Yuvraj Singh: Indian middle order will struggle under pressure at ODI World Cup

In the 2011 World Cup, as the eighth highest runscorer with a strike rate of just over 86, having hit only three sixes in nine innings, Yuvraj Singh won the Player of the Tournament award, heralded as the man that won India the game’s biggest honour at home.

Six hitting and strokeplay were not what got Yuvraj his plaudits, instead, it was his match winning feats in pressure situations, playing the situation by smartly handling the middle overs, manipulating fields and milking bowlers, delaying the attack for a final flourish or setting the stage for finishers.

Exactly two months prior to their opening game in the upcoming 50 over World Cup, the Indian think tank must ask itself, following untimely injuries to KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant, and Shreyas Iyer, whether they have any batsmen who may be able to play even a few of the many roles Yuvraj played for India the last time they triumphed at this stage at home.

Perhaps it is an attribute of the growing presence of T20 cricket that batting in the middle overs in ODI cricket, especially on slow wickets, has become more of a struggle in recent times.

Players who developed their talents in the T20 age have never emphasised or experienced the importance of playing the ‘boring’ middle overs that set up the finish.

Navigating long spells of spin, finding gaps in the field, rotating strike, and building partnerships are all age-old attributes for a generation in which middle-order batting has been negated to the role of pinch-hitting. The art of building and pacing an innings is fading.

This, perhaps, explains India’s many experiments that have failed to find a settled batsman at No. 4 or even 5. Over their last nine ODIs, India have tried six different batsmen at No.4. Among them are the likes of Axar Patel, Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav, all of whom are more suited to batting in different positions in the shortest format.