Raina sets eyes on 2019 World Cup with international return

Suresh Raina, the middle-order batsman selected in India's squad for the T20Is against South Africa, believes the upcoming matches will be a vital series for him as he makes an international comeback after over a year. For the long run, Raina also set his eyes on the 50-over World Cup next year, saying regular performances across the next few months could help him come back into India's ODI team.

In an interview with India Today, Raina was asked if the T20s against South Africa would be a "do-or-die series" for him and he said: "Definitely. It feels like I've been selected to the Indian team for the first time. I have worked hard for the past two years, so when I saw my India jersey I felt a bit emotional that I got the jersey after quite a while. Like you said, the three games will be quite important. I have done well in whatever opportunities I have got [recently].

"These T20 matches are important, then Bangladesh [T20 tri-series] and then IPL. Fifty-overs does need experience - it makes a lot of difference. Because this position is such, that you'll come to bat when the team is in trouble."

Raina also specified that his preferred position in the team would be Nos. 4 or 5, slots which, Raina felt, will allow India's left-hand right-hand combination to thrive.

"If given a choice, I can do best at No. 4 or No. 5," he stated. "There are five fielders inside these days, so a left-hand, right-hand combination is very useful these days. If I do well in these three games, then I'm certain I can make an ODI return too."

Raina, who made his ODI and T20I debuts in 2005 and 2006, was a consistent member of India's limited-overs teams until he was dropped for the Australia tour in December 2015 following a string of low scores. He was kept out of India's tour of the USA in 2016 - for matches against West Indies - before making a brief return next year. In January 2017, he scored 34, 7 and 63 in three home T20Is against England but then missed subsequent matches in the same format in the West Indies and Sri Lanka, and at home against Australia, New Zealand and Sri Lanka. Raina said that his morale was "down" when he was dropped, but he picked himself up soon after in a bid to return to the international squad.

"I was quite down because I wasn't playing," Raina said. "Plus, I wasn't sure why I wasn't playing. I had made a fifty [53] against South Africa, but after that nothing happened. I thought to myself, 'I'm not giving up, [I] want to play for the country, and [I] want to play with all my heart."

Raina put down his failing of a yo-yo test - during New Zealand's tour of India - to too much game time at that point.

"See, in the middle I was playing a lot," Raina explained on why he failed the test back then. "Virat [Kohli] had set some parameters, and when I did the yo-yo test at the NCA 10 days ago, my speed was among the top five or six. I've always been fit, and I am fit now, but sometimes one needs time to recover."

Over the past domestic season, Raina finished as the sixth-highest run-scorer at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy - India's domestic T20 tournament - with 314 runs in nine matches at a strike-rate of 146, including knocks of 126*, 61 and 56 against Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Baroda.

Raina was also keen to position himself as a player who could play multiple roles by bowling a few overs, something he did consistently in ODIs from 2011 to 2015. "I am also prepared to bowl three-four overs," he said. "My shoulder is solid too. You see, you need to chip in, bowl well, field well, so that the captain feels 'yeah, this fellow is a utility player at No. 4-5'".

India secure No. 1 ODI status

India have cemented their number-one ranking in the MRF Tyres ICC ODI Team Rankings after victory in Tuesday’s match in Port Elizabeth, which confirmed that they will finish the series on top of the table irrespective of how the final match in Centurion pans out.

India had entered the six-match series in second position on 119 points, two points behind leaders South Africa. After taking a 4-1 lead, India have moved to 122 points, while South Africa have dropped to 118 points.

Even if South Africa wins on Friday, India will remain No.1 on 121 points, while South Africa will end on 119 points. In contrast, if India wins the series 5-1, then they will finish on 123 points, while South Africa will end on 117 points.

India had started the series fully aware that they would have to win the series by 4-2 or better if they were to add No.1 ODI ranking to their No.1 Test ranking..

Virat Kohli’s side leapfrogged the Proteas into number-one position after taking a 2-0 lead, but required two more wins to ensure that they finished in this position at the end of the series. India remained on course when they won the Cape Town ODI, but South Africa pulled one back in Johannesburg to keep alive their chances of drawing the series at three-all, which, in turn, would have helped it to finish the series in number-one position.

This is the first time since October 2017 and fifth time overall that India have finished on top of the ODI rankings following the conclusion of a series since rising to the top for the first time in January 2013.

