets and eight wickets respectively against Pakistan, West Indies and Bangladesh after Mahendra Singh Dhoni won each of those tosses. Apart from Rohit and Kohli, who have scored half-centuries in the last two matches, the others that have batted are Shikhar Dhawan (31 in 37 balls), Yuvraj Singh (11 in 21), Suresh Raina (26 in 29) and Dhoni (22 in 12). Rohit has made 142 runs in 122 deliveries, Kohli 147 for once dismissed in 123.
What that translates to, is that between them, Rohit and Kohli have scored 289 of 389 runs – that’s 74.2% – amassed by the batsmen. They have also faced 245 of the 345 deliveries sent down at India – a little over 71%. That makes for excellent reading – after all, the opener and the No. 3 have left nothing to chance, taking upon themselves the responsibility of steering the ship home. That also means the rest of the batting line-up is fairly undercooked.
The big question ahead of Dhoni and Duncan Fletcher, the coach who has continued to hog the background, is what India does about this in its final league encounter, against Australia, at the Sher-e-Bangla Stadium on Sunday (March 30). Does India stick with the tried and tested because there is no discernible reason to deliberately force a shift in tack, or does it rework the batting order to ensure that it provides the likes of Yuvraj, Raina and Dhoni, and even R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, more game time from a batting perspective?
International cricket is no avenue for experimentation, admittedly, but India finds itself in the fortunate position of being able to try out things in a game situation without it impacting its progress in the competition. The benefits of shuffling the pack with the later stages of the tournament in mind must be weighed up against the possible break from a pattern that has stood the team in good stead thus far. And while it is imperative that a majority of the batting group carries runs and confidence into the next phase, India will be better off sticking with what has worked for it, because who is to say Dhoni’s luck with the coin will not continue to hold, or that opponents might not try to use scoreboard pressure to intimidate India in do-or-die knockout clashes.
Australia may no longer be in serious reckoning, but it would not go down without a fight either. Smarting from twin defeats to Pakistan and West Indies – the latter particularly shattering not just because it ended its interest in the competition in everything else beyond mathematical terms but also because of the vigour with which a charged-up West Indies celebrated that victory – it would try their desperate best to take something away from a campaign that has gone horribly wrong.
