Hanuma Vihari has done enough to retain his place ahead of Rohit, Pandya — will Kohli think so too?

On August 27, team India held an intense training session at the practice ground of the Rose Bowl in Southampton. With the series locked at 2-1 against England, and the fourth Test starting four days later, there was certain intrigue in the air.

It was to do with Prithvi Shaw and Hanuma Vihari, reinforcements for the remaining two Tests.

Both batted at the fag end of that training session, it was obvious neither of them would get to play with the series still in balance. As it turned out, India lost that Test and the series, arrived at the Oval a week later 3-1 down, with a dead rubber remaining.

Turning up for practice 24 hours before that final Test of the English summer, that sense of intrigue was back.

Usually, the batting order on match eve is a good indicator of what is going to transpire in team selection at toss-time the next day. And there he was, Vihari batting in the nets after Ajinkya Rahane and ahead of Rishabh Pant. More importantly, he was ahead of Hardik Pandya in the pecking order, indicating he was in-line for a Test debut. For that last Test, India had shifted to the seven-batsmen-four-bowlers tactic.

It was a strange happenstance. Suddenly, the incumbent middle-order batsman, who had been sitting on the bench for four Tests had been side lined (Karun Nair, remember him?), and here was Vihari, walking into the squad and into the playing eleven thereafter.

Fast forward to December 4, and the setting had changed to Adelaide, where the Indian team held another intense training session, this time in preparation for the first Test against Australia. Rohit Sharma batted with the regular middle-order batsmen, and ahead of Vihari.

Tough luck

When the match began, India maintained their strategy from the Oval, playing seven batsmen but it wasn’t Vihari who got the nod. Sharma failed to impress again, albeit he did score a crucial 37 runs out of 250 in the first innings. Yet, it was an unwarranted change in team selection, based on his white-ball form of course, and thanks to India’s 31-run win, it almost went unnoticed.

Should Vihari have played that first Test? Yes, of course.

Turn back pages to the Oval, and you see a debutant walking in at 103-4 and scoring a gritty maiden half-century. There are things that scorecard won’t tell you though – it was day two’s final session, it was cloudy and muggy; James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Ben Stokes and Sam Curran had their tails up and the Indian batting was under the pump once again. Vihari had an examination by fire and passed.

He played and missed, was fortunate not to be given out LBW, then played and missed some more; by then he had faced enough deliveries to calm his nerves down. ‘Kohli batting at the other end helped,’ he had said thereafter.

One of his shots-of-the-day was a top-edged pull off Stokes that sailed over fine leg for six. The bowler was not impressed and gave him a few choice words. Vihari never said a word back. In fact it is his usual demeanour. Watch him go about the training drills and he comes across as a man of silence.

It isn’t to say he is a loner or not cheery with his teammates. Instead, there is a certain methodology, almost like what Kohli or Rahane do – knowing well what needs to be done in practice sessions, Vihari goes about his business like clockwork. You get the impression that this has been ingrained in his structure through the hard grind of domestic cricket.

Between Oval and Adelaide, 10099 miles apart, Vihari didn’t do much wrong. Whilst playing at home against West Indies, India used five bowlers (surprisingly) and he didn’t get a look in both Tests.

Vihari did a lot right

When Ishant Sharma walked off injured at the Oval, Vihari bowled 9.3 overs in the second innings and took 3-37, providing Kohli with a ready-made explanation why he was preferred over Nair. He showed fine form in-between, scoring 95, 87* and 76 in List-A cricket. He went to New Zealand, and scored 86 and 51* for India-A. Then, he flew in to Sydney for the warm-up match, batted with energy and flow, smacked 53 off 88 balls, and bowled 12 overs in Cricket Australia XI’s innings too.

And yet, he didn’t play in Adelaide. It was peculiar given how the team management had underlined middle order as one of the last undecided spots. Vihari was even sent to bat at number three in the second innings, scoring 15*, yet was side lined when the first Test came up. The decision reeked of favouritism – if they could drop Rahane for Rohit in Cape Town on white ball form, why would Vihari be any different?

And that brings us to Perth. In his third Test innings, he found himself facing a top fast-bowling attack batting with Kohli for company again, on a firebrand pitch. He didn’t score a half-century this time, but those 20 runs off 46 balls ensured India stayed in the game on day three morning.

It is not to say that he didn’t play any false strokes during that 50-run partnership with Kohli. He just didn’t throw it away, which is saying a lot given how the Indian middle-order has performed in 2018.

Simplicity

There is a certain simplicity about Vihari, almost as if selection politics don’t get to him. Still nascent to the international arena, he retains that boy-hood love for the game.

‘I knew I would have to bowl 10-15 overs,’ he said, when picked as part of a side that fielded four pacers. Vihari bowled 28 overs in this second Test, picking 2-84, telling us more than Nathan Lyon’s eight-wicket haul why a full-time spinner should have played.

Even so, would he have played at the Optus Stadium if Rohit had been fit?

Perhaps not – it is hard to see how part-time bowling could have got him a spot ahead of Rohit when proper Test batting didn’t. At best, it could have forced Kohli to pick a more balanced side, which is a moot point after the 146-run loss.

As such, it is not the right question to ask here. Instead, wonder aloud, if Vihari will get to play in Melbourne after Hardik Pandya joins the team.

In a team structure, where the Indian think-tank is constantly pushing for an ‘x-factor’ in the middle order and keeps setting itself up for failure with flawed selection logic, Vihari’s uncomplicated approach to Test cricket isn’t what the doctor ordered.