Indian team may drop at least one out-of-form batter

The Indian team management may drop at least one among three out-of-form batters and revisit its one-dimensional template of playing too many left-handers in the top order, indicated head coach Gautam Gambhir’s understudies Ryan Ten Doeschate and Sitanshu Kotak.

South Africa thrashed India by 76 runs in a Super Eight clash of the T20 World Cup here on Sunday, and with two must-win games left, the team management might have to revisit the performances of Abhishek Sharma (15 runs in four games) and Tilak Varma (107 runs in five games at a strike rate of 118). Not to forget, the designated finisher Rinku Singh’s aggregate of 24 runs in 29 balls at a disastrous strike rate of 82.75 is embarrassing, to say the least.

“If the head coach and team management feel we need to do something different, we will do things differently. Definitely a thought now comes: if we have to change, what do we change, and how do we change?” batting coach Sitanshu Kotak didn’t make bones about the fact that the team is indeed in a spot. “Now we have reached a point where we need to think if we need to do something different or stick with the same combination,” Kotak said as a matter-of-fact.

Ten Doeschate was a bit more forthcoming when he admitted that it is indeed a “concern” that there are no backup specialist batters in the squad and Sanju Samson, despite his wretched form, might be back in the mix. The logic could be bringing in a right-hander to break the monotony. “You stick with the guys who you feel have performed really well over the last 18 months and maybe shy of a few runs now?

Or do we twist and bring Sanju, who’s also a fantastic player and obviously helps tactically with having a right-hander at the top of the order,” Ten Doeschate also echoed Kotak’s sentiments but with a more definitive answer that changes could be on the cards. “I’m sure that (Samson’s inclusion) will be a talking point over the next few days going into these two very important games (Zimbabwe and West Indies).”

Ten Doechate feels that Rinku, coming in at Nos 7 or 8, hasn’t really helped his cause as it has been an incredibly difficult position to bat on. “Rinku, I think that number seven, eight position has become incredibly tough in T20 cricket. You look where he walked in against Namibia, he’s had to turn down the single three or four times, so yes, it looks like he scored two or eight balls, whatever.

“And then he comes in in a pretty hopeless situation again tonight, and he’s opted to go for the boundary and try to get us as close as we can, and on a wicket that holds a little bit, that can happen. So he hasn’t had the best opportunities, but that’s the nature of the position as well. And we’re at the phase now where it’s only performances that are going to talk. There’s no point talking about rhythm in nets or how guys are feeling or what they’re not feeling.

“It’s time to pull our sleeves up and get performance out of all the players and that’s the challenge for the staff along with the players now to regroup and put in a big effort leading up to the next game against Zimbabwe,” Ten Doeschate got down to the brass tacks of the matter.

The former KKR all-rounder said that Abhishek and Tilak’s form has been a bit a of concern for the team. “I certainly won’t make excuses for Abhi or Tilak, they don’t need excuses made for them but I think Abhi’s preparation coming into the World Cup with the food poisoning that he had at one stage has obviously hampered his progress in terms of where we want him to be at this phase.

“You want him to be up and running and sort of confident in his swing and confident in his game plan and when you score three zeros that is going to start weighing on you. I saw some really good signs on Friday night in the nets but he looks a little bit short and our job as the coaching staff is to pull that right.” Ten Doeschate’s colleague Kotak isn’t very sure that a lot of advice will work for the talented southpaw with such short turnaround time between games.

“This is my take as batting coach. Rather than overloading him (Abhishek) with information, it is better to keep his head uncluttered. For any player, a period like this where he wont score in 3-4 games comes and immediately five people feel that there advice is necessary,” Kotak said.

“And you cant change much in next two days. If anything you will create more self doubts. That’s my coaching philosophy. If there are 15 days to work on a flaw, it can be sorted but not in couple of days. Right now he needs to watch the ball and plan his innings better,” the former Saurashtra left-hander said.