Jaiswal or Kishan? Who bats at six and the spin combination?

The opening trio

Shubman Gill and Ishan Kishan were India’s opening pair in the ODI series. It is highly likely that India will start with them in the T20I series as well. But, Yashasvi Jaiswal, who had a stellar Test debut on this tour, will definitely get some game-time given this a five-match series. 

To rewind the clock a little back, Jaiswal had a coming-of-age IPL season in 2023. He ended up as the fifth-highest run-getter with 625 runs at an outstanding strike rate of 163.6. Not to forget, he did not get out to spin even once in the entire season.

It will not be a surprise if India try all three openers in pairs throughout the series.

Who bats at six?

India have left no room for headache in the middle-order as they have selected five options to play from numbers three to seven: Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson and Axar Patel.

The only thing to consider here is the batting order. Both Hardik and Samson have played primarily at three or four in the last two IPL seasons. However, Hardik usually bats at five for India. 

Surya’s preferred spot for both Mumbai and India has been four. While Tilak has been Mumbai Indians' No. 5. The usual spot for Axar is number seven in most teams. 

All this means that any one of the above batters will have to bat out of position at number six.  Assuming India will not tamper with SKY’s position at four, who will that will be among the others is anyone’s guess. 

There is also a case for questioning why India are a batter light in the squad. They could have easily picked either Rinku Singh or Jitesh Sharma in the team as a backup. Both have been among the best finishers in the last two IPL seasons, and a spot for them would have been well-deserved. 

Bowling options

Given that India have selected a batting-light squad, they are carrying quite a few frontline bowling options. As many as seven, to be precise: four pacers and three spinners (excluding Axar).

Considering Hardik and Axar are locked as the two other bowling options, India can stack up their numbers eight to eleven in two of the following ways- 

1. Two seamers and two spinners?

Of all the pacers in the squad, Arshdeep Singh has been an incumbent in the T20I scheme of things for India. Hence, he will most likely retain his spot. 

Avesh Khan was given a long rope before the 2022 T20 World Cup. But 13 wickets in 14 innings at an economy of 9.1 did not propel him for bigger things. However, against West Indies, he might be favoured ahead of Mukesh Kumar, who, among the 37 bowlers to bowl 30+ overs in IPL 2023, had the worst economy of 10.5, and Umran Mallik, whose economy of 10.9 this season did not allow him to play enough matches to be able to bowl 30+ overs. 

Neither Mukesh nor Umran were wicket-takers, with either having taken seven and five wickets in the season, respectively. Having said that, with key players rested for this series, India did not have better options in the pace department who were fit and available.

The case with the spinners is trickier. If we go by IPL numbers, India have selected the three highest wicket-takers since 2022. However, if you look at just the 2023 season, wickets eluded Kuldeep Yadav (10 in 14 games), and Varun Chakravarthy took more wickets (20) than Bishnoi (16) in same number of matches. Chahal was still at the top of the pack - only one wicket behind the leading wicket-taker among Indian spinners, Piyush Chawla (22), while playing two innings fewer.

However, since the last T20 World Cup 2022, Chahal has played six games for India. But only six wickets at an economy of 8.4 has confused the captains about how to use him. On the other hand, Kuldeep played three T20Is on raging turners against New Zealand. He, too, was not among the wickets, with only two in these games but maintained an economy of 5.4. Bishnoi has not been part of the squad since the Asia Cup in September 2022.

If India opt for two of these spinners, they can pretty much go with any combination since none of them are like-for-like. However, given Kuldeep is turning out to be an essential part of the ODI World Cup plan, it will not be a bad move to not grind him too much in this series. It would not have been a bad move to have an additional middle-order batter instead of him in the squad in the first place.  

2. Three seamers and one spinner?

This is the other option that India might take on wickets which seem more pace-friendly. In this scenario, either Mukesh or Umran will be in contention, along with Arshdeep and Avesh. Based on his ODI form, Kuldeep might be that lone frontline spinner. But both Chahal and Bishnoi have an equal say in being the front-runner for the spot.