Hardik Pandya's ankle injury against Bangladesh in Pune left India with a selection dilemma heading into their match against New Zealand on Sunday. Pandya offers a level of balance that no one else can, both as a seamer who gives India the luxury of six bowling choices and as a No. 6 batsman. A appropriate remedy needs to be found against table-toppers New Zealand before he rejoins the team in Lucknow ahead of the game against England.
An exciting practise at the HPCA Stadium on Saturday has made that problem more difficult. Suryakumar Yadav, who was widely anticipated to replace Pandya at No. 6, was only 10 minutes into his net practise when Raghu's full toss damaged his right wrist. Surya collapsed to his knees in agony and remained there for a few minutes before alerting the helpers.
He was given time to have his wrist treated with an ice pack, but he never returned to the nets to continue hitting. Surya appeared to indicate to a member of the broadcast team that everything was alright as he made his way back to the dressing room.
In addition, before Surya's brief at-bat, Ishan Kishan received a bee sting on the back of his head. Prior to his shortening of his net session, Kishan batted for almost 20 minutes and was defeated a couple occasions. Kishan returned to the changing room while continuing to stroke the back of his head. India may be forced to bat R Ashwin at No. 7 and Ravindra Jadeja at No. 6, which is higher than where each should ideally be batting, if both are unavailable.
For India, none of this is desirable. Rahul Dravid, their coach, said that they knew their starting lineup but were unwilling to reveal it to the public an hour before their optional practise got intriguing. He acknowledged, however, that Pandya's absence will prevent the proper balance from being there in whichever squad they chose.
"He is a crucial all-around player and helps us really balance our roster, so yeah. But he's going to miss this game, so we'll have to find a replacement and see what works best. The optimum approach for these circumstances will need to be determined.",On match day, he told reporters, "But sure, definitely might not have the sort of balance that we probably employed in the first four games.
Dravid did say that Surya was the favoured choice for No. 6. Surya is a better fit at a position where you must tee off right away, while Kishan may be in contention as a left-hand hitter against Mitchell Santner and Rachin Ravindra, two left-arm spinners from New Zealand.
"Well, having Ishan is good. He has also been doing well. He uses his left hand. However, as we witnessed in the bilateral ODIs against Australia, Surya has also been in excellent form recently. He performed two excellent innings. As we all know, an excellent player against spin. Against off-spin, left-arm spin, any form of spin, really. Surya is undoubtedly someone who can serve as a bit of an enforcer in the bottom middle order if that is what you're looking for. We might choose Ishan if you're looking for someone a bit further up the order," Dravid said.
The third pacer, in addition to Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj, is the subject of the other dispute. While Shardul Thakur has been chosen thus far because to his No. 8 batting skills, the lack of a sixth bowling option may prompt India to select Mohammed Shami in order to strengthen their pace department.
On Saturday, Shami, Bumrah, Kuldeep Yadav, and KL Rahul did not practise.
"Obviously the three seamers, having someone like Shami sitting out there and bringing him in this game is a great option," Dravid said. "Ashwin, who has been sitting out but still has outstanding quality, is one example. We might thus deploy two or three different combinations till Hardik returns."
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