Ind vs Aus: Is Suresh Raina's absence in ODI series hurting Team India?

With the third straight loss in Melbourne India lost their fourth consecutive series under Mahendra Singh Dhoni The last series that India won under him was at home against a weak West Indian team in 2014 There was a time when Dhoni couldnt put a foot wrong but now whatever he does backfires Lets try and examine what has gone wrong in Australia before delving deeper into the issueUttar Pradesh skipper Suresh Raina during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Twenty20 match against Gujarat at Mumbai Cricket Associations BandraKurla Complex ground last week PicPTIBowling woesBhuvneshwar Ishant Umesh Jadeja and Ashwin made up for Indias bowling unit during the Champions Trophy winning campaign in 2013 Replace Shami with Ishant and you would get Indias bowling unit during the World Cup in which India reached the semifinals So how did the bowling unit that performed reasonably well in the past become so pedestrian Well the pitches in England were unusually dry and hence assisted Indian bowlers and the pitches in the World Cup were also a little tired because the tournament was held at the backend of a long Australian summerBy now its quite evident that Indian bowlers need some assistance from the surface to restrict a decent batting lineup and the pitches prepared for this ODI series are anything but bowlerfriendly Flat pitches dictate that the bowlers do something spectacular in the air be it the extra paceswing for faster men or driftdip for spinners and unfortunately there isnt enough class in this bowling unitBatting bluesWhile it is indeed fair to blame the bowling unit for their inability to defend 300 scores itll be foolish to ignore where the batting faltered too If your strength is batting and youre playing on battingbeauties there are only two ways to win mdash 1 Bowl first and chase a slightly abovepar score or 2 Bat first and score 2530 runs above par for your bowlers would need the scoreboard pressure as an extra bowler Dhoni won two tosses but elected to bat first on both occasions and while 308 and 309 were big scores they werent 2530 runs above parThe Indian bowling isnt equipped to defend par scores on good pitches and it showed In the third ODI in Melbourne India did score 15 above par and therefore for the first time in the series India came close to winning It seems that Indian batting hasnt got used to the absence of a batting powerplay for they arent accelerating enough between the 31st and 40th overThus far India has scored 67 67 and 60 in this period and thats unacceptable if youve gone at around five runsperover for the first 30 overs and have eightnine wickets in hand The Indian batsmen must address this issue for theyre leaving too much to do in the last 10 oversFielding lapsesIf you have a weak bowling attack and if your batsmen havent scored 2530 above par your fielding unit must contribute heavily Unfortunately the Indian fieldings worst hour has also come at a time when the bowling is struggling badly In the first three matches India has missed at least sixseven catches and almost that many opportunities to run the Australian batsmen out Its not that this Indian team is full of liabilities on the field for most of them are as good as youd get at this level While its a minor blip it has played a pivotal role in Indias fortunesTricky selectionLast but not least the team selection hasnt given enough maneuverability with regards to the personnel Rainas absence is sorely felt because hes not just a good finisher and a gun fielder but could also be a handy sixth bowling option Dhoni was forced to play both Mann and Dhawan the moment he decided to drop Ashwin Also the lack of batting resources India picked only five proper batsmen in the squad has also meant that Dhawan cant be dropped in spite of his obvious lack of form Now that India has already lost the series it would be worth trying out different things Theres a strong case to try either Rahane or Pandey as an opener in place of Shikhar and also give Axar Patel an opportunity in the remaining two games