Who will play at No.4 - Addressing India's no.4 conundrum

Team India is undoubtedly one of the best teams in the limited-overs format of the game, with Virat Kohli’s men right behind Faf du Plessis’s South African side. Under Kohli, the Indian team have won 33 out of the possible 43 matches, with nine defeats and a rain-resulted washout.

The bowling has looked better for the first time since the retirement of some of India’s premier pace bowlers like Zaheer Khan, with the inclusion of Jasprit Bumrah in the squad. Hardik Pandya too has helped the team fill the void of a seam-bowling all-rounder.

While all the major issues have been addressed by the management successfully, there exists a problem which has not yet come to a clear conclusion. The only problem that the Indian team has not found a solution yet is the No.4 slot. This batting position has always been an area of concern for the Indian team, since the retirement of Sachin Tendulkar.

Many batsmen in the past have tried to fill the empty spot in vain, with the list including all-rounder Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina. However, on the other side, there has emerged five prime candidates for the No.4 slot, with the management having to decide between them leading into the World Cup 2019. Let us look at each of the candidates with primal focus:

1. MS Dhoni:

Arguably one of world’s best wicketkeeper-batsmen MS Dhoni has had his issues with the willow in the past year or two. One of the major reasons for this struggle is the crease-time that the right-handed batsman gets. Dhoni, who bats deep for the Indian team comes in towards the dead end and has to strike sweetly from ball 1, which is quite an ask from a player past his prime.

However, when he walks out to play early in the innings, Dhoni has shown his ability and has played to his best. In the past year batting early in the innings, has scored over 200 runs. Dhoni came in at No.6 against Australia and knitted a partnership of utmost importance against a raging them to lead the Indian team to a total of 281/7 in a match which India eventually won.

The former Indian skipper averages 53.86 at No.4 and is an ideal position for the right-handed batsman to bat at in the current Indian set-up.