Team India’s No. 4 conundrum in the 50-over format was been a topic of discussion leading up to the 2019 World Cup. There were a lot of changes made to the crucial batting slot, and yet the middle-order flattered to deceive during the showpiece event in England and Wales.
India started their World Cup campaign with KL Rahul batting at No. 4. But the team management had to move Rahul at the top after Shikhar Dhawan got ruled out of the tournament due to a fractured thumb. With Rahul opening with Rohit Sharma, Vijay Shankar batted at No. 4 for India in the next few games before Rishabh Pant eventually taking that crucial slot.
As it turned out, the Men in Blue got knocked out of the World Cup with an 18-run defeat against New Zealand in the semi-final.
R Sridhar, who was then part of the Indian dressing room as a fielding coach, rued one big missed opportunity. He feels the No. 4 conundrum could have been avoided.
"Many of the decisions we took didn't yield the desired result, though the biggest mistake was something that came about despite the lack of time pressure. I am referring, of course, to the No. 4 position for the 2019 World Cup, although we had four full years from 2015 to identify and get someone settled at that pivotal spot. No. 4 is such a crucial position in the batting order. He is expected to be the kind of player who takes the baton from the openers, from the top three, it on to the finishers. You need to have someone who and passes can strike at 80-90 per 100 balls for the most part and finishes his innings with a strike rate of 100. It's an acquired skill; it doesn't come naturally to everyone. Unfortunately, we didn't give anyone a chance to settle down, fail and learn," Sridhar wrote in his book 'Coaching Beyond'.
"We wanted results immediately and so if someone failed in two or three games, we moved on to the next guy. I really have no excuses; we had the same batting coach (Sanjay Bangar) for that entire period, the same fielding coach (yours truly) for the entirety except for the tour of the West Indies in 2016. The head coach (Ravi Shastri) and the bowling coach (Bharat Arun) weren't around for a year when Anil Kumble was in charge. But all told, we had ample time to button down a suitable candidate for that position. To me, in hindsight, the inability to do so was a mistake that was very much controllable; this was a process-driven mistake. Multiple factors contributed to a blunder that would come back and bite us when it mattered the most."
India tried out as many as 10 different batters at the No. 4 position between the tour of Sri Lanka in August-September 2017 and the start of World Cup campaign in June 2019. Ambati Rayudu, who played most of the games in that slot, was shockingly left out of the World Cup squad.
Sridhar conceded that the previous team management couldn't handle it well but he expects the current regime under Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma to deal with it in a much better way.
"Nothing was spoken about the No. 4 position; it was all but taken for granted. That is just a very poor look, with the benefit of hindsight. We missed a major trick and that did us in the end as far as the tournament was concerned. Except Ambati Rayudu, no one played more than seven games in that slot. At home against Sri Lanka in December 2018, MS and Dinesh Karthik batted at two-down; when we went to South Africa in early January, Ajinkya Rahane batted there for the entire series. In England that summer, it was KL Rahul. I can see where we messed up," stated Sridhar.
"I agree that was out of character for a support group which got a lot of other things right. I mean, we are talking about Ravi, Sanjay, Arun, Virat and myself it was a shocker from us. We were unsuccessful in giving anyone the confidence to grow into that position, and it was no surprise that when it mattered the most, we were found wanting. Perhaps we got carried away by the fact that we had a gun top-three-Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli — and two exceptional finishers in MS and Hardik, and therefore overlooked the significance of No. 4. When push came to shove, we couldn't respond. I know it's not my place to say so, but there is a lesson in it for think tanks going forward. I can say with reasonable confidence that I don't see Rohit and Rahul Dravid making the same mistake."
