Infamously known for their inconsistencies across divisions in the recent years, one thing which the Indian cricket team has been consistent at is not finding a long-term solution for the No. 4 position in ODI cricket. Ideally, one wouldn’t expect a team of India’s distinction to face such an issue less than two months before ICC Cricket World Cup 2023.
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Bizarrely, the problem was present even before ICC Cricket World Cup 2019. More bizarrely, it has persisted ever since the culmination of ICC Cricket World Cup 2015.
Not dwelling much into the past, it is of alarming concern that India don’t have an option of banking on one person for the above mentioned role as of today in spite of boasting of a broad-ranging bench strength. To be fair to them, an injury setback to Shreyas Iyer (best Indian No. 4 in recent times) hasn’t helped their case either.
Thankfully, for once, captain Rohit Sharma acknowledged that the No. 4 issue exists in the Indian ODI team. Additionally, he also laid at the door of continuous injuries to their No. 4 batters in the last four-five years.
Rohit Sharma Believes Nobody Has Settled Himself Like This Indian Great With 3,384 ODI Runs At No. 4
Attending an event in Mumbai to announce the new La Liga season on Friday, Sharma, who led former Indian all-rounder Yuvraj Singh in his last Indian Premier League season at Mumbai Indians four years ago, also opined that no one has “come and settled” at No. 4 in all these years like Yuvraj had done during his playing days.
Yuvraj, who batted at No. 4 108 times between 2000-2017, scored 3,384 runs at an average of 35.25 and a strike rate of 89.45 in the given role.
“Look, No. 4 has been an issue for us for a long time. For a long period of time, Shreyas [Iyer] has actually batted at No. 4 and he has done well – his numbers are really good. There were so many guys who came in and went out.”
As much as Sharma was correct with respect to how no one has come and settled as a No. 4 batter like Yuvraj, it is also worth mentioning that no one has been allowed to settle for as much as Yuvraj. Apart from the injuries, multiple continual unnecessary changes to the combination in the name of “experimentation” denied anyone of a long run like the legendary southpaw.
If truth be told, the prospect of Yuvraj as a stable No. 4 option was also witnessed during his peak before ICC Cricket World Cup 2011. His last shot at the highest level in the first half of 2017 was just him being one of the nearly dozen batters tried at that spot by then-team management.
Yuvraj, who batted at No. 4 13 times in the first five years of his international career, made the position his own between 2006-2010. While his average and strike rate in this half-a-decade remains almost identical to his overall numbers at No. 4, four out of his six centuries in this role had come in this period.
Has There Been A Better Indian Batter Than Yuvraj Singh At No. 4?
Although it is never advisable to compare cricketers across different eras, former Indian captain Mohammad Azharuddin has been their highest ODI run-scorer at No. 4. A chief reason behind the same is the right-handed batter having batted 137 times at this number between 1985-2000.
In this period, Azharuddin had scored 4,605 runs at an average and strike rate of 40.39 and 77.57 respectively. Interestingly, he had scored half the number of centuries scored by Yuvraj at No. 4. Readers must note that former Indian captain Virat Kohli (7) has the highest number of hundreds in this particular role. However, demoting him to No. 4 is no longer an option for the team management.
Considering how Azharuddin and Yuvraj batted the most at No. 4 between 1985-2017, it is nothing but writing on the wall for the current team management to give someone like Iyer an extended run in the future. With India struggling to find a proper No. 4 for almost a decade now, Iyer should be given the long rope which should include him not missing any ODI in the name of “rest”. Much like numerous other positions in cricket, even the No. 4 spot in ODIs deserves to be treated as the job of a specialist.
