Batting Order for India

Since so much has been talked about for the batting order changes that were done for the Indian team recently in the IOC Cup, decided to check on what the stats say. The stats for 7 of the Indian batsmen were taken for consideration and checked against different batting positions that they have played in so far in their career.

Seeing these scores, looks like the batting order can be settled based on these performances :D Greg Chappell will like this solution, I guess. There will be no arguments whatsoever since its just based on the individual performances (Of course, people will argue that some of the performances in selected positions might be very less to be taken as a measure. We will let that argument be as it is, for the time being and concentrate on the data):

Sachin Tendulkar


Veeru Sehwag


• Sachin Tendulkar and Veeru Sehwag are the right players to open the innings. No arguments here!!!

Sourav Ganguly


• Ganguly should either come in at No.3 or at No.7 (I would prefer the latter position since that will give him time and overs to hit out at the spinners and the end-over bowlers) but knowing Sourav, he will opt for No.3. If Sachin doesnt play, obviously Sourav will open the batting with Sehwag. VVS can come in at No. 3
  

VVS Laxman


• VVS will have no role to play if Sourav and Sachin play. I think Laxman will have to be present in the team till Sachin comes back to the ODI. I think it will be a good idea to rotate Laxman and Sachin till the World Cup so that both of them dont get burnt out, yet have a good measure of the ODI bowling attacks around the world.

Rahul Dravid


• Rahul Dravid at No.4 is one constant in the batting order, just like Sehwag. He shouldnt be touched at all. This is ideal for him to build the innings and then take singles to give strike to the big-hitters.
  

Mohd. Kaif


• Kaif is ideal at No.5. He is not a person who can strike big shots, but very ideal in situations where he can rotate the strike and come into a crisis situations, save the day with his quick running between the wickets. He can be ideal in a partnership to Rahul (as a crisis-rescuer) as well as Yuvraj (in the slog-overs big-hitting melee).

Yuvraj Singh


• Yuvraj has to be persisted at No.6. He doesnt have the talent to come in early in the innings and he cannot face genuine spinners like Murali. What he does well is to tonk the ball in the slog overs.

MS Dhoni


• Dhoni is ideally the joker in the pack, who can be shuffled up or down. Basically, it will be a good idea to have him at No.7, but if required he can be sent as a pinch-hitter on sub-contintent conditions at No.3.

Obviously the team should be selected based on the conditions being played in, the opponents and the injuries to the current team. VVS and Kumble should be used as shock-selections - in fact, they will be very useful to the team when used with the SuperSub rules.

Since I was not able to display data in tables properly, have displayed them as images. All data has been taken from the Aussie website HowSTAT. The data has been taken until the ODI match b/w India and West Indies in Dambulla on 31st July 2005.