Raina stars in Dhoni’s 12

While the batting — India’s core area of competence — is bound to improve,and the bowling has looked just about adequate this World Cup,Dhoni is a firm believer that the fielding is not going to get any better. Which is why he has decided to take all the help he can — bending the rules,yet not breaking them by playing Suresh Raina purely as a fielder.

Raina is yet to feature officially in the World Cup,but Dhoni and the Indian team management has ensured that his presence has been felt in every single game that the team has played so far. Filling in as substitute every time India take the field,the team manages to play with 12 players,as Raina has been in the thick of action throughout. He caught Mushfiqur Rahim in the first game in Dhaka,Matt Prior in the tied England game,and on Saturday,he caught Johan Botha to give India a sniff,before ruining it by missing Faf du Plessis’s run out attempt.

It isn’t a secret that Raina is probably the best fielder in this Indian squad,and although his services may not be required with the bat,Dhoni has made sure that his athletic fielding has come to India’s aid — marking the straight boundaries with Virat Kohli,before moving into catching positions by the end of the match. And through Raina,India’s lacklustre fielding has been given a half-decent jolt in the legs.

The substitution rules may be strict on comfort breaks,but there’s always a loophole to exploit — an injury,cramps,or mere rotation of bad fielders has given the captain a chance to allow his worst fielders to take a break for the agile ones. Dhoni though,isn’t the first one to employ this trick — just ask Michael Vaughan and an angry Ricky Ponting during the 2005 Ashes.

As Australia struggled to stay in the fourth Test at Trent Bridge,a furious Ponting complained to the umpires after being run-out on 48 by England’s substitute fielder Gary Pratt. “My frustration at getting out was compounded by the fact I was run out by a substitute fielder,an issue that has concerned us from the start of this series and one that we raised prior to the series,” Ponting had remarked at the end of the game. So far,and luckily for Dhoni,no one has yet seemed to take offence to the tactics.

On Saturday night,Raina was on the field for more than half the overs,substituting for Gautam Gambhir and Ashish Nehra initially,before taking Virender Sehwag’s place in the field for the second half of the game. Raina too admits that he’s been on the field substituting for almost the entire team,except the wicketkeeper-captain through the group stages.

“We have two types of fielders in our side. Our good fielders can get better,the slower fielders will remain the same. But we’ve realised our strengths,and fielding is not a big part of it. We can’t become a great fielding unit overnight,but hopefully we can lift ourselves when it matters,” Dhoni said.

Like any skipper with Munaf Patel,Zaheer Khan and Nehra in his side will do,Dhoni has had to resort to bending the rules. To make matters worse,Gambhir doesn’t have a strong arm any more,while Sehwag’s sore shoulder has made it difficult for him in the outfield and Yuvraj Singh is essentially an in-fielder — which counts for six of the nine fielders.

The two best fielders — Kohli and Raina — both cannot play to give the team its balance,but the Indian skipper has been smart enough to utilise both to the maximum — Kohli’s batting and Raina’s fielding. But with a batting collapse that nearly threw every other plan out of the think tank’s window,Raina might just find himself in the starting XI — a spot where he will be allowed to strengthen the bowling,and the batting too.