India has jumped to the top of the table in the 2019 Cricket World Cup thanks to magnificent batting by Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli and Lokesh Rahul and accurate fast bowling by Jasprit Bumrah.
But their selection policy defies logic. Why include three wicketkeepers – MS Dhoni, Rishbah Pant and Dinesh Karthik – in their XI? Pant and Karthik have not fired but still Kohli and his fellow selectors continue with this absurd selection. Why?
Is it because England in this CWC has picked two wicketkeepers – Jos Buttler and Jonny Bairstow – in their team? Buttler keeps the wickets while Bairstow scores runs as the opening batsman.
This is not so for Pant and Karthik.
In England’s last two matches Bairstow scored 106 against New Zealand and 111against India. A fortnight ago he had made 90 against Afghanistan. So his inclusion is justified.
Has Kohli made the wrong call? (Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
A wicketkeeper in a team is like a pianist in an orchestra. There is room for only one.
This is changing of late. England selectors have this policy of multiple wicketkeepers at Test level. They set a record in the Test series against Sri Lanka in Colombo in November 2018 when they fielded three wicketkeepers: Bairstow, Buttler and Ben Foakes. The first two ran in the deep as fielders and scoring runs while Foakes donned gloves and pads.
Batting at No. 3 in the above Test, Bairstow top-scored with 110 runs, hitting nine fours and a six. He had to overcome some painful bouts of cramp in the intense heat and humidity. This was caused in part by his immobility while wearing a cast on his foot, following the ankle injury he had sustained while warming up in a game of football during the one-day series. He also appeared disappointed not wearing the keepers gloves.
According to Andrew Miller of ESPNcricinfo: “Bairstow insisted that his instant success as England’s new No. 3 would not distract him from his ultimate goal of winning back the Test wicketkeeper’s role, after his emotionally charged century had underpinned England’s batting on the first day of the third Test at Colombo last year”.
According to Bairstow, “The bits behind the scenes, when you’re doing your rehab and sleeping on an ice machine, the things that people don’t see and yet have an opinion on it. It’s all well and good when things are going well and people have an opinion on how well you’re playing, but it’s the hidden things that they don’t see”.
Bairstow’s injury was behind Foakes making his Test debut as a keeper. Foakes’s century on debut at Galle, in addition to his faultless glove work, made selectors prefer him as their wicketkeeper of choice. It was only the injury to England’s batsman Sam Curran that Bairstow was handed an opportunity to return to the team as a specialist No. 3 batsman.
What about Buttler? He is the selectors’ choice as a wicketkeeper-batsman in limited-overs cricket, as also in the current World Cup, but as a specialist batsman at Test level.
If you think three wicketkeepers – Foakes, Bairstow and Buttler – in one Test is unique, listen to this. A bizarre record was set in the Lord’s Test of July 1986 between England and New Zealand.
During New Zealand’s first innings the wicketkeeping duties were shared by four players, Bill Athey (first two overs), Bob Taylor (overs three to 76), Bobby Parks (overs 77 to 140) and Bruce French (the final ball).
Karthik Parimal of ESPNcricinfo headlining his story A tale of four Bs wrote, “On July 25, 1986, England fielded four wicketkeepers at various times, owing to an injury to the original man Bruce French. Two of the substitutes included Bob Taylor — the legend who was already two years into his retirement and Bobby Parks — the Hampshire cricketer who never donned a Test cap again”.
Of the four, only Athey and French were in the Test XI. My question to Roar readers: “Were substitutes allowed to keep wickets in the past?”.
Coming back to the present, if India wants to win the semi-final against New Zealand tonight and win the World Cup on Sunday, they better replace Pant and Karthik by quickie Mohammad Shami and all-rounder Kedar Jadhav.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Expert
Full credit to the NZ fast bowlers Matt Henry and Trent Boult who utilised the wet conditions perfectly. Indian bats are not used to playing on wet pitches. Also I think it was wrong of Kohli to send in newcomer Pant and Karthik at numbers 4 and 5. It was crisis time and India needed an experienced hand like Dhoni. He was sent in too late and another experienced all-rounder Jadeja at no. 8. Absurd. Those veterans brought India close to victory. If only they had batted earlier. I am not being wise after the event. I have been saying something on those lines for a week. All in all, NZ was a better side on the day and deserved to win.
Renegade
Roar Guru
Pretenders got found out the moment they had to play on a pitch that wasn’t a road...
Kdog
Guest
Hubris!!!!
dat
Roar Rookie
As for the reason india don’t go with jadeja before is actually quite simple,he isn’t as good an all rounder as he is in red ball cricket. There was a time when he was briefly the no:1 bowler in the world back in 2013 when he was an excellent bowler,that india could pick him as one of their 2 spinners and win games.But since 2014 to 2017 champions trophy he avg 43 with the ball at an economy of 5.3(take away afgan and uae matches and that avg goes upwards to 49). Infact those middle overs had him and ashwin going at about 5 or more an over with only 2 wickets in between them. India’s real dominance in the format started with the introduction of the kul-chal pair since the 2017 ct final, till nz series this year as a pair they had a strike rate of 27 with 101 wickets in between them, which was the 5th best strike rate of any duo in odi cricket . They both went at less than 5 an over more often than not as well which made it a no brainier why they wouldn’t be dropped.That period also coincided with the introduction of manish pandey into the squad(sub fielder) if not in the 11,someone who some experts thought of as an almost equal to jadeja on the field. Those incidents negated the 2 biggest reasons why you pick jadeja in the 11. As for his batting,i seen him run himself out when the team needed just 16 off 17 balls in a chase of 350,run his in form partner out(ct final -hardik pandya),go for unnecessary slogs when the team just had a collapse,take a single the first ball of every over when batting with the tail (india lost by 25 runs vs australia ).Almost all of which was even prior to his dip in form with the bat in the last 2 and half years(16 avg striking at 78).I seen even dhoni lose his calm demeanor a couple of times batting along side him while harsha bogle who always saw potential in him as a solid no:7 wrote an article this year on him not living up to that. With uncertainties over the no:4 spot till now india always preferred a batting all rounder as well which he never was. What works in jadeja’s favor right now is the fact even the 2 best spinners in this wc(tahir and chahal) avg 34 and goes at 5.5 or more an over.So his usual 1 wicket for 50 runs or so along side the runs he safes on the field and his batting guarantees him a spot in the 11 at least till the end of the wc(kuldeep’s form dipping since the trashing he received in the ipl and shami’s return to the squad ensuring they don’t lose out on attacking options also helps jadeja’s cause).
