3 Indian players who would be better off playing white ball cricket alone

The Indian Test squad for the West Indies home series has been announced. The talk around the town is about the exclusion of Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan from the Test squad. Both Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan had an outstanding Asia Cup. They were the leading run scorers of the tournament and were instrumental in India’s triumph in the Asia Cup.

Now within 24 hours of India’s triumph in Asia Cup, both find themselves out of the Indian Test squad to play against the West Indies. The selectors have taken the “horses for courses” route for the two different formats of the game.

In this article, we analyse about the merits of 3 Indian players who would be better off playing white ball cricket alone to further their own career.

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1. Shikhar Dhawan

Shikhar Dhawan should concentrate on white ball cricket

Test Career

Matches – 34 Innings – 58 Runs – 2315 Highest – 190 Avg – 40 Hundred - 7

Shikhar Dhawan had a sensational Test debut against Australia at Mohali when he scored 187 runs off 174 balls. His innings was studded with 33 fours and 2 sixes. Unfortunately, Dhawan got injured in his very first Test and couldn’t play the next Test match.

Shikhar Dhawan’s Test career has been a tale of two halves. His Test average in Asia stands at a healthy 61 whereas his average outside Asia is only 27. Dhawan has just three fifty-plus scores outside Asia.

Dhawan’s tendency to poke at deliveries outside the off-stump has been the main reason for his failures in seaming conditions like England, South Africa, and New Zealand. Even in the recent series against England in England, Dhawan could muster just 162 runs in 8 innings at an average of 20. Even before the England series started, no one expected Dhawan to come good in the Test series. Dhawan’s flawed batting technique has been exploited outside Asia repeatedly.

When it comes to white ball cricket, Dhawan is a different player. In white ball cricket, he has succeeded even in alien conditions like England and South Africa. The wickets for one-day matches are generally batsman friendly keeping in mind the entertainment value to the crowd. Besides, the bowlers have their restrictions in employing short pitch deliveries in one-day matches. The white ball doesn’t swing as much as the red ball.

A player like Dhawan can thrive on such friendly conditions. The absence of slip cordon in one-day matches encourages him to go for his shots without any fear of getting nicked to the slips.

Shikhar Dhawan’s Test career is now at the crossroads. The presence of another quality opener in KL Rahul and the youngsters like Prithvi Shaw and Mayank Agarwal will make it that much more difficult for Shikhar Dhawan to come back into Test cricket.

Dhawan is 32 years old and has got another 3 productive years of cricket left in him. The ideal choice for him would be to play white ball cricket and Test matches in Asia, but he cannot pick and choose matches. The next best option available for Dhawan is to forget Test cricket and concentrate only on white ball cricket to prolong his career up to World Cup 2023.

By choosing to do so, Dhawan can guard against loss of confidence arising out of Test failures. He could be benefited by the interim breaks during the Test season. As far as white ball cricket is concerned, Dhawan is a champion. The exclusion from the Test team could be a blessing in disguise for Shikhar Dhawan.

2. Rohit Sharma

Rohit Sharma - A better one-day player than a Test match player

Test Career

Matches – 25 Innings – 43 Runs -1479 Highest – 177 Average – 40 Hundred - 3

Shikhar Dhawan’s opening partner in one day cricket, Rohit Sharma is an interesting subject for case study to analyse how a batsman as talented as him has failed to succeed in Test cricket.

Like Dhawan, Rohit Sharma’s Test career started on a high when he scored 177 runs on his debut against the West Indies in his favourite ground, the Eden Gardens. Rohit went on to score an unbeaten 111 in the next Test on his home ground at Wankhede Stadium. That was Tendulkar’s farewell Test.

With loads of talent behind him and to suit the occasion, Rohit Sharma was projected as the perfect replacement for Sachin Tendulkar’s No 4 position in Test cricket. But his problems started cropping up when India started playing abroad.

His inept batting technique to seaming balls and his tendency to hit the ball on the rise and playing away from the body had disastrous results on overseas conditions. His dislike for short pitch stuff made him a stationary target in Test cricket.

In the 16 overseas Test matches that Rohit has played, he has scored just 710 runs at an average of 25 with 4 fifties. Virat Kohli reposed tremendous confidence in Rohit when he dropped the consistent overseas performer Ajinkya Rahane to accommodate Rohit in the series against South Africa in South Africa early this year. But Rohit Sharma could score just 78 runs at an average 19. He was dropped after the second Test and was not selected thereafter.

Unlike in one-day matches, India have a quality middle-order in Test matches with the likes of Chateshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane. Karur Nair and Hanuma Vihari are waiting in the wings.

Besides, with the batting abilities of Rishabh Pant, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, and R. Ashwin, India might not go with an extra middle-order batsman in future. All these factors might work against Rohit Sharma’s return to Test cricket.

There is no better batsman than Rohit Sharma in white ball cricket. He is the only batsman in the world to score 3 double hundreds in one-day matches. This unique record of Rohit is hard to surpass and will remain for a long time. Rohit’s six hitting abilities are unparalleled and once set, he is capable of playing long innings as evidenced in his 3 double hundreds.

Both Dhawan and Rohit Sharma are proven match winners in white ball cricket. In Test cricket, both Dhawan and Rohit have similar problems with similar solutions. They can take it easy as far as Test matches are concerned and concentrate more on white ball cricket where their strength lies.

3. Dinesh Karthik

Dinesh Karthik - The senior-most player in the current Indian team

Test career

Matches – 26 Innings – 42 Runs – 1025 Highest – 129 Average – 25 Hundred - 1

Dinesh Karthik is the senior -most player in the present Indian team. He has made his Test debut much before Ishant Sharma and M.S. Dhoni. He made his Test debut at the Wankhede stadium against Australia way back in 2004. This was the Test match in which India successfully defended 106 runs in the fourth innings. Karthik couldn’t contribute much with the bat in that low scoring match.

Karthik’s career took a backseat with the advent of Dhoni. After that, Karthik got only limited opportunities in all formats of the game and played in some of the matches as specialist opening batsmen, but what saved Dinesh Karthik’s career was the emergence of IPL.

With his match-winning performances in the IPL, Karthik was always in the thick of the action and Team India’s scheme of things.

Karthik got back his opportunity in Test cricket when Saha couldn’t make the England tour due to injury. Karthik was the first choice keeper for the England tour. Unfortunately, he could not hang on to the opportunities.

The opportunity presented itself in the first Test match at Edgbaston when India were chasing down 196 for a win. Kohli was batting like a champion at the other end. All Karthik had to do at that time was to give him company and push the score along.

But, Karthik didn’t have the mental strength to handle that challenging situation and failed both Kohli and India. He was dropped after the second Test. His replacement Rishabh Pant went on to score a Test hundred in his third Test match and consolidated his place in the team. With the likely return of Wriddhiman Saha after injury, Dinesh Karthik’s Test career is as good as over.

Thankfully for Dinesh Karthik, of late, he has been in some decent form in white ball cricket. He could be the solution to Team India's middle-order woes in one day cricket. He is 33 years old and is at present the second choice wicket-keeper to Dhoni in white ball cricket.

With the possible retirement of Dhoni after the World Cup in England, Dinesh Karthik should look to concentrate more on white ball cricket to prolong his international career.

For the purists, Test match is the best form of cricket. It would definitely hurt the egos of Dhawan, Rohit and Dinesh Karthik if they don’t get opportunities to play Test matches in future, but that is the best way forward for all these players in the long run.