Flexibility to flexing muscles

Suryakumar Yadav looked every bit in the mood to make up for lost time. The many years he had waited for a chance to play for his country and also the lack of opportunity with the bat on T20I debut in the first match of the ongoing series against England.

Finally, he got his moment, in the fourth T20 of the 5-match series. He casually clobbered his first ball in international cricket for a six, off Jofra Archer no less, and then whipped up his appetite further with a punch through covers against Mark Wood in the next over. His first T20I innings, which saw a total of three sixes and six fours, got to a fifty – the second time this had happened for an Indian playing his maiden international innings in the space of five days, after debutant Ishan Kishan in the first game.

Yadav’s belligerence almost made you forget that he was playing in a position (No.3) that belongs to captain Virat Kohli – who, with 3079 runs, has the world’s best tally in T20Is. That’s a huge name to match up to, but Yadav is his own kind of storm. It was the second time in successive matches that Kohli had pushed himself to the No. 4 position; in the third T20I Kishan batted at No. 3.

Most of Kohli’s enormous success has come at No. 3 in T20I cricket and with the T20 World Cup at home in just seven months’ time, it is unlikely that Kohli is looking to change his batting position. Why the changes then in this series, which is seen as a dress rehearsal for the big tournament?

It's because Kohli’s India is all about having healthy back-ups for every position. Until now, the team had found back-ups for their openers and middle-order batsmen and also their bowlers, but there wasn’t a suitable replacement for Kohli’s No.3 spot. In this series alone, India have unearthed two such standbys and more.

Yadav and Kishan have shown the right urgency required to bat at one-drop in T20 cricket. Their abilities also give the team management the liberty to push them above Kohli, if need be, as their acceleration point in the innings comes much earlier than the India captain. This is not to say that the duo have been earmarked only for the No. 3 role; it is equally possible that they will be float up and down the order going forward if they make it to the playing XI.

Kishan began the series as an opener in the second T20I with great success and came in at No.3 in the third game. Yadav, who made his debut in the second T20I, was not among the first five batsmen in the line-up and did not get a chance to bat. In the fourth T20I, he walked in at the fall of opener Rohit Sharma’s wicket. Now that both series-debutants have made strong cases for themselves with positive starts, it is in their versatility that their strength as well as opportunity lie.

From opening the innings to manning the middle order, their task may continue to remain dynamic in nature, something that they have done with brilliant success in the IPL. Kohli said before the series that the T20 format demands “thinking on the feet”, and both Yadav and Kishan suit that description. “Big credit to these youngsters. They’re coming in and grabbing their opportunities and that’s something that I am a big fan of,” an impressed captain said on Thursday. “We all were quite stunned with that start (Yadav’s six off Archer) and he completely stamped his authority from ball one and then the (England) bowlers were under pressure throughout the way he played.”

Kishan, after his debut innings of 56 from 32 balls, had mentioned that there was no fixed position in top-level cricket. Yadav reiterated the point after scoring a near identical (57, 31 balls) knock in his maiden innings. “In the last three-four years I have batted in all positions (in the IPL), right from opening till No. 7 or No. 8, if I remember correctly. So, I am really flexible to batting at any position. I have said this to the team management as well,” said Yadav. “I am happy that I got the opportunity to bat at No. 3, which is my usual position at my franchise (Mumbai Indians).”

In IPL 2020, both Yadav and wicketkeeper-batsman Kishan played for title-winning Mumbai Indians. While Yadav consistently featured at No.3, Kishan shuffled between opening the batting and the No. 4 spot. Both had a strike-rate of over 145 in that edition, which makes them a good fit for the No. 5 or 6 positions too (currently being held by the in-form duo of Shreyas Iyer and wicketkeeper Rishabh Pant). In fact, according to Cricviz, Yadav averaged 50 plus and scored at 7.7 runs per over against spin in that IPL – ideal numbers for the middle overs as well.

Problem of plenty

After Kishan was left out of the fourth T20I due to a groin strain, Yadav had little problem filling in for him. It makes Kohli and the think tank’s job a little trickier going into final game of the five-T20I series against world No. 1 England, with the series tied 2-2, here on Saturday. Another real concern for Kohli is the form of his preferred openers – Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul. Both reached double figures in the fourth T20I but they consumed too many balls to get there. There is a possibility that Kishan will get another chance to open, and Yadav fits in at No 3 or 4.

Kohli too suffered a scare (thigh injury) and had to sit out of the field during England’s chase on Thursday. “I ran for a ball, I dived and I threw it, so I was probably not in the best position. I had just moved to the outfield, earlier I was fielding in the inner ring. And the temperature drops pretty quickly, so your body tends to get stiff. So I just aggravated my upper quad a little bit and I didn’t want to make it into a niggle or an injury. It’s nothing serious. I should be fine by the day after tomorrow,” he said after the match.