India v New Zealand, 2nd ODI, Kotla: No.6 spot puts Dhoni in a fix

NEW DELHI: After his first assignment since the 2015 World Cup and his retirement from Test cricket, MS Dhoni had to shelve his desire to bat up the order in One-day cricket when the lower middle-order betrayed his confidence in the series loss in Bangladesh. A year and a half later, the worry lingers as the New Zealenders applied the choke at the Ferozeshah Kotla.
Suresh Raina, brought back into the ODI fold, is still recovering from fever when Kedar Jadhav was dealing severe blows to his chances of featuring in coach Anil Kumble's long-term plan.But all those crisp shots to the boundary and beyond for his 37-ball 41 went up in vapour when he guided a regulation half-volley from Matt Henry to wicketkeeper Luke Ronchi, leaving skipper Dhoni with an inexperienced lower-order at 1395.
The need to have a strong player, namely at No. 6, who could finish an innings strongly didn't allow Dhoni to nurse his ambitions of playing with freedom higher up the order. Dhoni even went back to his original stance that helped him to the swashbuckling fame. Yet, his plans still remain stalled. "Yes, I wanted to bat up the order so that I could play a few more strokes. Finding a player at No. 6 is a tricky one. The situations are different and adjusting to them is also difficult. Tonight, I felt had each batsman given 10% more, we would have crossed the line," a sombre Dhoni said after the match.
Jadhav's innings was breezy and his three wickets with his seamless off-spinners in the last two ODIs would pit him directly against Raina. That's exactly the reason why the selectors had picked Raina in an otherwise inexperienced side. "We wanted to rest Ravindra Jadeja and Ashwin. And without the two of them, the lower middle-order needs some batting. We are also looking at Raina's off-spinners. That's why we brought him back," chairman of selectors MSK Prasad had said while announcing the team for the first three ODIs against New Zealand.
Going by Raina's record over the past few years, he has been chipping in. An odd 40 and a few overs of part-time off-spin, however, weren't doing the job and India's performances in ODIs, barring the 2015 World Cup, dipped sharply. With Dhoni clearly on the wane, the last panel of selectors ran out of patience and decided to bench the man with an experience of 223 ODIs.
Jadhav may have been impressive and refreshing but the inability to finish games could still keep Raina in the fray. Indian team management is certainly looking at something more solid. It will be interesting to see how equations change when Ashwin and Jadeja come back into the team.