India poised for another clean sweep Indians on top but middle-order needs Kohli’s magic touch

NEWDELHI:The last three months have been wonderful for India’s ODI team --- from reaching the Champions Trophy final to winning 3-1 against the West Indies to almost humiliating former world champions Sri Lanka.

While winning consistently speaks a lot about a team’s character, it also hides the problems the set-up faces during its time at the top. One of them is the middle-order woes that need to be sorted out before India’s overseas challenge begins.

It seems the only way the management can test a middle-order batsman is if they promote him to open. Typically, it’s their toporder comprising Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli that has done the bulk of the scoring in the last few years.

And how many instances one can remember when the middleorder stood up in a tricky situation when the trio failed to get going? Hardly any.

With Manish Pandey and Kedar Jadhav also performing in patches and MS Dhoni not his old self, it’s time to re-think a strategy that didn’t reap rewards in 2015 but could work this time.

Between India’s tour of England in 2014 to the 2015 World Cup, Kohli batted mostly at No. 4 in ODIs particularly because of his struggle against swinging deliveries.

With lack of options, he eventually returned to the No. 3 position where he prospered again.

In 2017, the situation is different. India need Kohli at four around whom the rest of the middle order can revolve.

The best batsman needs to be there in the final 20 overs. Kohli would be ideal. This would also give Dhoni the freedom to be aggressive which is usually not the case as the former skipper sometimes has a less experienced partner.