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Stats analysis: India's over reliance on top three

170 for 3. 178 for 1. 171 for 2. These were India's scores at the end of the 30th over in the last three ODIs of the South Africa tour, each time batting first. Teams often target to double the score from the 30th over, especially when there are enough number of wickets in hand, and of late the launch point has even shifted to the 35th over. India ended up scoring 303 for 6, 289 for 7 and 274 for 7 respectively, underwhelming on each occasion.

The Dhawan-Rohit-Kohli impact

In the third ODI, Virat Kohli was batting on 73 at the end of the 30th over and he batted through the innings scoring 160. In the last 20 overs, he scored 87 off 67 while the rest managed 46 off 53 balls. In short, it encapsulates India's batting issues in the death overs particularly when none of the top three - Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan or Kohli bats through the innings. Since the last World Cup in Australia in 2015, these three have raced ahead of the rest of the pack and sit on the top three slots in run-getters position for India. Kohli averages 76.89, Rohit 58.97 and Dhawan 49.62 and all three possess a scoring rate in excess of 96.

Most runs for India post 2015 World Cup

Player	Mat	Inngs	Runs	Highest	Avg	SR	100s	50s
Virat Kohli	49	49	2922	160*	76.89	96.62	12	13
Rohit Sharma	44	44	2359	208*	58.97	96.71	10	9
Shikhar Dhawan	40	40	1836	132*	49.62	99.51	5	13
MS Dhoni	55	44	1468	134	45.87	84.22	1	9
Ajinkya Rahane	35	33	1344	103	40.72	80.57	1	15
Kedar Jadhav	39	26	778	120	40.94	109.88	2	3
Hardik Pandya	37	25	628	83	29.90	115.86	0	4
Manish Pandey	22	17	432	104*	39.27	93.10	1	2
Yuvraj Singh	11	10	372	150	41.33	98.67	1	1
Ambati Rayudu	7	6	312	124*	104.00	78.19	1	1

More balls faced = More impact

India's top three have been the most dominant in ODI cricket in the period post 2015 World Cup, scoring nearly 9000 runs, almost 2000 ahead of the next best. India's top order have consumed 61.41% of total balls faced, with the global average hovering around 48%. That is they bat nearly 40 balls per innings more compared to the global average. They haven't done too bad either, scoring 61.80% of the total runs off the bat - among the top eight ranked teams. Only the top three of South Africa (53.37%) and Australia (51.73%) have managed in excess of 50%.

"It augurs well for the team... We always talk about batsmen batting through the innings. That is what we are trying to do. Top three have got the best opportunity because they get to play maximum balls. So, our three's responsibility is that if we are set then we have to try and play long," Rohit said.

The top three have scored 30 of the 35 hundreds for India in this period whereas no other side's top three have managed to score even 20.

India's top order domination

Teams	Runs	Avg	SR	100s by top 3	100s by team	Runs %	Balls %
India	8914	59.82	92.61	30	35	61.80%	61.41%
England	7039	45.12	96.36	18	30	47.18%	48.78%
New Zealand	6790	42.7	91.53	13	20	49.83%	49.32%
South Africa	6768	47.32	91.40	19	27	53.37%	54.10%
Australia	6712	43.86	91.67	19	23	51.73%	51.67%
Sri Lanka	6150	34.55	87.20	8	12	45.70%	43.14%
Pakistan	5782	39.06	85.08	16	18	47.39%	48.40%
Bangladesh	4133	37.91	82.23	7	12	48.29%	48.77%
West Indies	2736	25.81	74.63	3	6	37.94%	39.49%

The ploy of top three consuming bulk of the balls has worked to a good extent thanks to their remarkable consistency. Out of India's 58 innings since April 2015, one batsman from the top three has top scored in 45 of those. In eight of the 13 remaining innings, at least one from the top three managed to score a fifty. However, it can hurt them badly when the top three are back in the hut inside the first Powerplay as it happened in the final of the Champions Trophy last year. India have scored 300-plus 16 times in this period and only one of these came without either of Rohit or Dhawan or Kohli scoring fifties - 381 against England in Cuttackwhen Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni winded the clock back to the yesteryears.

