Future isn’t what it used to be

Big hopes

That tour of Zimbabwe came half way through a golden year for these gifted batting youngsters. Kohli — the youngest of the three — had just scored his first two ODI centuries,in December 2009 and January 2010,while Raina’s third hundred in Februrary convinced the selectors that they were grooming the right man to take over the reigns. Little did anyone know it then,but from that autumn day,only Kohli would progress into a truly Indian summer.

Fast forward two years from the chill of Bulawayo to the chill of Hobart,and their respective worlds seem to settled into three vastly different orbits. Since then,on the back of a truly great ODI knock on Tuesday,Kohli has become wealthier by seven centuries to take his overall figure to nine. Raina and Rohit,their hundreds column haven’t budged a collective inch. Also,Kohli is now a permanent member of India’s Test side – validating his position with the only century on this tour during the Adelaide Test — while Rohit is yet to make his longer-format debut into his 25th year.

New order

These performances — or the lack of it — have understandably been reflected in their hierarchical order in the dressing room. From captaincy material,Raina has now slipped down the ladder to the captain’s pet and an inconsistent No.5 batsman,while Rohit spends more time fighting for his place in the side than fighting against the opposition. As for Kohli,he hasn’t leapfrogged just blue-eyed players of his generation,the 23-year old has also displaced the likes of Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag to become the ultimate senior statesman of the side – as his promotion to vice-captaincy for the Asia Cup suggests.

No-one but Rohit and Raina can be blamed for how the present has panned out. The reasons are simple: they haven’t made the most of their chances,something that has been illustrated in this ongoing tri-series in Australia. Despite resting the seniors by rotation to keep him in the side,Rohit’s run of 21,10,33,15 and 0 gave the think-tank no choice but to drop him. Raina just about saved himself from a similar fate with three scores of above 30. The last of which unfolded in Hobart.

On Tuesday,Raina defended his place with important runs,playing perfect second fiddle to a sublime Kohli. The big-hitting left-hander then took it upon himself to score the quick runs en route to acquiring his best score of the series – 40 off 24 balls. “It’s not easy playing in Raina’s position of No.5,” Dhoni had said earlier in the week. “By the time he walks in to bat,India find themselves in a situation where he has to score quick runs. So looking at it that way,there isn’t much scope for big runs. He has done well in the limited opportunity available for a No 5 batsman.”

Maybe Raina’s shortcomings have further been exposed in the absence of Indian cricket’s most successful No.5 batsman — Yuvraj Singh. At the same spot that Raina now occupies,Yuvraj has nearly 3500 runs and more centuries than any other No.5 player in the world — seven. Raina doesn’t even have that many fifties (six) in the same role.

It isn’t just in ODIs that Raina has struggled to fill Yuvraj’s boots,he failed to completely replace him in the Tests as well,despite consolidating his selection with a century on debut in 2010. But following his mockery on the England tour,Raina was replaced initially by Yuvraj during the West Indies series,before Kohli made that spot his own down here in Australia.

It’s funny,considering before the tour of Australia,it was set to be an even toss up between Rohit and Kohli for the vacant No.6 slot in the Test side. Kohli shook off his failures with a half-century in Perth and a ton in Adelaide,while Rohit didn’t play and landed up in the same place as Raina — two years past their now blurry peaks in international cricket.