Is Suryakumar Yadav The Answer To India's Middle Order Woes?

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The Indian team, especially the batters, are yet to arrive at the crease in the T20 World Cup even after two games. It seems that the roles are yet to be defined to the batters since India changed their top order in the match against New Zealand and brought in Ishan Kishan to open the innings. 

Although it was a move to increase the powerplay scoring since Ishan has the 2nd best strike rate in powerplay after KL Rahul, however, it exposed Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli against the spinners who turn the ball away - leg spinner and slow left arm. 

Indian batters, since 2019, have struggled against spinners, especially against those who turn the ball away from right-handers. Kohli, Rohit, and Rahul have a strike rate of less than 120 against leg-spin since 2019 in the middle overs while Rishabh Pant strikes in the middle of 120s. 

India will be facing Afghanistan next and are likely to face a minimum of eight and a maximum of 12 overs of high-quality spin bowling - two leg spinners and one off-spin. 

One thing that the Indian team would want to do is get Rohit Sharma back in the opening slot along with KL Rahul. If Mujeeb Ur Rahman plays, he is most likely to bowl in the powerplay. Even though Rohit has his restrictions against spinners, but in the powerplay, he plays them better - 128.07 strike rate. Rahul, too, strikes at 130 in the first six overs against leg-spin. 

Rashid Khan will be operating throughout the middle overs and India need better-equiped players to not only play him but score at a fast rate. With Rohit back in the opening slot, Ishan Kishan should bat at number three, followed by Suryakumar Yadav and not Virat Kohli. 

What pushing Kohli down the order will do is make Suryakumar and Ishan - the two best attackers of leg-spin in the current Indian squad play more of the middle overs and Rashid Khan. 

Batter	SR vs Leg-Spin in Middle Overs
Suryakumar Yadav	147.51
Ishan Kishan	151.12
Rohit Sharma	110.99
Virat Kohli	112.83
Rishabh Pant	124.01
KL Rahul	115.69

The entry point of Kohli, as argued previously, should be in the second half of the innings. The Indian captain, when he bats from 7th to 11th over of the innings, has a strike rate of just 102.7. 

Kohli generally takes a bit of time to settle and if his entry point is in between 11 to 15th over of the innings, it will be beneficial for the team. 

Playing Ishan Kishan at three will also help in making sure a lefty-righty combination remains at the crease with Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja to follow in the backend of the innings. 

Play Ashwin instead of Varun Chakravarthy 

Although the conditions and India's score in the previous two games aren't good enough to judge a bowler but playing R Ashwin instead of Varun will benefit the team more. 

Varun, in the last two games, has been asked to push his lengths back since India were defending a low total. Bowling back of the length makes the ball turn less, and Varun doesn't turn the ball a lot naturally, which lessens his impact even more. 

R Ashwin is a similar kind of bowler in T20s. He bowls defensive lines and back of the length deliveries to restrict run-scoring. However, Ashwin is a handy batter. With the Indian team struggling with the bat, the more batting options, the better. 

India's Ideal playing XI; batting order - Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, Ishan Kishan, Suryakumar Yadav, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant, Ravindra Jadeja, Shardul Thakur, R Ashwin, Mohammad Shami, Jasprit Bumrah 

Note - All stats are since 2019 unless specified