Shuffling out of the World Cup

India may have begun overwhelming favourites going into the World Cup. But their middle-order woes were exposed when it mattered most, eliminating them in the semifinal stage.

In a way, the knockout blow for India was on the cards, most of it because of their own ill-planning.

Such has been India's problems from Nos. 4 to 6 that they did not have a settled set of batsmen there in the World Cup, constantly shuffling the personnel.

It all began with Vijay Shankar being earmarked as the No. 4 batsman at the expense of Ambati Rayudu, who was India's key in that position in the matches leading to the World Cup but dropped like a hot potato for the quadrennial event, leading to his premature retirement out of frustration.

However, as has been India's policy with batsmen and positions being flexible, KL Rahul (1 match), Hardik Pandya (2) and Shankar (2) were tried in that two-down position to up the ante before finally finalising Rishabh Pant for the last four matches including the semifinal.

The No. 4 was made a musical chair of sorts, which it's not. It is such a crucial position in the line-up that not many teams fool around with it. But, Virat Kohli & Co thought otherwise.

Accordingly, the Nos 5 and 6 positions were taken by MS Dhoni, Pandya, Dinesh Karthik and Kedar Jadhav as per the situation. And, for whatever reasons best known to captain Kohli and head coach Ravi Shastri, Dhoni batted way below at No. 7 in the semifinal, long after Karthik and Pandya.

Kohli had his own reasons for that. He said: "Dhoni has been given that role after the first few games of being in a situation where he can, if the situation's bad, control one end like he did today (Wednesday) or if there is a scenario where there are six or seven overs left, he can go and strike".

But there are divided opinions about the former World Cup-winning captain's strike rate, especially in the semifinal, and that he should have been sent higher up in the batting order.

Considering the precarious situation that India were in – the top-order of Rahul, Rohit Sharma and Kohli were done in by beauties from Matt Henry and Trent Boult – Dhoni could not have played any other way than what he did.

Here again, opinions are split about the slow batting of Dhoni. While it is a fact that Dhoni has slowed down in recent times, he cannot be singled out for India's defeat on Wednesday. Consider the way some of the higher-order batsmen played.

Kohli, for all his achievements, brought his bat down at an awkward angle to play across the line and be trapped in front. Rahul, as he has often done, was caught in two minds whether to play at it or leave it and in the process nicked behind. Dinesh Karthik was a victim of perhaps the catch of the 2019 World Cup by Jimmy Neesham at point.

What do you say of Pant's and Pandya's shot selections? Settling down nicely and looking to take the game away from the Kiwis, bailing India out from 24/4, the two batsmen curbed their attacking instincts and batted as the situation demanded, seeing off the storm and punishing loose deliveries.

Then, what was the need to play such extravagant shots, skying left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner for tame dismissals? Wednesday was the best day for them to become national heroes and not only make big their good starts but also give confidence of bearing the Indian batting burden in the coming years.

One cannot say "that is the way they play and they are naturally-attacking batsmen". Their shot selections cost India a place in the World Cup final.

Ravindra Jadeja and Dhoni gelled well beautifully to raise a new World Cup record stand for the seventh wicket (116). While Jadeja attacked, Dhoni was not required to do the same. India needed him to hold one end up with Jadeja keeping the scoreboard ticking and picking the odd boundary. Dhoni, certainly, was not defending every ball. One cannot fault him for taking singles and giving Jadeja a majority of the strike.

And being the world's best finisher that he is – though the conversion rate may have taken a beating in recent times – Dhoni was keeping India's chase alive. Even after Jadeja was out for yet another over ambitious shot, though he cannot be faulted for it. He had done more than what was expected of him.

Dhoni has done it in the past for India and his T20 franchise Chennai Super Kings, taking the run chase to the last over. Such is his calculation that all hell broke loose once he was run out by a direct hit courtesy Martin Guptill's brilliance.

One cannot help but draw parallel with another legend of the game run out in his last ODI innings. Pakistan great Javed Miandad gave his everything in the 1996 World Cup quarterfinal against India before being run out by a direct hit from Mohammad Azharuddin at point and with him vanished whatever hopes Pakistan had.

Dhoni, like Miandad, had a forlorn look on his face once the giant screen displayed 'OUT' and took the long walk to the dressing room with a million thoughts running on his mind dejected at not being able to complete the job for the country. But unlike Miandad, who had announced that the World Cup was his swansong, one can never be sure of what Dhoni's future plans are. Even the Indian team doesn't.

That said, New Zealand deserve the accolades for entering their second successive final. They sealed the crucial moments of the match, be it grinding their way to 239/8, the Kane Williamson-Ross Taylor crucial partnership and their individual fifties, their pace and swing bowling, Neesham's one-handed catch or Guptill's extraordinary fielding that proved why he is indispensable even though runs have dried out from his blade.

Hopefully, India have learnt some harsh lessons from this World Cup and not repeat the mistakes again. Sort the middle order first.

N ZONE

1,091: No. of runs Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli alone scored for India in this World Cup, which is 44.86% of the team's total runs scored by the batsmen