The top order dilemma for India

"You didn't say anything when I scored four centuries in last year's IPL as an opener." Virat Kohli replied when asked about his poor run of form in the recently concluded T20I series as opener against England. One would think the captain of a national cricket team would know the difference of playing in the regional league and at the international arena. Surely IPL has its fair amount of cricketers from all over the world but that does not mean you take up the role you are not used to lightly.

So, was a good IPL as an opener the only reason why Virat decided to open the innings in the T20I series? Probably not. The fact that India have struggled to find a consistent opening partnership in all three format. From Rohit Sharma being ruled out due to injury to Parthiv Patel getting a call up out of nowhere, India has not seen a stable opening pair for some time now. 

India would be hoping to iron out their top order issue before the series against Australia © BCCI

One might say that India should have used either Manish Pandey or Rishabh Pant as second opener along side Rahul in the T20I series but looking at the number of openers tried out by India in the recent times (Vijay, Rohit, Dhawan, Patel, Rahane and Gambhir) Virat must have had enough and decided to lead from the front just as he has always been trying to do. The fact that he had a great season with RCB as an opener might have given him the confidence to face the first ball despite the availability of Mandeep Singh, Manish Pandey and Rishabh Pandey all suitable for an opener's role.

Virat's failure however has worsened the case of the opening combination since India still have not found a good opening combination which has made the selectors to draft in Abhinav Mukund who last played for India in 2011 as a back up opener for a one off Test match against Bangladesh.

To further add to the situation, Shikhar Dhawan decided to score some runs against a toothless attack in a domestic T20 match.

India will be hoping to iron out their issues soon with a tough series against Australia because the hosts will be well aware of the fact that they would not get any respite if they give any chances to the five time World Cup Winner team.