WTC Final: Will India’s ‘old’ middle order play the new age competition?

In recent times, Pant, lyer, and Jadeja’s counter-attacking style has been the foundation of India’s middle order batting in Tests. With Pant and Lyer absent, Pujara, Kohli, and Rahane must pick up the pace and set the tone… India’s middle order in Tests is on the verge of collapse.

Ajinkya Rahane, Cheteshwar Pujara, and Virat Kohli are all in their mid-30s and are batting to demonstrate that they have the strength to lead India’s batting through the toughest challenges. And their readiness will be best demonstrated in the World Test Championship final against Australia at the Oval in London.

In a year and a half, Pujara and Rahane have been on an excursion from being dropped as India’s batting pillars to pawing their direction back through homegrown drudgery even as Kohli was attempting to demonstrate he may as yet conclusively affect Test matches.

This while, Team India lead trainer Rahul Dravid approached laying out Rishabh Pant and Shreyas lyer as the mainstays of the middle order for what’s to come

Before joining India’s senior team in November 2021, Dravid wanted to build on the talent he had developed as the head of the country’s development teams. He didn’t really deserve criticism. For this reason, Pant began his meteoric rise to become an irresistible force in the middle order during the 2020–21 tour of Australia. By playing crucial knocks in critical situations, Iyer also started to improve.

Surprisingly, Ravindra Jadeja also emerged as a reliable Test batter. These three, with the assistance of the lower request, became accustomed to rescuing a great deal of Indian innings.

It’s interesting that before the historic turnaround in Australia, team management under Kohli was against Pant becoming a regular member of the first XI. Pujara, Kohli and Rahane were the main picks, eyes shut. Rahane has managed to sneak back into the team after two and a half years, with the current management hoping he can take Pant’s place at No. 5.

Fundamentally, India’s most capable triplet is passed on to compensate for the shortfall of Pant and lyer. It also shows that the selectors are forced to rely on the old warhorses because they are unable to find a second line after Pant and Lyer.

One should look past the simple numbers that Pant, lyer and Jadeja have set up. Pant’s extremely aggressive counter attacking style, which was well supported by lyer and Jadeja, served as a kind of foreshadowing for England’s new, all-out style of Test cricket. From its basic batting style of grinding it out, test cricket has evolved. This style of cricket, which is frequently referred to as reckless, is now some of the best teams’ primary strategy for achieving success in the longest format.

The pattern is exemplified by Pant and Jadeja’s centuries on the counterattack during the sole Test against England at Edgbaston last year. For the record, Pujara, Kohli, and Rahane have been batting at 37.53, 44.22, and 46.1 respectively since Pant’s ascent to Test batsman of the year on the Australian tour in 2020-21.

Pujara and Rahane have, nonetheless, presently affirmed for the venture. After being dropped in 2022, Pujara admitted, on the eve of his 100th Test in Delhi in February, that he went back to county cricket to add more shots to his arsenal on Dravid’s advice.

📍 The Oval, London

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“Playing white-ball cricket for Saurashtra and Sussex really helped. It made me a little more open-minded and flexible,”

Pujara had said.

Rahane’s rebound story also has been based on this methodology. He played domestic cricket aggressively, which led to him winning the IPL championship. Rahane claimed that, toward the end of the Ranji Trophy season, he had been re-watching old videos of his batting to get back into that mindset.

“I want to bat with the same mindset and show the same intent that I showed in IPL and Ranji Trophy. I would not like to think about the format. The way I am batting now, I don’t want to complicate things and the more I keep it simple, the better it is,”

Rahane stated to BCCI.tv.

Most conversations on India’s batting line-up for the WTC last have spun around how India could make up for Pant’s shortcoming. Experts have suggested that a replacement should be found that is as similar to Pant’s style as possible.

Consequently, the noise for Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav’s consideration. However, the management of the team would be aware that it will ultimately fall to Pujara, Kohli, Rahane, and Jadeja to ensure that India does not suffer greatly from Pant’s absence.