On Sunday, India will take on Sri Lanka in the first of what is expected to be a painfully one-sided five-match One-Day International series. When the squad was announced, the primary talking point was the inevitable exclusion of veteran Yuvraj Singh. The appointment of Rohit Sharma as vice-captain also made the headlines but an important aspect that did not receive adequate attention was the selection of Ajinkya Rahane and KL Rahul in the squad. It’s a move which could actually be detrimental to the team’s prospects in the long run.
Over the last two years, the amount of Test cricket that India have played has risen considerably, while the amount of limited overs cricket has gone down. India have had a fantastic couple of years in the longest format, and have deservedly established themselves as the No 1 team in the world.
The importance of being KL Rahul and Ajinkya Rahane
This has primarily been due to stellar performances by several players in the team. Spin twins Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja have been the biggest heroes, decimating batting line-ups and establishing themselves as two of the best bowlers in the world. But the batsmen have also made very important contributions.
KL Rahul has scored seven consecutive fifties (a joint world record), and is now ranked ninth in the Test rankings. Ajinkya Rahane is now one of the team’s senior figures and is possibly the most consistent performer overseas. He was the only centurion in the series against South Africa in 2015, scoring a hundred in each innings in Delhi, when the visitors were struggling to put up a total in excess of 100. Rahane is currently ranked 10th in the ICC Test rankings.
Clearly, these two batsmen have become invaluable in India’s Test team. Even though Abhinav Mukund filled in for an injured Rahul in Galle, and Karun Nair took advantage of Rahane’s injury to score a triple hundred against England in Chennai, the fact is that India do not have reliable replacements for Rahul and Rahane in the upcoming overseas season.
It is also true that India plays more international cricket than almost all other teams. Their hectic schedule gives players little time for rest, and has been known to cause injuries. While the selectors have occasionally rested Ashwin and Jadeja during less-important limited overs series with an eye towards keeping them fit for Tests, the same policy has not been considered for batsmen.
Rahane is a constant feature in India’s ODI squad, and plays series against weaker teams like West Indies because they are seen as opportunities for him to play and establish himself as a viable opener in the format. KL Rahul has also been selected for the ODI series against Sri Lanka, and was also in the squad for the Twenty20 International series against West Indies in 2016.
No dearth of resource in white-ball cricket
What the Indian think tank does not realise is that these two batsmen are needed way more in Tests than in limited overs cricket. India has never had a dearth of reserves in white-ball cricket. A ragtag group of youngsters with hardly any stalwarts won the inaugural World Twenty20 for India. Old greats like Rahul Dravid and Sourav Ganguly actually had to be dropped from the ODI team to make way for young talent. Even Sachin Tendulkar’s absence from India’s ODI squad did not affect the team much in the 2010s.
On the other hand, India struggled to find replacements for these stalwarts in Test cricket. With the advent of the Indian Premier League, there are many young Indian players who get to play a kind of cricket that is almost at par with Twenty20 Internationals, and can adapt to ODI cricket as well. But this does not prepare them for Test cricket, and the few classical batsmen we have are diamonds in the rough.
Consider the current scenario in Indian cricket. Kedar Jadhav has already established himself as an excellent limited overs finisher. Manish Pandey has been out due to injury, but definitely deserves some rope now that he’s back. Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, and Sanju Samson have turned heads with their performances in domestic cricket and the IPL. On the other hand, India’s bench strength in Test cricket is limited to Karun Nair and Abhinav Mukund, the latter having proved multiple times that he isn’t really Test cricket material.
Time to distribute workloads
In such a scenario, is it wise to repeatedly make indispensable members of the Test team like Rahane and Rahul play limited overs cricket, when that increases their workload and opens them up to injuries? India clearly don’t have a shortage of options in limited overs cricket, and it would actually be good to blood youngsters like Pant and Iyer two years before the World Cup, and give someone like Pandey some time to assume the responsibilities of a senior player.
India has already begun to bifurcate their bowlers into red-ball and white-ball specialists. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Jasprit Bumrah have established themselves as excellent limited overs pacers, while Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav, and Ishant Sharma have done well in Tests. But with the spinners, the mentality that Ashwin and Jadeja can just walk into the ODI squad for major tournaments only based on their Test form still prevails, even though their records in coloured clothing have been very poor in the last two years.
India has huge bench strength in the shorter formats. Manish Pandey, Rishabh Pant, Shreyas Iyer, Sanju Samson, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, and Amit Mishra have proven to be very good players at the IPL and domestic level, and at least deserve an opportunity to get acclimatised to international cricket. They might be able to prove that they’re good enough, which will take a huge burden off of many players who are currently being made to play too much cricket. India should seriously consider a bifurcation policy, and leave the likes of Rahul and Rahane to focus only on Test cricket.
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