As you sow, so you reap. Team India on Tuesday dropped the man in red-hot form this season -- KL Rahul --- from their playing XI because he didn’t exactly fit into the Kohli’s tactics for the ODI decider against England. Tactics, that were conceptualized on keeping the maximum run-getter in all formats this season, to sit on the bench. Tactics that keeps the mystery of No.4 in the line-up, rolling constantly like saas-bahu sagas on TV.
The repercussions of the decision were most immediate with Team India middle-order collapsing once again, with the exception of skipper Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni, who ambled his way to a decent score for himself and Team India to defend.
Kohli’s dramatic experiments --- he made three changes in the XI --- have put the series on thin ice, but there is a method to this madness as well. Kohli has subtly told Rahul that he is a top-order batsman only. Or in other words, Rahul may well call himself the next Ajinkya Rahane. Or a standby for Shikhar Dhawan’s fickle form or Rohit Sharma’s fragile fitness.
Rahul’s position is exactly what Ajinkya Rahane faced a season before, struggling to position himself at the top-order or middle-order. Rahul hasn’t had the greatest performances at No.4, and it is now clear that Virat won’t --- and should not --- sacrifice his No.3 position.
On surface, it seemed Rahul was made the scapegoat for India’s defeat in the last game at Bristol, where incidentally he was dismissed for a duck. Virat did make a special mention of Rahul at the toss to indicate it was unfortunate. “DK was a tactical change and the other two because they haven't got a game yet. Karthik has done well in that spot and we wanted a guy in the middle overs who can be versatile and improvise a little,” the skipper said, trying to explain himself. But former cricketers and fans criticized this decision and to make matters worse, Dinesh Karthik scored just 21 runs before being dismissed.
Keeping Rahul out will also ensure that middle-order specialists, like Dhoni, Karthik, Raina or even a Rayadu or Kedar Jadhav to do what they know the best, rotating strike and set it up nicely for the cameo experts to finish it. Rahul’s current form may have been a sentimental topic but Shreyas Iyer has been facing the same dilemma and hasn’t got a game yet.
Kohli’s tactics involve keeping specialist in their slots, even at the expense of current form, as Team India look towards regaining the World Cup –almost a year from today in England.