deepoz
Roar Rookie
Kersi, what you are suggesting is to have all 3 all rounders in the team; though Kedar hasn't got any bowl worth mentioning so far in the tournament. My hunch is to stay with Pant as a batsman. He has showed glimpses of what he can do. I reckon this experience will stand him in good stead as soon he will be number one wk in all formats for India. I agree that it is all about winning this tournament, but I don't think there is much difference between the two in conditions where the top order fails. Shami, yes definitely.
deepoz
Roar Rookie
I would take Chahal in place of Kuldeep..
dat
Roar Rookie
You can’t say for certain pant has been a failure in this WC. His avg is below 30 only because of the innings vs lanka where he came in with india needing 21 off 54 deliveries and 8 wickets in hand.The result was inevitable and was probably send in to finish it quickly(usually if a wicket fell and india were 3 down needing not much they would have still send dhoni in at 5 but with pandya also send ahead i think it was a message passed on to finish it in 2 overs or so) as he swung harder than even his usual standards during his short stint at the crease. In the other 2 games he scored a 32 and a 48 which kept his team in the game and ensured a lull in the scoring rate didn’t happen.If he fails in today’s game, fair enough drop him,else he adds a good balance to the squad and there isn’t any good reason to drop him. Even as a fan of DK,i admit jadhav should have been in the 11 over him as he adds more balance to the squad.But his recent form with the ball has been poor and is one of the weakest fielders in the teams plus with him usually coming in at 6-7 a spot where you mostly expect to bat for 10 overs or so only them trying out karthik who has a t20i st rate of 143 is understandable,even though i wouldn’t have done as such.
CSKERD
Roar Rookie
You’re spot on reg. Jadeja. But Jhadav unlike Karthik cannot go boom boom at the outset.. Jadeja,Pant, Karthik, Pandya et al allows Dhoni settle into his groove. And Shami/Bhubaneshwar are much alike in picking wickets up early but Shami leaks runs at the death.
Paul
Roar Guru
that's a different issue Kersi. Now your suggesting changes because of under performing players, which is fair enough, but not because they are wicket keepers.
Kersi Meher-Homji
Expert
Certainly have more than one wicket-keeper in an XI, if they score runs as Jonny Bairstow does for England. What have Pant and Karthik achieved as batsmen in the CWC 2019? Pant has scored 84 runs at an average of 28.00. Karthik has scored 8 runs at 8.00. Neither has scored a 50. Kedar Jadhav has averaged 40.00 with the bat with 52 as his highest. After being kept as a 12th man in the first 8 matches Ravi Jadeja was at long last selected in the last match against Sri Lanka. He did not get a chance to bat but took one wicket at an Economy Rate of 4.00, the lowest among Indian bowlers. Jadeja, India's most dynamic all-rounder in ODIs, should have been selected in more matches.
Paul
Roar Guru
Kersi, why are you assigning labels to Pant & Khartik, when they have a specific role to play in this side - as batsmen? You've decided the team cannot have "3 wicketkeepers" so changes have to be made to a team that's lost ONE game. If players are not performing a task allocated to them, by all means they should be replaced, but do so on the basis of form or a player better suited to a role.
BurningMad
Roar Rookie
The title’s about India, but very little else is. No justification of why the suggested selection changes are the right ones. India run with a five bowler strategy so that they can bat deep. In most games this has worked because Pandya has bowled well all tournament, probably as good as Kumar if not better. What need is there to change up this strategy? I agree Mohammed Shami should be in, but in place of Kumar since he’s in better form. In addition, Jadhav has not conclusively proven himself to be a better batting option than either Pant or Karthik. His skills as an all-rounder are irrelevant, he has only bowled 6 overs in this World Cup and they’ve been unimpressive. I’d like to see them try Agarwal instead of one of the wicketkeepers. He certainly looked impressive in the tests against Australia, and he usually has a high scoring rate. But it’s an odd time to give out an ODI debut, so I doubt it will happen.
Sharad Bansal
Guest
Karthik should be replaced with Shami, though Pant needs to be retained. My team against NZ: Rohit, Rahul, Kohli, Pant, Dhoni, Pandaya, Jadeja, Bhuvi, Shami, Kuldeep & Bhumrah
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Imagine if the weather results in the game becoming a T20 contest...
Riccardo
Roar Rookie
Shami is such an under-rated bowler; he should be in the team. He has caused headaches for the Black Caps in the past. If it's a fresh deck though Kersi would you add Jadhav or another batsman, as is their penchant. The Indians already have a couple of spinners. I really hope the Black Caps can get their heads in this with a clean slate from which to start. They can beat this team in the conditions being forecast...