Dropping Sanju Causes the Same Lefty-Heavy Issue Which Teams Exploited in World Cup. If Vaibhav is to Open, A Right Hander Has to Come at No. 3

Recall that in the world cup group stage, India was too left-handed batter dominant, especially in the top order. Abhishek and Ishan opened, Tilak came one-down. Surya's form didn't help either.

With Vaibhav, the issue seems much worse. Abhishek, Vaibhav, Ishan, Tilak, Dube, Axar. 6 lefties and only Shreyas in top 7.

In IPLs, this has a marginal chance to work due to roads and more importantly, small boundaries. But in conditions like Belfast and today, where you can't just power the ball past the boundaries and the big boundaries bring wind etc into the play, being predictable is kinda bad.

Especially because the world is right-hand dominant, and thus right arm offies are very common. Left-arm bowlers are rarer, especially out of the subcontinent. In tough conditions, even part-time right-arm offies can force the lefties in our squad to slow down due to the unfavorable angles and ball turning just slightly away from their arc, which builds pressure and causes mistakes. And when you have lefties at both ends, field doesn't have to rotate as much, letting the fielders conserve energy, retain concentration and perform better. Same is true for bowlers who can settle into a line.

It becomes very crucial for the right-hander to hold one end down and give the bowling side a different kind of challenge. Shreyas is doing well in that role but he's a single point of failure. Like Surya was.

If Vaibhav is to open with Abhishek, we need another right-handed batter in top order. Maybe Samson can come in at no. 3 like he did for RR practically all his career. Maybe Shreyas can be promoted at 3 once Hardik comes back. Maybe Gill can be brought back in place of Tilak, to give us a stabilizing no. 3 to complement the hyper-aggressive opening pair...

But today's line up was unbalanced and unsustainable.