Ever since the selection committee omitted Yuvraj Singh from the squad against Sri Lanka, the debate has always been that did Yuvraj deserved to be dropped from the squad. Yuvraj had a decent outing in the series against England, his Champion’s Trophy performances were still average, and then he was dropped from the last two ODI’s in West Indies.
Early reports suggested that Yuvi was dropped as he failed to pass the ‘Yo-Yo’ test before the series against Sri Lanka. Chief selector MSK Prasad then cleared the air by saying that he was just rested. But in the recent series against Sri Lanka, India’s inexperienced middle order struggled to score. This middle order trouble has sparked a debate that who should be India’s Number four at the next World Cup in England in 2019?
Since the 2015 World Cup, most of the scoring in the middle order has been done by Virat Kohli. MS Dhoni’s inconsistency with the bat has raised some eyebrows in the past, but he made a comeback to form against the Sri Lankan side. India has four options which can bat at the number four position. Manish Pandey, Ajinkya Rahane, KL Rahul and Yuvraj Singh.
Out of all the options, Yuvraj Singh has batted in the most number of innings and has amassed the most number of runs since the 2015 World Cup. Yuvraj has batted in nine innings and scored 358 runs at an average of 44.75 runs. These figures are not as bad the selection committee has made it look. Rahane has the highest average of all batting at the number four position. He has scored 271 runs in the four innings he has batted at that position. He has averaged 67.75 batting at that position.
| Overall figures(September 2015-September 2017) | |||||||||||||||
| Player | Span | Mat | Inns | NO | Runs | HS | Ave | BF | SR | 100 | 50 | 0 | 4s | 6s | |
| Yuvraj Singh | 2017-2017 | 10 | 9 | 1 | 358 | 150 | 44.75 | 367 | 97.54 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 45 | 7 | |
| AM Rahane | 2015-2016 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 271 | 89 | 67.75 | 246 | 110.16 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 23 | 5 | |
| MS Dhoni | 2015-2016 | 6 | 6 | 0 | 197 | 80 | 32.83 | 258 | 76.35 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 5 | |
| MK Pandey | 2016-2017 | 6 | 5 | 2 | 180 | 104* | 60.00 | 182 | 98.90 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 2 | |
Manish Pandey played an absolute blinder in Sydney in 2016 batting at number four. He won the match for India as he scored an unbeaten 104*, this was also India’s only victory in the One Day series. Pandey has scored 180 runs in five innings at an average of 60. Pandey could be India’s long term number four, all he needs is some experience and opportunities to play for the country.
KL Rahul grabbed the opportunity to open the innings in the Tests with both hands. He replaced an injured Murali Vijay in the Sri Lankan series and scored heavily at the top of the order. However, Rahul couldn’t repeat this performance in the One Day series. He failed miserably against Akila Dhananjaya. He scored only 28 runs in three innings with a top score of 17.
With Australia coming to India in September, the onus will now be on the selectors to review their decision and decide whether to go with experience or to go with youth.