Rohit Sharma and Dravid failed to sort out T20 team. Will they do better in filling ODI holes?

When the Rahul Dravid-Rohit Sharma combination took charge of the Indian team a year back, there was hope in the air. There was talk of a long-term plan with a feeder system supplying fit talent and clarity over players’ roles. The team had no real holes. There was no lack of a genuine No. 4 as was the case at the 2019 ODI World Cup, and a fit-again Hardik Pandya had even ended India’s long search for a pace-bowling all-rounder.
Instead, there has been chaos and conservative experiments. There are way too many questions that the present team management needs to answer. At the start of last year, they said they were going to focus on the T20 World Cup. That bombed. And now, after the ODI series loss against Bangladesh, Dravid said that, starting from next month, January 2023, they will start focusing on the ODI World Cup.
For that to happen, the BCCI and team management need to go into a huddle. With the World Cup at home less than a year away, here are a few questions they need to address at the earliest.
Do we really need all-format players?
Unlike the rest of the world, India doesn’t believe that Tests, ODIs and T20s require different skill-sets. Their star players — Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Shreyas Iyer — are seen playing all three formats. The world has moved on. Australia try to fit in their star players in all formats and so does South Africa with Kagiso Rabada — and their bowling has been dinctly affected in big tournaments.
Since the BCCI can’t afford to tell Indian Premier League franchises to rest the India stars, the selectors, if not players themselves, need to take the call.
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Who are the openers?
With KL Rahul not opening in the second ODI despite Rohit’s injury-triggered absence, it’s clear that they now see him as a middle-order option. That leaves Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit at the top. Dhawan has been consent in the 50-over format and one batsman who understands its soul, but with a year left for the marquee event, doubts do arise, especially about his strike-rate. Rohit’s fitness itself is a worry that raises the other concern. Are Shubman Gill, Rishabh Pant, Ruturaj Gaikwad or Ishan Kishan going to be considered?
Who is the alternate captain?
They have anointed Rahul. He has shown no signs that he deserves to be given that role. With his personal form itself a touch shaky, to thrust the ‘keeping, batting, and captaincy burdens on a man who doesn’t seem natural in that role seems like a huge leap of faith. When Mohammed Siraj was losing the plot in the second ODI, a calm word in his ear would have done the settling trick; but Rahul allowed it to drift and get out of control. The selectors appointed Pandya as captain for the New Zealand T20I series, but that was a series when even the head coach had taken a break. Are they sure about Pandya?
Who is the finisher?
Apart from Pandya, will it come down to Jadeja and Washington Sundar to do the job? Or like it was the case with Dinesh Karthik and Pant, there will be a few names tossed up, left unexplored or nailed, until the World Cup looms right in their face and forces them? The 50-over format is also transforming in character just as T20 did right in front of them at home in the IPL; they didn’t learn any lessons there with the selection of an unsuitable top order. That a 5-time IPL winner will be left looking rudderless wasn’t expected. Now, what will their approach be in ODIs?
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Is there an Indian ODI approach at all?
The world knows how England plays white-ball cricket, the same is true for Pakan. But does India have a white-ball blueprint? What is the Indian ODI way? Australia didn’t fix their T20 template before the World T20, and were tossing around options right till the end with an out-of-form captain, and paid the price. India are at risk of following that path now in ODIs. Almost a year left to go of course, but as they found out in T20Is, without clarity, time flies quickly.
Who are the bowlers?
When Bumrah isn’t available, the team flounders. Especially, with Rohit and Dravid unwilling to really explore the remaining options. The world showed at the T20 World Cup that a quickish leg-spinner was the way to go; they did explore that option in the run-up and didn’t have the confidence to punt on Ravi Bishnoi when in Australia. They didn’t even play Yuzvendra Chahal. The IPL gave them Arshdeep Singh, and luckily saved them some blushes. But a good third seamer was forced to mature into a strike bowler right at the World Cup. They banked on Shami after ignoring him for a year only due to injuries. Harshal Patel was groomed – a good candidate for Indian conditions – before they lost confidence in his style in Australia and left him out.
Where are the selectors?
In a few days’ time, the team will get a third new chairman of selectors in three years. Of late, the consency one expects in selection calls has also been missing with players dropped and rotated for reasons best known to the team management. For example, Gill, Sanju Samson and Suryakumar Yadav who are all prime contenders for the World Cup didn’t accompany the team to Bangladesh. If the idea was to manage their workload and give them rest, even that isn’t happening as these players will feature in the Ranji Trophy for their respective state teams. And although the BCCI has removed the entire selection panel led Chetan Sharma, it is also worth reminding again that since February there hasn’t been a selector from the west zone. Similarly, just like team management, even the selectors should have role clarity for the players and pick the right ones. Not pick a player and make the team play him out of position as they did with Deepak Hooda at the T20 World Cup.
Questionable selections of the Rohit-Rahul era:
Who believed Harshal Patel would work in Australia?
Why weren’t Rishabh Pant or Prithvi Shaw tried as T20 openers?
Why wasn’t Ravi Bishnoi picked ahead of Yuzvendra Chahal, or Umran Malik blooded in for his striking pace?
Was Deepak Hooda really considered better than Sanju Samson in the shortest format?
What’s the word on Shubman Gill?