India should experiment at Visakhapatnam

India’s performance in the second T20 was forceful, if not downright intimidating. The margin of victory was huge, but what was even more impressive was how the players approached the match.

Number one in the ICC T20 rankings, Dhoni & Co were humbled in the first match by a Sri Lanka side that is rebuilding, with their big guns missing.

Smarting under this humiliation, a rebound was expected at Ranchi, but how was unknown.

The pressure was entirely on India. Apart from being pre-series favourites they were also playing at home. As the World T20 approaches, fans and critics are scrutinising every stroke, delivery and move by each player, which only increased the onus on them.

At Pune, India played to the gallery and trapped themselves into defeat. The batting had clicked big time in Australia, and the top order went for applause and accolade rather than setting up a competitive score.

A spicy pitch demanded circumspection and a quick revision of original plans when batting to set up a total which the bowlers could defend. Instead, the approach was foolhardy dadagiri. This was not only pointless in the conditions and actually inspired the doughty Lankans to put up a sterling show.

At Ranchi India showed confidence and resourcefulness to make it look it very easy when actually they were under a lot of tension. Whatever pep talks and plans had been put in place after the Pune upset appeared to have worked.

There was none of the mindless swagger of the first game where they had tried to bulldoze Sri Lanka into submission. The conditions were understood well, there was a clear play-to-win strategy, and almost every player made a vital contribution.

Having restored parity in the series, will the team management look to experiment in the last match on Sunday I think they should. There is some risk, of course, but time is running our rapidly, and Dhoni must seriously want to check out the bench strength before the World T20.

For instance, Yuvraj Singh has spent very little time in the middle. While two strokes in the last over of the last game in Australia made him the toast of the country, fact is there hasn’t been much batting to assess him.

Harbhajan Singh’s situation is even more piquant. He’s been with the team for five matches without having played a single one! While R Ashwin is clearly the frontline off-spinner, that two off-spinners could play together is not inconceivable.

At some stage Harbhajan needs to be given a match surely. This will prevent him from feeling wasted. So too newbie Pawan Negi needs to be tried out sooner rather than later. While the team looks more or less settled already, it can only help Dhoni if he has more options to play with.

Sunday’s decider, however, is not the only big event in the Indian cricket itinerary.

Indeed, the Under-19 World Cup final between India and the West Indies I see as the more important if only because this was a multi-team event, therefore with more challenges.

For the record, this is the fifth time India are in the U-19 Cup final — and have won the title thrice too — in nine tournaments since the tournament is being played two years from 1998, which is a tremendous `strike rate’.

A good index of this comes from the composition of the national side in different formats: Dhawan, Rohit, Kohli, Rahane, Raina, Yuvraj, Pandey, Jadeja all made their mark at the Under-19 level before going on to play for India.

More pertinently, players today — from the U-19 level upwards — are being drawn from all parts of the country unlike in the past when they came largely from big metros.

This shows width and depth of cricket talent in the country.

The current U-19 team brims with exciting youngsters, all of whom look charged up. There are no guarantees in sport, but on the evidence of what we’ve seen, this team look good to win.

Best of luck to them.