Dhawan and Rohit have averaged 41.58 from 33 stands since April 2015 while Kohli averages 91.13 per partnership with the former and 87.00 per partnership with the latter - both the highest for second wicket in this period across teams (minimum of ten innings). Together, India's top-two wickets' average partnership is 61.75, with South Africa being the only other to manage 50-plus per partnership for the first two wickets (52.91).

No top three? Dip in the death overs

In the matches between the top nine sides in the three-year period from April 2015, India's run rate of 7.79 in the overs 41-50 is only the fourth best among teams after England (8.50), South Africa (7.96) and Australia (7.81). The point to note here is how India's scoring in the last ten overs alters when one of the top three bats through these death overs.

India have batted post the 40th over in 42 instances in the period, and in 21 of these innings, one of the top three has still batted after the 40th, including eight instances of one of them batting till the end.

When all of the top three are dismissed before the start of the last ten overs, India's scoring rate is 7.06 per over and average is 24.04 per wicket. But when at least one of them stays on post the 40th, the scoring rate surges to 8.47. On the eight instances of one of them batting till the end of innings, the rate surges ahead to 9.35 and average run per wicket nearly doubles to 45.33.

India have scored 100-plus runs in the last ten overs five times and on four of those occasions, one of the openers or Kohli batted post the 40-over mark.

India's performance in overs 41-50

Scenario	Inngs	Avg	RPO	Most runs scored b/w 41-50
All of top three dismissed inside 40 ovres	21	24.04	7.06	120 vs Eng, Cuttack, Jan 2017
At least one of top three bats past 40th over	21	26.25	8.47	147 vs SL, Mohali, Dec 2017
At least one of openers/Kohli bats through the inngs	8	45.33	9.35	147 vs SL, Mohali, Dec 2017

** ODIs against Zimbabwe excluded for the above table

The best in the death overs

It might be surprising to many that Rohit Sharma, who opens the batting, possesses the best strike rate for a batsman in the overs 41-50 (minimum of 100 runs) - 197.39. Rohit has been a cut above the rest with his low dot-ball percentage of 13.91 (the best) coupled with an exemplary ratio of 4.11 balls per boundary (second best after Jos Buttler's 3.78) in the last ten overs.

Unfortunately for India, the only other batsman with a 150-plus strike rate for them is Stuart Binny, who last played an ODI in October 2015. But 88 of his 107 runs there have come against Zimbabwe. While Kedar Jadhav has done decently while striking at 141.33, all of Manish Pandey (125.97), MS Dhoni (123.66), Ravindra Jadeja (119.77) and Hardik Pandya (119.10) have been disappointing. Dhoni's finishing powers too have waned off quite a bit in the past couple of years and the fact Hardik has struggled to get going as finisher has only added to Dhoni's pressure.

India's batsman in overs 41-50 post WC 2015 (Min 100 runs)

Player	Runs	Fours	Sixes	SR	Dot%	Balls/Bou	Balls/Dis
Rohit Sharma	227	11	17	197.39	13.91%	4.11	28.75
Stuart Binny	107	12	2	150.70	25.35%	5.07	23.67
Kedar Jadhav	318	32	7	141.33	28.44%	5.77	32.14
Virat Kohli	353	30	11	137.35	27.24%	6.27	28.56
Manish Pandey	194	20	1	125.97	28.57%	7.33	51.33
MS Dhoni	601	50	20	123.66	34.57%	6.94	27.00
Ravindra Jadeja	103	9	1	119.77	32.56%	8.60	17.20
Hardik Pandya	237	18	10	119.10	38.19%	7.11	15.31
Bhuvneshwar Kumar	158	15	3	95.18	45.78%	9.22	33.20

The issue with Hardik has been his inability to tee off against the quicks. He has a career strike rate of 115.87 but it comes significantly down to 97.42 against pace. In comparison, he strikes at 162.34 against spinners. The opponents are well aware of this issue and dish out pace when Hardik is in the middle. As a result, Hardik has faced only 28.41% of deliveries from spinners and in his last two series (against Sri Lanka and South Africa) has faced spin only once in six innings.

Not only do Kohli, Rohit and Dhawan shoulder India's batting for the maximum duration during a match but two of them are necessary for creating a major impact during the death overs dash as well. By the sheer value that they add to the current team, the three can probably lay claim to being India's best top order of all time and maybe even in the world, but that's a debate for another day