India vs Australia: T20I series shows Virat Kohli must bat at No 4 while KL Rahul's return to form is a huge shot in arm

The skirmishes on the cricket pitch paled in comparison to what was happening up North. It was not easy for Indian cricket fans away from the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru to focus on the second Twenty20 match against Australia on Wednesday when the nation united in praying for Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman’s safety.

Yet, the Indian team trained its collective mind on the present to try and make a match of it, the inexperienced bowling forcing the game to the final over after Virat Kohli and Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s 100-run stand in 50 deliveries propelled the team to 190 for four. India lost the series 0-2 but would have gained some clarity with a few things ahead of the ICC Cricket World Cup.

In the era of strong social media influences on young minds, it would have been hard for the players to be not affected by the enormous tension hovering over all of India. That they went about their tasks showed that they could egg themselves on to do what they could do under their control, even as they joined the nation in prayer.

One of the immediate takeaways from Wednesday’s game was the evidence presented to the skipper that it is important for India to have experience and depth in the middle-order. India would want to see the Kohli-Dhoni association being available in the latter half of each of their innings in the World Cup. And the best way to ensure that is for Kohli to bat lower than his No 3 slot.

When Kohli is herding the Indian batting, anything is possible. Such reassurance was needed at the half-way stage of the innings when India were 73 for two, opener Shikhar Dhawan having just fallen for a sluggish 14 (24 balls). And, in the next over, Rishabh Pant was pressured into a playing a big shot and presented Jhye Richardson a chance to take a magnificent catch.

Coach Ravi Shastri spoke of how he was toying with the idea of getting Kohli to bat at No 4 in the World Cup. We did not get to see that influence in the Twenty20 internationals that marked the skipper’s return after being rested for a few games on the recent tour of New Zealand. Perhaps, the ebb and flow of Wednesday’s batting effort will convince him.

Playing what could have been his last Twenty20 game in India colours, Mahendra Singh Dhoni unfurled a display that was reminiscent of the batting on which his image was built. It came at the right moment for India in the game in Bengaluru. The team would be wishing that he can retain this touch through the one-day international series and the World Cup in England.

The other heartening aspect of India’s batting was opener KL Rahul’s 47 off 26. Coming on the heels of the half-century he made in the opening game in Visakhapatnam, it laid a good platform for the side to post a big total. His runs augur well considering that Dhawan was unable to match his stroke-play on Wednesday and Rohit Sharma did not last long in Visakhapatnam.

The two knocks would have gone a long way in convincing the selectors to hand Rahul a ticket on the team’s flight to the World Cup. For him to show the confidence at the crease after a none too memorable time in the Tests in Australia - and after being bundled back home in wake of the controversy that a TV show kicked up - would have been heart-warming for the side.

It can only be hoped that India would have learnt that knee-jerk responses to a bowler’s failure in one T20 game are not always guaranteed to produce results. Jettisoning paceman Umesh Yadav after he conceded 14 runs in the final over of the game in Visakhapatnam was quite unfair not only to him but also to the side that missed his pace in Bengaluru.

Siddharth Kaul, who was given the task of bowling the final over with Australia needing nine runs to win, was up against a Glenn Maxwell on a rampage and paid the price for errors in length. He may get a couple of one-day internationals to try and nudge ahead of others vying for what seems like the final berth in the Indian team.

For the second game in a row, India turned to Jasprit Bumrah in the penultimate over to try and change the course of the game. And he succeeded yet again in bowling a memorable over, this time to well-set batsmen. He would have liked to pick up some wickets on the flat deck in Bengaluru, but he did not leave anyone in doubt that he is India’s best bet with the ball.

India may well have viewed the two Twenty20 games as appetisers, experimenting with bowling combinations and batting positions. And, truth to tell, at a time when all of India was concerned about Varthaman’s safety, the Men in Blue did the best they could to focus on the task on hand, doing well not to appear as if their mind was not pre-occupied.