IND vs SA 2021/22: "Rohit wasn’t here, so it opened up opportunities to give some of the other guys a run"

With regular opener Rohit Sharma injured, India head coach Rahul Dravid revealed that KL Rahul was promoted to the top of the order so that the middle-order batters received extended runs. However, none of them could make it big as India were whitewashed 0-3 in the ODI series by South Africa.

Leaving out all-rounder Venkatesh Iyer for the final ODI did create some flutter in the Indian cricket fraternity. But Rahul Dravid shot down the ‘chopping and changing’ talks, saying he wanted to give as long a rope as possible to the inexperienced guys in charge of the middle overs.

“We try to give them as extended a run as we possibly can, that was the whole idea even on this trip. If you see, we didn’t really change the middle order, except that Surya got a game in the last one. But otherwise, we didn’t really change the batting order at all. So we certainly want to give them that consistency, that security, and obviously then you also got to demand performances and really big performances.

“That is an expectation when you play at this level, when you play for your country...The idea is to give as much stability as we possibly can. Rohit wasn’t here, so it opened up opportunities to give some of the other guys a bit of a run,” Dravid said at the post-series press conference.

On a rather forgettable tour, Rishabh Pant produced a few indelible performances. After the chanceless hundred – 100* off 139 – in the third Test in Cape Town, he smashed a swashbuckling 71-ball 85 in the second ODI in Paarl to all but seal the No. 4 slot in the 50-over format.

Interestingly, he was pushed up one place in Pune last year after Shreyas Iyer injured his shoulder. While the latter has come back into the side, the 24-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman has retained the critical No. 4 slot. Asked about Shreyas’ new role, Dravid said the players batting in the middle order have to cater to the team’s requirement, especially in the face of intense competition for slots.

“It’s not about 4 and 5. Whether you are batting at 4, 5 and 6, you’ve got to do what the team requirements are. On wickets that were slow and the ball was turning, we certainly felt as a strategy that the left-right was a definite advantage. In all the three games, he’s [Shreyas] gone in pretty early, he’s not had to just go in and slog.

“It’s not about individuals, we know guys have done well, we like to back them as much as we possibly can, we like to give them opportunities. Sometimes you’ll have good tours, sometimes it won’t work out, that’s just the way it is. Obviously there tends to be a lot of competition, there are lot of people pushing for places, it’s not easy when you are in that kind of situation,” Rahul Dravid said in response to a Sportskeeda query.

India tried out four players in the middle order in the three-match ODI series. Their aggregates in descending order are as follows: Rishabh Pant (101 runs from three innings), Shreyas Iyer (54 from three), Suryakumar Yadav (39 from one) and Venkatesh Iyer (24 from two).

“The idea is obviously to try and develop people like Venkatesh Iyer as sixth bowling options” – Rahul Dravid

Venkatesh Iyer scored 24 runs and bowled 5 overs in what was his debut ODI series

Seam-bowling all-rounder is a rare commodity in Indian cricket. With Hardik Pandya nursing a longstanding back injury, the heavyweight role was bestowed upon Venkatesh Iyer. While he can be faulted for his underwhelming batting efforts, his seam-up deliveries were laregly under-used.

Stand-in captain KL Rahul drew flak from all quarters for not using his sixth bowling option at all in the first ODI. Then in the second rubber, Venkatesh bowled five tight overs conceding 28 runs before being dropped for the final game of the series. Interestingly, in his debut series versus New Zealand, the lanky all-rounder got to bowl in only the last T20I.

Rahul Dravid stated it is a three-horse race between Venkatesh, Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja for the No. 6 slot in ODIs. Acknowledging Venkatesh’s recent success while opening the batting, he added there won’t be any vacancies in the top 3 once Rohit returns from injury.

“The idea is obviously to try and develop people like Venkatesh Iyer as sixth bowling options – whether it’s Venkatesh, whether it’s Hardik when he potentially comes back. We’ve got the option of even someone like a Jadeja who’s been batting really well, who we can potentially bat at 6 at times when he’s back from injury. So that will give us a lot more options as well, so yes we’re looking at various things. When you’re a sixth bowler in a team, it sometimes can happen that you’re not required to bowl.

“I know he’s batted at the top of the order for KKR and at times for MP in white-ball cricket, though he has batted in the middle-order for MP as well. In our team, we were looking for that kind of No. 6, someone who can be that sixth bowling option, that was the kind of role that we had for him here. Because we have quite a few options at the top of the order at this point of time; especially when Rohit comes back, there aren’t too many spots in the 1, 2 or 3 positions,” Dravid elaborated.

After winning a Test at SuperSport Park in Centurion for the very first time, it was quite a fall from grace for the Indian side as a 1-2 loss in the Test series followed a 0-3 thrashing in the ODIs.