India surrender No 1 ODI ranking, questions increase ahead of World Cup

A series India were widely tipped to win, given their status as No 1 in ODIs and a terrific home record in the format, ended in favour of World Cup hopefuls Australia, who overturned a 0-1 deficit to take the three-match contest 2-1. In doing so, Australia nabbed the top spot in the ODI rankings while emphatically underlining their World Cup credentials six months ahead of the tournament to be played in India.

This win means that since 2015, the only visiting team to win an ODI series in India is Australia, following on from their surprise win just months before the 2019 World Cup.

Where does this leave Rohit Sharma’s team? With more questions than answers, because the top-order batting was woeful across these three matches and three successive first-ball ducks to Suryakumar Yadav were unprecedented. With India’s preferred No 4, Shreyas Iyer, facing the prospect of back surgery and thus a race to make it back in time for the World Cup, India’s problematic and almost hereditary batting position remains unsolved.

Sample India’s Powerplay scores to understand how shaky this team was when Mitchell Starc was swinging the white ball ferociously. In the Mumbai win, 16/3 and then 39/4 before a patient 75*off 91 deliveries to KL Rahul and handy knocks from stand-in captain Hardik Pandya (25 off 31) and the Player of the Match Ravindra Jadeja (46* from 69) sealed a chase of 189. In the record loss in Visakhapatnam, India were cut up to 49/5 inside ten overs with Starc’s left-arm swing again terrorizing the batsmen, and then in the Chennai decider India went from 65 for no loss in nine overs to 77/2 and then continued to lose wickets to Adam Zampa’s leg spin on the way to a 21-run defeat. Legspin has also been India’s bane in recent years – look at the 2022 T20 World Cup – and Zampa’s success is not surprising when India were chasing 270 on a tacky surface.

It was just three ODI innings ago that Rohit scored a century off 85 deliveries, so scores of 13 from 15 and 30 off 44 do not make him a liability. But Rohit’s inconsistency in white-ball cricket over the past 12 months – one century, four fifties, a duck and five scores between 17 and 30 – is somewhat worrying ahead of the World Cup. His new opening partner Shubman Gill is the ODI format’s leading run-getter this year, so he can be pardoned, somewhat, innings of 20, 0 and 37.

Virat Kohli looked decent in all two of three innings, of which one was a half-century, and Pandya looked good in all three trips to the crease. But the Suryakumar conundrum is most worrying. Already struggling to hold down his spot in India’s one-day team, because it is a fact that Suryakumar has played ODIs when other first-choice picks have been injured or rested, the top-ranked T20I batsman came no closer to cracking the format. Three golden ducks look terrible, but the manner in which SKY was dismissed is indicative of his current mindset.

In Mumbai and Visakhapatnam, he was trapped in front of the stumps when beaten for pace and movement, but both times he did not look in the right position to counter such fine left-arm swing. In particular during the second innings, when his left foot was pointed in the wrong direction and the bat was too angled. You can excuse, perhaps, those two lbw dismissals to some very good bowling from Starc, but the manner of SKY’s dismissal in Chennai was shocking.

Shunted down three spots to No 7, he tried to cut a slider from the left-arm spinner Ashton Agar and, having exposed all three sticks, was bowled. He then hunched over his bat in agony, but the shot selection was indeed daft and indicated what a mental funk SKY must be in today. India used Rahul at No 4 in the last match and batted Axar Patel at No 5, ahead of Pandya and Suryakumar. Where India were looking at SKY as their backup No 4, are they now considering him as a finisher by demoting him to No 7?

This is not the time for experimenting, just six months away from the World Cup. In Bangladesh in December, where India were beaten in the ODI leg of that tour, Rohit casually stated that India were not looking at the World Cup just yet. It was a comment, much like Rohit’s quip ahead of the recent Indore Test versus Australia – which India famously lost in three days – about how India might consider rolling out a green top for the final match in Ahmedabad, that smacked of misplaced arrogance and a refusal to admit that anything is broken.

If Iyer cannot make it back in time, who is India’s No 4 for the World Cup? Rahul, who has been saddled with the responsibility of keeping wickets for the tournament and whose success in ODIs has majorly come batting at No 5? Ishan Kishan, the only proper left-handed batsman in the current squad? The uncapped Rajat Patidar? The discarded Sanju Samson? Or will the team management again experiment with one of Axar or Jadeja, just so that one left-hander can disrupt the opposition’s plans?

Regarding the bowling, Kuldeep Yadav has, for the time being, confirmed that he is India’s sole specialist spin bowler. The allrounders in Jadeja, Axar and Washington Sundar will play around Kuldeep’s ten overs of quality left-arm wrist spin. Yuzvendra Chahal is probably looking at a lot of time running drinks.

With no clarity on Jasprit Bumrah’s fitness, the Indian team is reliant on the experience of Mohammed Shami and the spark that Mohammed Siraj, now down from No 1 to No 3 in the ODI bowler rankings. But who is India’s third specialist pacer for the World Cup? Shardul Thakur, who played the Mumbai game? Umran Malik, whose pace was deemed surplus to the team’s requirements versus Australia? Jaydev Unadkat, who has not played an ODI since 2013? This just emphasizes how invaluable Pandya the allrounder is to this team ahead of the World Cup.

Historically, India’s leadup to World Cups have rarely been indicative of what actually happens in the tournament. Six months remain, and a lot can change, particularly after the IPL. Two losses have not turned India into a bad ODI team, but there are issues that need sorting in a very busy season.