Team India is yet to decipher the RIKY code

Between them, K L Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, Ishan Kishan, and Suryakumar Yadav are fighting for two middle-order slots.

India arrived in Colombo on August 30, reasonably convinced that Shreyas Iyer would be their Number 4 batsman at the ongoing Asia Cup and in the 50-over One Day International (ODI) ICC Men’s World Cup, starting on October 5. The team management had probably pencilled in K L Rahul as its first-choice wicketkeeper-batsman, ahead of the fast-maturing Ishan Kishan. Suryakumar Yadav, who brings oomph to the T20 set-up but is yet to crack the ODI code, was drafted in to provide the ‘X factor’; his intrepid innovativeness facilitating his pigeonholing as a finisher.

Two weeks on, some things have remained the same, others drastically altered. After just one hit following a back surgery in April, Iyer is back on the sidelines, recovering from back spasms. Yadav is hogging the bench, and Kishan and Rahul have triggered a headache for the team management — a happy one, they might assert, but a headache nevertheless.

Kishan seemed to have stolen an early march in the stumpers’ stakes when, in Rahul’s injury-enforced absence during the group matches of the Asia Cup, he made a remarkably composed 82 under pressure against Pakistan at Number 5, where he had never batted earlier. It was enough to earn him the nod, ahead of Rahul, for the Super Four encounter against Pakistan on September 10 until, moments before the toss, Iyer pulled up short and facilitated Rahul’s return to the Playing XI.

In a turn of events that would have delighted Bollywood scriptwriters no end, Rahul celebrated his comeback with a sterling sixth ODI century. Having batted for 145 high-intensity minutes in the relentless Colombo humidity, he returned after five overs of Pakistan’s chase to take over wicketkeeping duties from Kishan, a role he reprised during the victory over Sri Lanka on September 12. If one is looking for clues, here is an obvious one.

Between them, Iyer, Rahul, Kishan, and Yadav are fighting for two middle-order slots. For now, Yadav is a long shot; the big question is whether India can trust Iyer’s back not to flare up again at an inopportune moment, like it has done more than once in the past. The lingering apprehensions about a relapse, combined with Iyer’s lack of game-time — he has faced just nine deliveries in competitive play since March — might tilt the scales in favour of fielding both Rahul and Kishan, all but unthinkable two weeks back.

Will India be worse off with this arrangement? Definitely not. Iyer is undoubtedly an accomplished 50-over batsman with excellent numbers to back his claims — average 45.69, strike rate 96.82 in 44 ODIs — but how much patience does India show with someone whose back is as dodgy as a serial offender in the witness box? Is he so indispensable that, with choices abounding, the team management continues to back him to a fault? The word from the Indian camp is that the spasms aren’t too serious, but they have been serious enough to keep him out of two successive matches at a time when he desperately needs match play. Wouldn’t it be more prudent to keep playing both Kishan and Rahul, the former at Number 4, to provide a left-handed option in a right-heavy top six?

Doubts over Kishan’s adaptability have been comprehensively dispelled in the last 10 days. A year back, he was a certified ball-basher, trying to blast bowlers out of the park with an over-reliance on brute power. So intent was he on smacking the ball that he lost shape and balance, finding himself in awkward positions and, therefore, attracting the hit-or-miss tag. Assiduous since in expanding his repertoire, he is adept at playing in different gears; he is also not out of place in the middle order though he made his name as an opener, crowning his stint at the top with a spectacular 210 in Bangladesh last December.

Rahul, of course, is a pedigreed achiever in the one-day game; as a wicketkeeper who bats in the middle order, he brings a refreshing positivity elusive as an opener in the other two formats where he is no longer in the mix. Without seeking recourse to the cheeky and the cute, he scores rapidly; for such a ‘correct’ player, he is also a storied six-hitter of very good deliveries, a gift very few are bestowed with.

India doesn’t have too much time — just the three ODIs at home against Australia — before the World Cup to finetune its game plans. It will be flexible, as it will need to be, but it also can’t keep making changes willy-nilly. Iyer’s back is central to their decision-making, though it needn’t be, really.

R Kaushik is a Bengaluru-based cricket writer. Twitter: @kausheek68

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