Dhoni ponders the middle road

Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Dhoni himself, with Irfan, Praveen Kumar and Piyush Chawla, are a heady list on paper, giving the captain the paradoxical healthy headache. Shoaib Malik acknowledged the strength of this batting line-up when he said he didn’t think victory was a certainty until India’s wicket number nine fell in the final.

In the final, Dhoni made sure there was a left-right combination on the crease at all times, ensuring headaches for Pakistan bowlers. But he might have to consider making that a young-and-experienced combination, ensuring that the likes of Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma and Yusuf Pathan have partners who can guide them better through the middle-overs.

Experience matters

“I should’ve gone ahead of Raina,” he admitted to his error in judgment on Saturday, when the southpaw struggled to get going as India chased a stiff target of 316, needing more than 6.5 runs per over for a greater part of the match. The captain also admitted that poor shot selection hampered the chase — since most batsmen couldn’t come to grips with the need to accelerate even while keeping wickets for a final charge.

While the two hard-hitting Pathans can easily climb up to No. 3 on days when Dhoni chooses to experiment, both Raina, who’s parked on that spot for all the domestic teams he’s played for — under-19, Uttar Pradesh and local clubs — and Sharma, easily the one with the most constructive impact, would also look to make that place their own.

Yuvraj Singh, the most experienced in this middle-order, who walked in at one-down in one game here, and Dhoni, who has shown the most commitment to mould his innings based on the situation, will have to weave the others around themselves, without, as Dhoni stressed, coming in way too late to have an impact.

Juggling the numbers

The captain is a great believer, both in the importance of the middle-order as those who will shape the innings when the pitch slows down in the sub-continent, and in giving the existing bunch a long rope — one reason why Robin Uthappa remained the twelfth man. Yet, how he juggles numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 will be on his mind this coming week.

Then there’s young leg-spinner Piyush Chawla, who did well in the Indian Premier League and has shown promise with the bat in both his junior years and with the state, and Praveen Kumar, to worry about. His UP team mates apparently would refuse to lend Kumar their bats, because he’d invariably go for the big sixes, and end with a handful of shattered bats.

He has also opened for UP in the domestic tournaments, and Dhoni will hope he turns out to be the trump-card he can pull out in desperate situations.

India’s biggest problem in Saturday’s loss, Dhoni said, was how the batsmen dealt with overs 15 to 40. And, going into the Asia Cup, he’ll be thinking of ways to keep the scoreboard marching.