Abhishek, the stabiliser in India’s Asia Cup batting chaos

Here’s the thing though—the rest aren’t faring too well on the strike rate front as well. Hardik Pandya is striking at 124.32, Tilak Varma at 126.66, Axar Patel at 128.57, Suryakumar Yadav at 111.32, and Shivam Dube at a lowly 94.4. Five matches into this Asia Cup, these numbers primarily suggest that the pitches aren’t always conducive for stroke making because these batters don’t miss out too often. So maybe the problem lies elsewhere.

Professional teams work on plans and backup plans. When you have stacked your team with eight batters, chances are nine out of 10 times, it will bail you out. But the 10th time is what you always prepare for.

India were teetering towards that scenario on Wednesday when they had lost five wickets within the 15th over, that too for only 129, 77 out of which were accounted for Sharma and Gill for the first wicket. The next best partnership? Twenty nine runs in 18 balls, featuring Dube—who was struggling to put bat to ball—and Sharma.

In fact, out of the seven partnerships of 40 or above runs stitched by India in this Asia Cup, four have featured at least one or both the openers. Of the remaining three, two have featured Samson.

Interestingly though, Samson has batted only twice despite being named in the eleven for all five matches. And it’s difficult to justify the randomness that keeps him out when the bar is certainly not the strike rate. He was the opener, before Gill’s entry sent him down the order. A middle-order slot not lower than No. 5 should have been ideal but barring the Oman match — where he was sent at No. 3 — and the Super Four match against Pakistan, Samson has mostly warmed the bench when India batted. For a batting lineup claiming to be flexible, this is more than just an oversight.

On Wednesday, the flexibility reached a spectacular high when even Axar Patel was sent before Samson, basically demoting him to No 8. To not adhere to a particular batting order in T20 is a bold move, but that sort of strategy works largely on pitches with even pace and bounce, not on a two-paced track like Dubai and certainly not against a bowling attack like Bangladesh that was taking pace off the ball.

Getting someone to hold one end was of paradigm importance when Gill fell, so that Sharma could continue playing his way. But neither Suryakumar nor Samson came out. Shivam Dube did, ostensibly to be the enforcer against spin. “Looking at their bowling lineup, they had a left-arm spinner and a leg spinner, I think Dube was perfect for that occasion in that 7-15 overs range,” Suryakumar said after the match. “But it didn’t work, that’s how things go.”

Taking no risk is a risk itself. But a certain degree of prudence also needs to be woven into the narrative so that it doesn’t turn for the worse. So random have been the batting reshuffles that it’s bordering on chaos now. The good thing is that India’s depth is making up for any earlier gaffe.

But the truth is India look increasingly reliant on Sharma for explosive starts, which is not a reputation they want to build. Sharma is a lone wolf, operating on a different wavelength and probably better geared to take on any kind of bowling on any type of surface.

When Bangladesh kept Sharma quiet for the first three overs, even inducing a difficult edge that Jaker Ali couldn’t hold on to behind the wickets, it was thought that probably he had met his match. But Sharma was biding his time, sussing the conditions, the field.

“Because this was a new pitch, I wanted to check how it was doing,” said Sharma at the post-match presentation. “It was swinging and seaming. We (Gill and me) spoke about it, we wanted to take a few balls and then charge on. I always try to go with the field, because there are certain shots I back really hard. I see the field and then go for the shots. I am not someone who goes all-out like that.”

Sharma’s batting is divested of the idea of half-measures, the need for steady accumulation or field manipulation. See the ball, hit the ball is the mantra he abides by. Long, lever-like hands, immaculate timing and extraordinary power allows him to reinterpret T20 batting because hardly would you meet anyone with a career strike rate of 197.72 playing over 20 T20Is.

“If it is in my range, even if it is the first ball, I go for it and try to get the powerplay (going) for my team,” he said. But with an exceptional clarity of shot selection as well. “When you play too many shots in the nets, there are chances you can get out. It was in my mind not to get out while playing too many shots.”

To have Sharma open the batting thus, can’t be a choice but an obligation. Not everyone can bat like him. And not every day can he bat like that. Which is why it’s the ‘what ifs’ that India should be a little more prepared for, instead of just throwing in different batters and hoping for results.

They may still get away with it in the Asia Cup. But in the T20 World Cup, against skilled and calm opponents in more tense scenarios, this approach might boomerang unless India introduce a semblance of reason to their batting reshuffles.