Team India's lack of four-sight

With over two months left for India's first game of the World Cup in England, team management's tryst with experimentation, especially with No. 4 batting position, till the very last hour has created a different kind of headache for the Indian selectors.

Going by pure statistics, Team India has tried 12 different batsmen at No. 4 (including Delhi ODI) in last four years and all of them have failed to yield the desired results. And with India were asked to chase 272-run target at the Ferozeshah Kotla ground last week, the puzzle is likely to get more intrusive than reaching a solution stage.

With skipper Virat Kohli asking wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant to bat at No. 4 in Delhi's decider, one thing is for sure that five Indian wisemen will have to go back to blackboard to find solution to this No. 4 puzzle.

Pant, before the final ODI, was only tested at No. 5 and 6 batting positions in his short ODI career. The only rationale behind testing Pant at this crucial position can be that Kohli has seen him grow in confidence over the last six months. His unbeaten 159 at Sydney during the last Test series Down Under was one such example.

However, the Delhi boy's failure —- 16 off as many balls — to anchor India's innings on his home ground has started a fresh debate over India's chances in the upcoming WC in England.

In the last four years of experimentation for India (since the last WC in Australia and New Zealand), it was Ambati Rayudu who seemed to have won Kohli's confidence at No. 4 with his performances in Asia Cup in October 2018. But his exit from the side following some poor showing (33 in three ODIs) in the first three games of of the Australia series forced Kohli to try himself at this position by putting KL Rahul at No. 3, looked to be a decision taken in a haste.

The decision had baffled many a cricket pundit because the shift came after Indian skipper's back-to-back centuries at No. 3 in the ongoing series. Kohli, himself, fell flat at No. 4 by scoring just seven in Mohali.

Not to forget that Kohli has always failed to score — 30 runs in four innings — at No. 4 position in last four years.

Going by statistics, Rayudu proved to be the most consistent during the 14 ODIs he was asked to play at the crucial position. He was looking well set to do the job for India at the WC in England after his 464 runs at an average of 42.18 during this period.

The second in the list is none other than veteran Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who occupied No. 4 slot for as many as in 12 ODIs.

His average of 40.72 with an aggregate of 448 runs was good enough to give confidence to the team management for any alternate at No. 4.

This is another thing that Ajinkya Rahane, who is now not part of India's ODI squad, has still been the best performer at this batting position since 2015 WC. For those 10 matches after WC, his figures of 420 runs with an average of 46.66 talks loudly about Team India miscalculation. And this despite the fact that Rahane's strike rate at No. 4 was 92.71 as compared to that of Dhoni's 76.84 or Rayudu's 85.60 at similar position.

Manish Pandey and Yuvraj Singh were also tried at this position in last four years, but without any success. Rahul (26 in four ODIs) and Kedar Jadhav (18 on four ODIs) were other flops at this position.

Dinesh Karthik, the second wicket-keeper choice, was the lone batsman who has notable contribution — 264 runs to show at an average of 52.80 — in a total of nine innings that he was tested at No. 4. But the wisemen of Indian cricket didn't consider him for the ongoing home series.

With India have played their last international home game before the WC, it's over to the five wisemen of Indian cricket to solve this puzzle amongst themselves.