India V England ODIs Preview: Indian Playing 11 Needs Balance Right - II

Continued from the previous piece here...

Captain MS Dhoni is the only certainty after that, while the past records will demand that Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma will take up the remaining three batting slots. Fortunately for the Indians, the fielding is this trio will push their performance gears up by a notch or so, unlike the case in the Tests.

R Ashwin should edge Amit Mishra to take up the role of the spinner, while Praveen Kumar and Munaf Patel should be certainties in the pace bowling roles. Munaf, in fact, could face an issue that will be quite different from what most others have endured – lack of cricket going into the ODIs. The opposition could target Munaf’s rustiness.

This brings us to the last slot for the third pace bowler, with Vinay Kumar, RP Singh and Varun Aaron vying for it. Dhoni would have to be really hard-pressed for options if he went for RP Singh again, unless he breaks some bats in the nets. RP’s performance in the fourth Test came under the scanner and that he would have been happier vacationing some faraway place than bowling in England was a no-brainer.

Both Vinay Kumar and Aaron are wet behind their ears, the former having played six internationals while the latter yet to make his debut. Vinay gets the ball to nip around a bit and that could be a plus, but in the absence of Ishant, the Indians have no real pace to hit the opposition bat hard. It may not be such a bad idea to get in Aaron as a surprise element to go with the steadiness of both Munaf and Praveen.

India’s playing 11 for at least a couple of games is as follows:

Sachin Tendulkar, Gautam Gambhir, Rahul Dravid, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, MS Dhoni, Praveen Kumar, Varun Aaron, R Ashwin and Munaf Patel.

Where India lacks in their squad is an all-rounder, or a purported one anyway. Yuvraj was able to do the job in the World Cup, while Yusuf Pathan came close to doing that too. In this above playing eleven, the fifth bowler’s quota of 10 overs will need to be completed by the trio of Kohli, Raina and Rohit, allowing England to enjoy an early Christmas.

The other option that captain Dhoni could go in for is a long shot but worth trying; get in Parthiv Patel in place of one of the batsmen and allow him to wear the wicket-keeping gloves as well. Dhoni could then try and send down three or four overs and reduce the pressure on the other part-timers in the playing eleven.