India vs South Africa: Instead of complaining, Dhoni should consider blooding new players

India captain MS Dhoni’s post-match discourses had a familiar same ring throughout the ODI series against South Africa. He talked about confusion in the batting line-up, and the lack of players who could do the job at Nos. 5, 6, and 7 in the batting line-up. The fast bowlers were not spared either, particularly their lack of consistency. The all-rounder spot has been a particular nuisance. According to Dhoni, ‘only Stuart Binny, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja can do this job’. [caption id=“attachment_2440034” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Gurkeerat Singh wasn’t given a game in the South Africa series. PTI[/caption] But if that is the case, why was Gurkeerat Singh in the squad when he can do a similar job? Gurkeerat has been in impressive form for Punjab recently, and has done well with his offspin for India A too. Rishi Dhawan (Himachal Pradesh), is another an all-rounder who has impressed in domestic cricket, taking regular wickets with his medium pace and scoring runs in the middle-order Both these players have done middle-order duties for India A this year. Rishi picked up 4 for 49 against South Africa A in Chennai. In the first game against Bangladesh A in the next series, he took 2 for 51 and smacked 56 not out from 34 balls batting at no.8. It was his 102-run partnership with Gurkeerat (65 off 58 balls) that rescued India A from a precarious 125 for 5. Gurkeerat was picked for India on the back of that Bangladesh series but wasn’t given a single game in the series despite all of India’s perceived deficiencies. That is a travesty, for how will the team management know if these youngsters are good enough when they are not played in home ODIs even with nothing major at stake? India returned to Harbhajan Singh once R Ashwin was injured but at 35, Harbhajan isn’t a long term option and yet the selectors seem reluctant to give Parvez Rasool a run out on the international stage. Rasool, who averages 39.46 with the bat and 35.76 with the ball, has only played one ODI against Bangladesh. That’s hardy a basis to decide he is not cut out for the job. Gurkeerat, Dhawan and Rasool have at least earned a shot at the no.7 slot. There are questions about others in the side too. Suresh Raina (68 runs from 5 matches at an avg. 13.60) and was lucky not to be dropped from the team after scoring a total of three runs in the first three ODIs. There is an opportunity there too, if the selectors are willing to be creative. Two names spring to mind - Manish Pandey and Karun Nair. If India want to rebuild their ODI and T20I line-ups, then these two young batsmen should be at the top of the list, thanks largely to their exploits for Karnataka and in the IPL. Their career charts are also on a similar trajectory – both are part of the India A set-up; Nair was called up as backup batsman for the third Test in Sri Lanka while Pandey made his ODI debut in Zimbabwe. While both of them bat higher up in domestic cricket than No. 6, this should not be a deterrent to try them out. Remember, Virender Sehwag started in the middle order in Test cricket and Sachin Tendulkar only moved up to open in ODI cricket four years after making his debut It should be remembered that the likes of Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane all started lower down the order before moving up. Surely then, Pandey and Nair can be given a fair go as the team experiments with the 2017 Champions Trophy and the 2019 ODI World Cup, both in England, in mind. The bowling requires a different approach too, but one less about changing personnel and more about managing them. India’s medium pacers have been workhorses for a long time now. There is no bowler management to speak of, no track record of how many deliveries each of them sends down, and no workload supervision. The result is they are either injured (Mohammad Shami) or perennially knackered and thus rendered ineffective (Bhuvneshwar Kumar). Alternately, the likes of Ishwar Pandey and Dhawal Kulkarani lug around kitbags and drink bottles, are used extensively as net bowlers on away tours and then return to domestic cricket’s wilderness. It brings us back to the original point made by Dhoni. A lack of optimal players yes, but only because the team management has used the same set of players across all formats. India would be better served by being smarter and giving fresh blood a go.