Spot on!
Rahul looked to have finally turned a corner in 50 over cricket with his opener plus keeper role for Karnataka and was performing consistently for India too. He has now played as an opener, number three, number four and even as the finisher once over the past year for India. Tinkering with his position to this extent is ludicrous.
I swap Pandya and Jadeja in your lineup, Pandya IMO has the potential to bat even at five if he is properly given the role of a batting all-rounder and disregard for spinners is taken advantage of fully. Also, I would have Shami as a certainty in the ODI lineup, he is the closest we have to a strike pacer in the mould of Starc and I would rather have a bowler go for an extra 10-15 runs if it means they take a couple of wickets more. And given that the next WC is in India after all, I wouldn't mind playing the spin twins together depending on conditions.
One thing that I found strange was the number of boundaries the Aussie openers were able to hit with ease. They were constantly finding the gaps in comparison to the Indian batsmen. Just how much of it is truly attributable to dew and how much is it down to good field placements by the respective captains? I've seen RCB, another team captained by Kohli constantly suffer from needlessly conceded boundaries in gaps that are too exposed whenever they are under the slightest of pressure.
And finally, just why do we insist on cramming every top order batsman into the lineup (Three natural openers, two top order batsmen who like to be the number three and a keeper who was once an opener and prefers batting at least one if not two positions higher)? I appreciate that Kohli and Shastri can find out issues with our lineup like the lack of batting depth, weak middle order (including Jadhav's role as a passenger in every game) but their solutions to these issues have never really been consistent and we see constant changes instead. If you need a middle order batsman capable of scoring from the start, play someone like Dube who has more sixes than fours in domestic white ball cricket. If you want a more consistent batsman, pick someone like his captain in Surya Yadav who starred at five as the finisher this season. Why is Shankar suddenly out of the frame and demoted to the A team when he has all the characteristics needed to be a part of the side (part time bowler, can go big if needed, has experience in the middle order)?
Rahul needs to convert. I think, from what I see, he is clearly insecure. The sort of batter he is, given the vote of confidence he can shred an attack from top and bottom. He is at best, a franchise T20 WK and because I like him I follow almost all of his games and there's a reason Punjab went about acquiring WK batters in the 2019 auction. He's a reluctant WK and I prefer to have him just bat because I think he could end up as a pretty brilliant test bat too.
I would always play both Pandya and Jadeja. We need six bowlers but no-one listens to me. I think, Jadeja's batting has grown enormously in the last 18 months and I think Pandya lacks common sense in general. He needs a 10-12 over stint and he can win us the game single handedly from there. But, I get your point. No reason why Pandya can't bat 5, he should ideally but he lacks brains. Some of his shot selection in the WC had me really agitated.
I like Shami. But he's cannon fodder in the death overs. I think we need to look past Bhuvi and Bumrah for the death because they're fast bowlers and they're always brittle by nature. I think Saini is fast, tall, awkward and he looks to be developing a Yorker. Could become our own Morne Morkel. Shami though definitely plays right now. But, on any track like Wankhede or Chinnaswamy I would always pick Saini. He just has that height and on these tracks under lights, I rather a bowling machine that delivers from the first floor than one that does from the ground.
I think Kohli is a bonafide terrible captain. There is no aspect of his captaincy apart from fitness and trying to develop a pace battery that I like and mind you, most of these blokes that are coming of age right now served their apprenticeship under Dhoni.
Honestly, the batting order has been a joke ever since Dhoni retired. FFS, Manish Pandey made a match winning century in Sydney chasing on a track that was one of the more difficult white ball surfaces I've seen and he didn't get a fair go. Iyer did everything asked of him in SA and then he got dropped. Everyone knows Rayudu more for being dropped than understanding why he was picked. Make no mistake about it, the next year or two of development will determine the future of Rahul, Iyer and Pant. Two of these three are among the top 3 most destructive batters in our country and the other is a definite contender for becoming India captain. To add to all this, Karun Nair is lost and I for one cannot stomach the fact that Kedar Jadhav has played the amount he has and in this day and age of 'experimentation' someone like Surya Kumar Yadav has not even been given a go!! Any sensible management/captain would have realised immediately after 2019 England that a call had to be made on Dhawan and Jadhav. But, here we are, clueless then and perhaps more clueless now!