Even though the Indian team management is steadfast in their backing of the established line, the Auckland shellacking might have triggered the thoughts of making some tactical rejigging to the playing eleven in the fifth and final T20I against New Zealand here on Sunday.
India have an unassailable 3-1 lead, but the world champions would certainly not want to sign off with a defeat after dominating the early rounds of the five-match series.
In that context, the think tank will ponder whether to bring back Vaibhav Sooryavanshi and the obvious casualty will be Sanju Samson.
Samson seemed to have strong support of the dressing room at the moment, but the opener has not set this series ablaze while producing scores of 67, 14, 18, 4.
Perhaps, a little breather will help him rejuvenate his thoughts and the game.
An underwhelming Shreyas Iyer too has gone under the radar after the team lorded over the West Indies and New Zealand in the recent T20I series under his leadership.
After scoring his maiden hundred in the shortest format, the next eight T20I outings of him have produced: 40, 1, 16, 22, 42, 7, 5, 22.
Iyer certainly would want a change in that script with a more substantial knock here.
In fact, Iyer’s failings have been papered over well by the late-order assaults of Naman Dhir and Nitish Kumar Reddy in the last few matches.
The bowling department too has its own flaws to deal with despite keeping the Kiwis below 200 in the second and third T20Is.
India have been heavily reliant on Arshdeep Singh and to a lesser extent Axar Patel for wickets and control after the much-celebrated return of Bhuvneshwar Kumar failed to yield any results.
The veteran pacer picked up only one wicket across three matches while conceding 139 runs at an economy of 11.58.
In fact, Arshdeep is the only Indian bowler to have an economy rate under 10 in this series.
Both Nitish and Dhir have added a lot of value to India’s late-order batting with their crisp hitting, but they are yet to develop as reliable forces in bowling.
The only way to bring in either Kuldeep Yadav or Varun Chakravarthy is to bench Dhir, which is to give chance to a proper bowler while sacrificing a bit of batting firepower and part-time off-spin.
India’s spin-bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule had said that both Kuldeep and Chakravarthy are ready to step in anytime, even though that chance might not come their way in this series.
India can also mull using Tilak Varma and Abhishek Sharma as back-up bowlers but it may prove costly considering the scoring pattern in this series.
The nature of modern cricket is such that teams hardly treat any match as dead rubber, and New Zealand’s case is no different.
They would like to enter the upcoming five-match ODI rubber with confidence after closing out the T20I rubber on a winning note.
If anything, the one-day series carries more meaning to it as both the teams will be trying to study in depth about the combinations ahead of next year’s ICC World Cup.
The home side will take a lot of heart from the efforts of century-maker Glenn Phillips and Michael Bracewell, who made a bruising fifty, going into this match.
Teams
India: Shreyas Iyer (captain), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (wk), Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Tilak Varma (vc), Axar Patel, Shivam Dube, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Naman Dhir, Prince Yadav, Mayank Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav.
New Zealand: Finn Allen, Tim Seifert (wk), Bevon Jacobs, Daryl Mitchell, Glenn Phillips, Devon Conway, Mitchell Santner (captain), Michael Bracewell, Nathan Smith, Blair Tickner, Matt Fisher, Kyle Jamieson, Jacob Duffy, Adam Milne, Josh Clarkson.
