No #3 but Kohli & a Case for 2 Pandyas: Lessons from Ind-Aus T20Is

Five takeaways from the drawn T20I series to kick-start India’s much-awaited tour of Australia

The spoils were shared in India’s tour-opening T20I series against Australia, after the efforts of Krunal Pandya and Virat Kohli took India to a series-levelling 6-wicket win in the third and final game at Sydney on Sunday, 25 November.

While a 1-1 scoreline ended India’s run of seven T20I series wins in a row, the victory at the SCG ensured Kohli and co. remain unbeaten in bilateral series in the shortest format since losing a one-off T20 international in West Indies in July 2017.

In series of more than one completed match, India have not tasted defeat since a 2-0 reversal to South Africa at home in October 2015.

The Quint looks at five takeaways from the three-match contest.

Kohli Loves Australia, and Chases...

What’s new in that? He’s scored runs for fun against this opponent, and in that situation – while touching stratospheric heights in the combined scenario of run-chases against the Aussies.

But there was a difference to Kohli’s series-saving effort in Sydney. This time, he had no security of an MS Dhoni still to come behind him. Dhoni’s waning form (especially in the shortest format) is another debate, but despite his T20I omission being merited to many, there’s no denying that the Indian middle/lower-middle order bears an increasingly insecure look to it – with or without the once ice-cool finisher.

And so the Indian captain knows he has to be the ‘iceman’ for his team, perhaps explaining his decision to bat at number four earlier in this series.

Kohli holds an average of 82.06 in 27 innings of batting second in T20Is. 20 of those have been successful run-chases, where he averages a barely-believable 120.62 with ten half-centuries. 

...But He MUST Bat at No. 3

It was said through the boom period of 50-over cricket that a team’s best batsmen have to bat in the top-three. The further you shrink a format, the more imperative the need for the best bats to come out with time in hand. The numbers back the argument.

Batsmen coming in from 1-3 have faced 50.32% of all deliveries bowled in T20Is, and made 51.64% of the total runs scored in the format. More tellingly, nearly 92% of all T20I hundreds – and over 73% of all fifties – have been hit by numbers 1, 2 and 3.

It’s a factor Kohli knows himself, all too well. In 41 matches batting at his regular spot, the Indian captain averages just a shade under 60. In ten essays at number four, that figure hurtles down to 33. Even Kohli’s strike rate comes down from 136 to 131.

The best in the business need to have the time to be able to dictate the show. The next World T20 (or T20 World Cup, as it will be called from 2020) is still nearly two years away, but one would hope this debate should be settled already.

India NEED a Sixth Bowling Option

Or two Jasprit Bumrahs and two Kuldeep Yadavs.

But unless cloning centers fast-track in the very near future, and the ICC approves their usage in international cricket, there is a problem which threatens India’s ridiculously successful record in limited overs cricket off late.

Virat Kohli’s handling of his five bowlers in the must-win series finale at the SCG was perhaps of as much significance as his batting later in the evening. The pace trio of Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Khaleel Ahmed bowled through the powerplay. Fearing Ahmed’s leakiness at the death, his quota was done with by the end of the 15th over. Spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya applied the choke in the middle. It was all good, all to plan.

But how often do plans get derailed in the shortest format? What happens when two batsmen with a particular liking for spin are out in the middle in the middle overs? Or what if you come up against a team, say England, which has just one gear of operation, and doesn’t look to see off any bowler?

The answer to most of those questions, is a sixth bowler. It doesn’t need to be an out-and-out option. Just someone who Kohli knows can roll his arm over for a couple of overs on a bad day, and more than a couple on a good one. Remember Yuvraj Singh?

But doesn’t this tactic affect the balance of the XI?

Time to Throw on Both the Pandyas?

The over-arching feeling is that the trouble in the team balance is down to Hardik Pandya’s absence, which was negated to some degree by the elder of the Pandyas, Krunal, who played a starring role in Sydney – all the more impressive taking into consideration his pasting just four days earlier in the tour opener at Brisbane.

But even when the Pandyas trade places in and out of the playing XI – the likeliest scenario going by the Indian think-tanks preferences – India will still have the same issue: five bowling options, no part-timers among the top-six.

If Kohli does stay good to his number three spot, and India persist with the existing batting line-up, it means three IPL wicket-keepers take up the next three slots (none of them being the ‘keeper from the Chennai Super Kings). Dinesh Karthik has done enough to warrant a spot in that middle order, but do India really require both KL Rahul and Rishabh Pant at four and five?

Sample this: Rohit and Dhawan at the top, Kohli one-down, Pant at number four, Karthik at number five. The two Pandyas at six and seven – neither of them is a mug with the bat, and both give you overs with the ball.

The balancing act of the Indian T20I setup (and who knows, that of the ODIs too) could well rest with one household. Does the Indian XI have room for both the Pandyas?

Australia Aren't Bad...But Not Great Either

It was a strange series, this. At the start, not many would have fussed about a 3-0 prediction in favour of India. If not for the rain, it may have actually ended 3-0 to India.

Yet, until the very last over of the three-match series, Australia were the only side to have held the lead. For a team which had nothing, absolutely nothing, going for itself until the start of the week, that’s not bad at all.

There were signs of promise, all week long. In Brisbane, Chris Lynn and Glenn Maxwell showed how dangerous they can be when they manage to control their own dangerous demons, before Adam Zampa proved Australia’s stock of blonde leggies is not running dry.

Ben McDermott displayed calm amind troubled waters in Melbourne, Alex Carey showed a bit of the same in Sydney. Marcus Stoinis made handy contributions more than once, and in more than one role, while in the pace department, Australia continue to remain blessed.

For some strange reason though, the sum of all those parts isn’t quite greater than what it is – for long a penchant of Australian teams.

But that their team in the shortest format held India, given the scenario ahead of the series, should instill confidence in the side for the longest format, as they brace for the ‘real’ deal of India’s tour.