When India captain Virat Kohli revealed his team on Friday, many followers of the game were surprised that he went in with five specialist bowlers with no room for either Ravindra Jadeja or Stuart Binny. In the recent past, when India have used such a strategy, we have seen either of the two filling in as an all-rounder.
Many critics were taken aback by the fact that India’s batting would have a long tail, which is not considered ideal in modern-day cricket.
A further shock came when Ravichandran Ashwin walked out to bat at number six ahead of Wriddhiman Saha. Ashwin, even before Friday, had enjoyed decent success with the bat in the longest format of the game, but no one really saw him batting so high up in the order.
The move, though, paid off handsomely as the Tamil Nadu cricketer scored a classy century with the knock vindicating Kohli’s belief in Ashwin the batsman.
If you are given the opportunity of making a new position your own, you cannot do better than what @ashwinravi99 has done
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) July 22, 2016
One must think, though, why were there such doubts over Ashwin’s batting ability in Tests? Do we really think Jadeja and Binny are better Test batsmen than Ashwin?
When we look at stats, Ashwin’s claim to being a Test all-rounder is much greater than that of either Jadeja or Binny. In 33 Tests, the 29-year-old has 1317 runs to his name at a healthy average of 33.76. He even has three Test centuries.
On the other hand, in the 22 Tests that Jadeja and Binny have played between them, neither has ever reached the three-figure mark, while they have scored just one half-century each. Both average around 21, which means Ashwin scores 12 more runs per innings than the duo.
Although Jadeja has an impressive first-class record with the bat, he has not been able to produce such performances at the highest level. A batsman with three triple-centuries (an Indian record) in domestic cricket hasn’t found his batting form in Test cricket yet.
Ashwin, in fact, also has a better Test batting record than Saha. The Indian wicket-keeper averages just 22.61 and will definitely want to improve that aspect of his game.
Ashwin vindicated Kohli’s decision to promote him above Saha
So really it’s easy to see why the Indian management decided to promote Ashwin up the order in the first Test against the West Indies. But will we see him batting at number six in the long-term?
Well, for one, Kohli – since becoming captain – has often changed the composition of the team. While by his own admission, he prefers to play five bowlers, he has reverted back to playing six batsmen and a wicket-keeper a few times.
Interestingly, at the end of the Test, Kohli mentioned that Ashwin’s promotion was “to deepen the (batting) order”. With Amit Mishra also batting well, India’s approach seems to have been a success.
The big question that arises is whether this strategy will be successful against stronger teams and in conditions that will not favour batting. Do you trust Ashwin to bat at number six against James Anderson and Stuart Broad of England? Do you trust Mishra to be a number eight batsman in South Africa?
Ashwin performed poorly with the bat in the away series against Sri Lanka last year and that might play on the back of Kohli’s mind.
But overall, Ashwin at number 6 looks a perfectly good plan for the series against the West Indies and one expects him to bat there throughout the tour. Whether this will work as a long-term strategy remains to be seen.
