Dhawan's form prior to World Cup has been a bit of worry (yes of course still Australian, NZ tour to come) If he looks brittle like this, then it will expose the Indian middle order even more! Will Kohli make way for Rahul at No.3, so in that way at least we can strengthen the middle order (Kohli at No.4), once Kohli did try that ploy and once again Rahul failed to grab the opportunity!
The good thing with the trio (except Rohit) is that they at least don't eat up balls before getting out! They score at brisk rate before they get out, on the other hand Rohit don't give it up once he has consumed some time (he normally goes on to make big score! So he can be given that exception, if he gets out for low score it is usually when he has not consumed many balls).
So ideally Kohli will be at 20/2 or 10/2 at worst, where he can switch gear and do the consolidation job & work around with these weak middle order batsmen (who cannot score 100s in tough conditions against tough opposition) At 20/1 Kohli will still look to play some shots, and thereby if we lose his wicket, it puts immense pressure on the team and gives lot of advantage to opposition! In the better case India will definitely be like 170/2 in the 25th over or so, which won't do much harm. These three guys are capable of scoring at the rate similar to Kohli (they are even capable of playing more aerial shots than Kohli!)
Should Kohli (who is so good in ground shots, picking up gaps, running between wicket, converting 1s to 2s, 2s to 3s) think of No.4 batting position for the betterment of team? He can of course take more strike by rotating with the partners in the middle overs so that the RR is kept moving (We should also see from future perspective as guys like Shaw, Gill, etc are all better at the Top of the order!) After Dhawan, Rohit are fazed out in coming years, the Indian batting order may look something like this....
Shaw
Rahul
Gill
Kohli....
I know it may not work out like that... You may also need a left hander... But Kohli at No.4 gives lot of stability to Indian batting and his "chasing" tag (He was so perfect with chasing in the past! But of late he has also missed out chasing like in CT Finals because of the reason I mentioned above! New Ball, Good bowlers, early wickets! At No.4 he can think of switching gear which only he is capable of in this Indian batting lineup! Rahul failed in that role!)
Also I think Rohit & Dhawan (at least Dhawan) may not be so effective after 2-3 years! They will be fazed out gradually! They are not technically perfect, but rely on temperament, strokeplay & timing! Even Gambhir who had better technique & temperament didn't last long! So we should have some future vision...
Also in this way we can get rid of Dhoni, DK, etc, at least in future... I know all this cannot be done drastically before world cup, but at least this can be part of experiment! Yes they can still have Dhoni/DK/Rayudu in the team (to satisfy the strange egos!), but at least push them a bit down in the order to give better stability... (also I think India definitely won't play both Pant & Dhoni in World Cup in the playing XI...)
Dhawan
Rohit
Rahul/Rayudu
Kohli
Rayudu/DK
Dhoni
Pandya
Jadeja/Krunal
Bhuvaneshwar/Khaleel
Kuldeep/Chahal
Bumrah
That looks a much better WC batting lineup at least for me!
Meanwhile Rahul has to grab at least these easy opportunities (matches against WI at home! It is extreme bad luck if he feels that he is facing unplayable deliveries from nemesis bowlers time to time!)
The good thing with the trio (except Rohit) is that they at least don't eat up balls before getting out! They score at brisk rate before they get out, on the other hand Rohit don't give it up once he has consumed some time (he normally goes on to make big score! So he can be given that exception, if he gets out for low score it is usually when he has not consumed many balls).
So ideally Kohli will be at 20/2 or 10/2 at worst, where he can switch gear and do the consolidation job & work around with these weak middle order batsmen (who cannot score 100s in tough conditions against tough opposition) At 20/1 Kohli will still look to play some shots, and thereby if we lose his wicket, it puts immense pressure on the team and gives lot of advantage to opposition! In the better case India will definitely be like 170/2 in the 25th over or so, which won't do much harm. These three guys are capable of scoring at the rate similar to Kohli (they are even capable of playing more aerial shots than Kohli!)
Should Kohli (who is so good in ground shots, picking up gaps, running between wicket, converting 1s to 2s, 2s to 3s) think of No.4 batting position for the betterment of team? He can of course take more strike by rotating with the partners in the middle overs so that the RR is kept moving (We should also see from future perspective as guys like Shaw, Gill, etc are all better at the Top of the order!) After Dhawan, Rohit are fazed out in coming years, the Indian batting order may look something like this....
Shaw
Rahul
Gill
Kohli....
I know it may not work out like that... You may also need a left hander... But Kohli at No.4 gives lot of stability to Indian batting and his "chasing" tag (He was so perfect with chasing in the past! But of late he has also missed out chasing like in CT Finals because of the reason I mentioned above! New Ball, Good bowlers, early wickets! At No.4 he can think of switching gear which only he is capable of in this Indian batting lineup! Rahul failed in that role!)
Also I think Rohit & Dhawan (at least Dhawan) may not be so effective after 2-3 years! They will be fazed out gradually! They are not technically perfect, but rely on temperament, strokeplay & timing! Even Gambhir who had better technique & temperament didn't last long! So we should have some future vision...
Also in this way we can get rid of Dhoni, DK, etc, at least in future... I know all this cannot be done drastically before world cup, but at least this can be part of experiment! Yes they can still have Dhoni/DK/Rayudu in the team (to satisfy the strange egos!), but at least push them a bit down in the order to give better stability... (also I think India definitely won't play both Pant & Dhoni in World Cup in the playing XI...)
Dhawan
Rohit
Rahul/Rayudu
Kohli
Rayudu/DK
Dhoni
Pandya
Jadeja/Krunal
Bhuvaneshwar/Khaleel
Kuldeep/Chahal
Bumrah
That looks a much better WC batting lineup at least for me!
Meanwhile Rahul has to grab at least these easy opportunities (matches against WI at home! It is extreme bad luck if he feels that he is facing unplayable deliveries from nemesis bowlers time to time!)
)
