India’s batting conundrum: Can Raina assume responsibility of batting at the number 4 position

Last Sunday during the first ODI in Pune, many people were surprised to see Suresh Raina come out into the middle at the fall of the second wicket instead of Yuvraj Singh, the official number 4 of Indian cricket team. Raina played a decent knock scoring 39 off 45 balls and was part of a 71-run partnership for the third wicket with Virat Kohli. However, a slog off a short-pitch delivery from James Faulkner led to Raina’s downfall, which has been a perennial problem for the south paw.

Suresh Raina’s promotion to number 4 was a part of plan of Dhoni to have a back-up for Yuvraj Singh in the number 4 position. Dhoni’s rationale in wanting a back-up for a crucial batting position is understandable, especially given Yuvraj’s recent history. True, he has made a good comeback since recovering from cancer but it is still unclear how his form will hold up as the World Cup approaches. He is obviously the first-choice No 4 but there is every reason to have a contingency plan in place. As rightly pointed out by Dhoni, apart from Yuvraj Singh, India do not have any other batsman who has batted more than 50 ODIs at number four and that can be a big concern.

But the big question is whether Raina is the best bet that India has to be a back up for Yuvraj Singh at number 4. Though Suresh Raina has spent his entire career batting primarily at number 5 and number 6, in the 12 matches that he had played in the number 4 position, he has an impressive average of 52 with 1 century and 4 half-centuries. But 12 matches are too few to form an opinion about how good a batsman is in a particular position.

The Number 4 position is very crucial in ODIs. It is a link between the top order and the lower middle order. Number 4 has to take on the responsibility of controlling the pace of the game and building an innings, something Raina hasn’t exactly shown the inclination for when he has been given the chance. Raina has not been able to change his aggressive approach; he is getting out too many times playing rash shots. He needs to learn to play responsibly when the situation demanded restraint.

But it is definitely worth grooming Raina for No. 4 in ODIs since the other contenders like Rohit Sharma and Dinesh Karthik did not seem convincing even though they had got fair amount of chances to stake their claim. Other contenders like Manoj Tiwari and Cheteshwar Pujara have not given as many chances as they would have liked.  Cheteshwar Pujara may be a regular in the test side but he is assumed to be ill-suited for the 50 overs game.

So this takes us to the captain himself. Dhoni has been reluctant to promote himself up the order even though he averages an impressive 73 at the prime slot. Even if you factor out the averages and a hundred-plus strike rate, there’s no one in contemporary cricket who can pace the game or control it as well as the 33-year-old does. But more than controlling the game at No. 4, Dhoni is the best finisher in world cricket at the moment and it would be unwise for Dhoni to promote himself up the order.

Hence for the time being, we need to sit back and see how this Raina experiment goes.