IND vs NZ 2017: Team Management and Selection Committee are Definitely Concerned About the Middle-Order Woes – MSK Prasad
Oct 24, 2017 at 11:36 AM
In an otherwise almost perfect year for Team India as far as results in One-Day Internationals are concerned, one cannot say the same for the team management and the selectors.
In a year where the Men in Blue are yet to lose a series, having defeated the likes of England, Windies, Sri Lanka and Australia in addition to making it to the finals of the Champions Trophy, the middle-order struggle has given the team management and the selectors a tough time. Since the start of the year, India has experimented extensively with the middle-order but without much success.
And now chief selector MSK Prasad has admitted that all the related parties are ‘definitely concerned about it’. The former India wicketkeeper also explained that getting a settled middle-order is the reason behind so much experimentation.
“The team management, the selection committee all of us are definitely concerned about it. And that’s the reason we are trying before a big event comes up or before we finalise a final squad for a major event,” said Prasad on Monday (October 22).
“By then we will try out different options, and there are some of the guys who are doing (well) at India A (level). We will keep trying options before we close on a particular squad,” he added.
The year started with the Indian team trying out veteran batsman Yuvraj Singh. However, the move did not pay off well, and he got ousted after the series against the Windies. The onus was then put on KL Rahul and Manish Pandey, but that too did not yield the desired result. In fact, at one stage India also tried out Hardik Pandya at number four, and although he succeeded, the team seemingly does not want him to bat at that position.
Kedar Jadhav’s inconsistent form is another major area of concern, and the latest player who has been given the responsibility of solving the middle-order woes is Dinesh Karthik. The wicketkeeper-batsman scored 37 in the first ODI against New Zealand, but the team management will definitely like him to score big as soon as possible.
Speaking about KL Rahul who got dropped from the team after the failure in Sri Lanka, Prasad said:
“The potential that KL Rahul is, it is unfortunate that we are not able to accommodate, so we tried him at the number four slot, and unfortunate that it did not work out. But basically we know that KL Rahul is an opener. So since Ajinkya Rahane has done well, it makes sense to continue with Rahane and bring in a specialist at number four spot.”