We have been persuaded to accept India’s World Cup batting order as something like this: captain Rohit Sharma and Shubman Singh Gill in the opening slots, Virat Kohli as No 3, either Shreyas Iyer or Surya Kumar Yadav will follow him, KL Rahul comes in at No 5, with Hardik Pandya as the next man and Ravindra Jadeja expected to be No 7. That sums up the lot, perhaps with a broad approval of fans, who perhaps consider the line-up a potentially winning one.
That India lost the third One-Day International to Australia in their pre-World Cup series is relevant but they bowled poorly after batting okay, which scuttled their collective effort. But the Iyer or Yadav at No 4 question is pregnant with disputatious possibilities, given everyone has their opinions on who will make up the national team. Yadav is supposed to be a crackerjack Twenty20 batsman whose initial forays into other formats were not spectacularly successful. People were baffled by his low yields away from his comfort zone, but he was very much in discussions that had a bearing on the global show.
An interesting suggestion has recently been made about how the flamboyant stroke-maker can be the man with the X-Factor in the competition we want so badly to finish at the top. The idea is that Yadav should be bunged in when a World Cup wicket is easy for batsmen, with Iyer coming in for the matches on wickets deemed hostile. It has been said, though not with the same choice of words, that Yadav cannot be done without.
When wickets suit him, he lashes his hits where there are no fielders. It is akin to magic. Let Iyer step in when the wicket needs taming and be a Harry Potter clone, or that is the message. Teams in all sports make their game plans, taking decisions they think will clinch it for them, and feel gratified when they get it right, though you have to acknowledge that the subjective essential called team spirit is always contingent upon individual brilliance being blended into a unified endeavour. That leaves you wondering whether Iyer will find himself tickled pink if he is required routinely to do the rough work while Yadav comes across as someone made by a special arrangement to feel more equal than others because primarily of the limitations in his batting.
An India cricketer will always be instinctively backed by Indians, rain or shine, but fairness demands that we minimise those areas of life that admit inequality. Extend it just a little and you could end up shielding bowlers who take on only rabbits and protecting batsmen who go up only against pacemen without a particularly spiteful bouncer. There is another way of making sure Yadav hits the next level. Let him be Cup class, all boxes ticked.