Most Indian batters comfortable batting in top four as overseas cricketers take up finishing job in IPL
Two years ago, the Indian team got into T20 mode knowing they would be playing two T20 World Cups one after the other. The team management realized that they needed to adopt the brand of cricket England and West Indies had mastered already. All-out attack with the bat from ball one till the end of the innings was the magic recipe.
Vikram Rathour, upon assuming his role as the batting coach, had harped on the need to be fearless and have a long batting line-up that will not be chained by inhibition.

Two years later, in the first two T20 World Cup matches in UAE, they have managed to field seven recognized batters in the XI with no backup option of an uninhibited hitter to finish the innings. The two designated hitters remain the off-colour Hardik Pandya at No. 6 and Ravindra Jadeja at No. 7. All the preceding batters were consumed by building the innings. Perhaps, it is reason behind the much talked about ultra-cautious approach of the Indian batters which has felled them in this tournament.
“We have Jadeja in the team as well. There is Surya, Virat, we have enough players who can do that job (finish games) and they have done that in the past. We don’t see that as an issue,” Rathour said in defence on the eve of the match against Afghanistan.
However, the fact is that all the specialist batters picked in the squad are used to playing in the top four. Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul aside, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan are seen as batters who are not effective as power-hitters coming in the death overs. Rishabh Pant is the next best bet but he has been burdened to resurrect the innings at No. 5 far too often.
“Any international team will go through that. When you play for your state, country or franchise you always tend to bat in the top four. But when you play for India, you need to follow the batting order. Being a professional cricketer, you should be accustomed to do that,” was the batting coach’s observation.
To put things in perspective, most powerful IPL teams have overseas players coming to play the big-hitting finisher’s role. And they seem to have slipped into the same role for their national teams. Andre Russell, Kieron Pollard, Marcus Stoinis, Shimron Hetmyer, Glenn Maxwell, Moeen Ali, Dwayne Bravo, Sam Curran and AB de Villiers are just a few names.
Jadeja has been the only in-form Indian batter to play this role. Shardul Thakur seems to be struggling to crack the spread-out field unlike he does in the Test matches. So, if IPL was the only preparation for this team, they didn’t have time to define roles and get players used to them. These players have played just five T20Is this year and that too came nearly eight months ago.
“Any preparation is good preparation,” was Rathour’s retort as he kept saying on a loop: “Execution has been the team’s problem and not the preparation.”
“One of the factors is the pitch when you bat first on these surfaces. Strike rotation is an issue. That’s with every team batting first. Unfortunately, we couldn’t execute the big shots.”
The IPL has catalyzed players’ growth but an overdose this year may have kept them apart far too long to come together and settle down in their defined roles.