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The decision on Shreyas Iyer’s selection for the 2nd ODI against England might define Gautam Gambhir’s coaching legacy, and his career.
Gautam Gambhir (L) and Shreyas Iyer. (BCCI/Sportzpics)
Shreyas Iyer is India’s ODI X-factor in batting.
This is not a personal opinion. Even if it was, hardly anyone in India would agree to it.
It’s what Pat Cummins’ Australia believed when they were planning for Rohit Sharma’s team ahead of the November 19 World Cup 2023 final in Ahmedabad. According to a Cricbuzz report released after Australia had thumped India on their home soil, the visiting think tank spent a big share of their time planning for Shreyas.
The reason? They understood that on a slow wicket, his dynamism stood him out amid the pragmatism of the Indian middle order comprising Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Suryakumar Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja.
Cummins got Shreyas out for 4 (3), breaking his streak of consecutive centuries against the Netherlands in the group stage and New Zealand in the semi-final, and Kohli and Rahul couldn’t increase the pace.
Not that their opinion matters in this case, but the Australians would be shocked to know that there’s a significant possibility India drops Shreyas from their first-choice ODI 11 to accommodate a left-handed opener in Yashasvi Jaiswal. They almost did that in the first match of the ongoing three-ODI series against England but had to bring him back because Virat Kohli picked up a knee issue late on the match eve.
Jaiswal, though extremely talented, didn’t impress on his debut and got out for 15 (22). Shreyas came at number four to smash a 36-ball 59, including consecutive sixes against Jofra Archer. India won by four wickets.
“As you all know I wasn’t supposed to play today. Virat unfortunately got injured and then I got the opportunity. I kept myself prepared. I knew that at any point in time, I could get a chance to play. The same thing happened to me last year as well during the Asia Cup. I got injured and someone else came in and scored a century,” Shreyas said after the match on Thursday, in a chat with Star Sports.
“So, funny story,” he added. “I was watching a movie last night, I thought I could extend my night, but then I got a call from the skipper saying that you may play because Virat has got a swollen knee. And then [I] hurried back to my room, went off to sleep straight away.”
Kohli is set to make his comeback in the second match and the the Gautam Gambhir-led Indian management now has a significant choice to make: who between Shreyas and Jaiswal would he replace?
In there, lies a litmus test for Gambhir’s coaching. Under him, India’s Test legacy of a home series streak and strength away from home has already been tattered, for now at least, and dropping Shreyas, just for the sake of having extra left-handers in the 11 would probably be a warning sign towards the same climax in ODIs.
Firstly, considering how India’s middle-order performed at the World Cup and carried the team to Ahmedabad through multiple tricky encounters, there was hardly a need for a change. There were a lot of reasons for India’s loss in the final but the middle-order’s failure wasn’t even top-five.
Secondly, Shreyas solved a massive, almost-maddening issue of the number four spot when he arrived on the ODI scene in 2019. Before him, for half a decade India chopped and changed players in that position, experts regularly begged for someone who could understand how to manage the tempo of batting between India’s star-studded, established top-order and upcoming finishers like Hardik Pandya.
Shreyas scored four fifties and a century in his first eight innings and now his record at the spot reads 1456 runs at 52 with a strike-rate of 103.34. He’s the only number-four to score more than 1000 runs with an average over 50 and strike at 100 since 2019 — exactly what everyone meant by that ‘tempo’.
Kohli would likely be put to number four if Shreyas is dropped and Jaiswal retained. His stats at number four are as good as Shreyas but it will bring another pre-2019 dilemma: Kohli’s stats at number three are even better, with an average of 61.06 for a whopping 11,785 runs, so why would you want him to drop down?
Not just him, Jaiswal’s inclusion would mean Gill dropping to number three from opening, where he scored five centuries in 2023. It’s one change leading to two more changes in a winning batting order.
Jaiswal is perhaps the most talented all-format batter India has had since Kohli. However, only because his selection can’t be justified over Gill (the vice-captain) and Rohit (captain and one of the greatest in the format), Gambhir and Co. could be pushing Iyer and Rahul to compete for one spot.
In the World Cup, Iyer and Rahul proved that having extra left-handers in the 11 isn’t as important in ODIs as in T20Is. Left-arm swing bowlers are becoming increasingly less threatening because of the flat wickets and right-handers who can play left-arm spin to a decent level in the middle-order work just fine.
Moreover, it’s not like India has a dearth of middle-order left-handers for the occasional match-up against a team with a good left-arm spinner or two leggies. Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja can both bat at number four and Shreyas and Rahul won’t mind one or two games at lower down the order.
Bringing in Jaiswal at the top can only be explained as the team management’s belief that he is a big enough match-winner to offset all the batting order shifts and the exclusion of Shreyas and Rahul.
It’s a vastly different perspective from Rahul Dravid, whose team was a couple of decisions away from the greatest World Cup campaign that discounts Shreyas’ experience, the matches he has won (especially the semi-final against New Zealand, India’s bogey team), and his work on his weaknesses.
Choosing a promising youngster for a best-in-class senior just before an ICC tournament, instead of letting Jaiswal wait for his time and Rohit’s impending retirement, is a kind of gamble that would have been inconceivable under Dravid.
It might work and it might not — what it’ll certainly do is define Gambhir’s legacy and perhaps his career.
