Statistics point at India’s middleorder meltdown

WOBBLY India have tried more than 25 combinations for No 4, 5 slots in ODIS

MUMBAI: With the 2019 ODI World Cup less than a year away, there is still no clarity who will bat for India at No 4 and 5 in the quadrennial event in England.

In the ongoing Asia Cup, which selectors are using as an opportunity to solve the middleorder puzzle, Dinesh Karthik batted at No 4 in the first two matches while in the game where No 5 was required (against Hong Kong), MS Dhoni came in.

As the tournament progresses, the team management is likely to try Manish Pandey and KL Rahul as well for these positions. Ambati Rayudu, who has batted at No 3 so far in Virat Kohli’s absence, will be vying for one of these slots.

By the end of the Asia Cup, India would want to clear the uncertainty that has surrounded the two crucial limited-overs batting positions for a long time. Post the 2015 World Cup in Australia, India have tried 11 batsmen at No 4 and 15 at No 5. Among the top nine ODI teams, only Australia (11 at No 4) and Sri Lanka (11 at No 4, 15 at No 5) have used that many players. Both world champions Australia and Sri Lanka have struggled in this period as evidenced by their ICC ranking of 6 and 8 respectively.

No 1 ranked England have played only five players at No 4 and six at No 5, which underlines the stability they have achieved in the last three years.

The fact that India have still done well in ODIS in this period (No 2 in ICC rankings) is because their top three, especially Kohli, have done the bulk of the scoring.

In the 64 matches India have played since the 2015 World Cup semi-final loss, their Nos 1, 2 and 3 average 54.85, 47.85 and 82.59, respectively and share 33 centuries. In contrast, the No 4 and 5 have averaged 35.89 and 32.84