T20 Dilemmas: Tough calls between Dhawan/Rahul, Chahar/Bhuvi, Shreyas/Surya

The Indian team management faces a problem of plenty going into the five T20 Internationals against England an assignment which marks the beginning of the sides buildup to this years T20 World Cup at homeThere are 19 players available for selection and with two in contention for each slot the XI for the five games starting here on Friday will be an indication to how head coach Ravi Shastri captain Virat Kohli and bowling coach Bharat Arun are looking at the next six to seven months for the shortest formatWill they look for a settled combination to first clinch the series and then experiment or will they field absolute rookies in the squad looking at the bigger pictureFor a team thats so closely followed the result does matter and thats why one can expect a settled first eleven for the first three games since all matches are at the same venue on similar kind of tracksThe roaring comeback of Rishabh Pant will lead to a lot of interesting developments at the top of the order Pants inclusion means that KL Rahul who till a few months back was the first choice keeperopener is unlikely to don the big glovesShikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma were a settled white ball opening pair till recently but Rahuls emergence as a potent white ball specialist has spiced up the competition Dhawan recently had a score of 150 odd in the Vijay Hazare Trophy for Delhi and when it comes to Rohit theres nothing to be discussed So where does the team management fit in Rahul who has been a successful IPL opener Will he be slotted in the middleorder as Dhawans game is not suited to batting lower down These are two pertinent questions and in the answer will be a followup questionWith skipper Kohli himself coming in at No 3 and two gamechangers like Pant and allrounder Hardik Pandya expected to play the big shots at Nos 5 and 6 where does it ideally leave Rahul The only place he can be slotted is No 4 but Shreyas Iyer and Suryakumar Yadav are also jostling for a place If one closely follows the pattern of picking the playing XI Surya a sentimental favourite will have to wait for his turn as Shreyas has done nothing wrong But when it comes to a threeway battle between Rahul Shreyas and Surya the Karnataka man beats the two Mumbai boys hollow with his repertoire of strokes and ability to shift gearsSimilarly in the pace department Bhuvneshwar Kumar once upon a time Indias best white ball exponent is coming back after a long layoff and will be engaged in a twoway fight with Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur For Bhuvneshwar his experience and being a better bowler at the death compared to Chahar holds him in good stead but he hasnt played a lot of cricket save a few Mushtaq Ali games Ditto for Chahar a potent outswing bowler but more of a onetrick pony with lack of variations during the back10Shardul is a crafty bowler who can swing it at brisk pace and among the three can use the long handle to the best effect Yuzvendra Chahal Washington Sundar and Axar Patel are the three spinners expected to feature in the playing XI on the sluggish Motera tracksIn another threeway fight Thangarasu Natarajan with his variation of yorkers stands a better chance to start off compared to Navdeep Saini Two players who will only get a lookin if someone is injured or forcefully rested are Ishan Kishan and Rahul Tewatia as the two simply cant be fitted anywhereIn all there are too many good players and very little space to fit all of them with three sureshot picks Mohammed Shami Ravindra Jadeja and Jasprit Bumrah already resting or recuperating from injuryOnce they comeback it will be a bigger selection headache for the management but one that they wont mindThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever