COLOMBO: 

India coach Gary Kirsten (right) advices batsman Virat Kohli during a practice session in Sri Lanka

India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni in full flow during the fourth one-day international against Sri Lanka in Colombo on Wednesday PIC/AP

Gary Kirsten's quiet backroom management style has rubbed off on Team India during their tour of the Emerald Isles. He is not one too big on words either, preferring to talk to the players and let them make up their mind on how they want to go out and achieve their goals.

Before the Premadasa Stadium section of the Idea Cup ODI series, Kirsten hinted at looking at what he called "flexible batting combinations" to meet the threat of the Sri Lanka bowlers in the three games.

Now with the series already won 3-1 with today's game remaining, you would know that Kirsten is not going to tamper too much with the formula in place.

In the Dambulla games, Suresh Raina was batting at three and Yuvraj Singh four with Rohit Sharma five and then six as MS Dhoni moved up a place in the second game.

Big switch

At Premadasa though the planning switched: Yuvraj was pushed up to three to escape the introduction of the bogeyman Ajantha Mendis, an order switch which has so far failed, but it has also seen Rohit Sharma and S Badrinath changing places as the flexible planning had them in different positions.

It is all a matter of adjustment to the conditions and there is a vast difference to those in Dambulla and Colombo as there is in Kanpur and Chennai.

One thing you learn about Kirsten though is that he prefers the players make up their own minds on how to apply their gameplan. Dhoni too hinted at this in pre-series comments in Colombo and in Dambulla.
He is certainly not going to change that opinion.

Kirsten's "softly, softly" approach is a typical trait of his own style of intrepid play and what he learnt over the years opening for South Africa.

You can also bet that he will listen as well as talk to guide the young batsmen in the team in particular. There are  those believers in the theory that style is everything, it is a theory to which he doesn't subscribe.

While Raina's comments of how the Indian Premier League has helped in his development are a fair reflection of how the pace and pressure of T20 evolves in such razor edge conditions, it is also applying them in the bigger arena that helps.

Good talent

"We have a lot of good young talent in the squad and it is good to see them adopting a more responsible role," he said before the Premadasa Stadium leg when asked about the flexible batting combinations and Virat Kohli's place in the scheme of the permutations.

"We are going to look at it game by game and decide what is best for the team," he added. "We have a few ideas we want to employ but will decide before each match just where they fit into our thinking."