Hardik Pandya gives the Indian team the kind of stability it is looking for, reckons MS Dhoni © Getty
"In a team sport, it's important that you do well as a team," Mahendra Singh Dhoni stressed at the end of the opening Twenty20 International (T20I) in Adelaide.
Looking at - Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Hardik Pandya, Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ashish Nehra, Jasprit Bumrah - you can't miss the sense that it does indeed look like a team, now.
Throughout India's One Day International (ODI) games against South Africa at home and against Australia, more recently, the team has struggled to put out a side that looks balanced and transudes hope. India faced the Ajinkya Rahane-conundrum before the right-hander made the spot his own with some solid performances. They tried to push Raina down the order to try him out as India's next finisher. He didn't become one. Dhoni sent himself up the order because he liked it better batting higher up. The move tanked badly.
Out in Australia, India came in with fresh, but not really well-thought-out ideas. Raina was dropped. Two promising youngsters were included. But when Dhoni wanted to bat up the order now, or when Rohit wanted to hit the all-out-attack button, they were wary of inexperienced batsmen to follow. India were forced to drop their best bowler over the last 12 months, because the other spinner batted a bit better. India's finishing, batting either side of the innings, suffered as a result.
Then in the T20Is, the old guard were called back. And immediately, the squad looks much better. More settled. With more belief.
"You often see that one or two individuals have done well but the team doesn't win. Ultimately no one likes that," Dhoni said. "If you do well, you want the team to win. This was a comprehensive win and it felt nice as a team. Of course, Virat's contribution was very important. I feel Raina batted well in that regard and accelerated a bit later. Virat, of course, has been the pick of the batsmen."
David Warner, on his return to the Australian side in Canberra, declared that the best thing about Australian cricket was their superb bench strength. It's a luxury that India isn't too unfamiliar with, especially when it comes to their batting. That affluence still remains...
"We'll wait and watch once he (Rahane) gets fit, because that will only increase the problem, but I think it's a good problem to have."
... but the lack of it in other areas is stark.
"Allrounders are important. Even if Hardik Pandya doesn't bowl four overs for me in every game, even if he bowls only two or three overs, I can still use others. What I don't want is the top five or six batters including the keeper (and) you don't have a bowling option. So if somebody goes for runs you don't really know what to do at that point of time."
This was exactly the problems Dhoni was facing when his main bowlers like Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav were bleeding runs in the ODIs. His part-time options were Rohit and Kohli - not totally inspiring options.
"Somebody or the other will go for runs, and that's the time when you want your part-time allrounders to come in and give you that one over, because that one over can really help. We'll wait and watch, we'll see how it goes because I think it's important to have players like Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina who can bowl and bat. If you have too many one-dimensional players, especially in your top order, then it becomes very difficult if somebody has a bad day," he adds.
It may be early days yet, but Pandya looks like the sort of player who could solve a lot of problems for the side. Dhoni's ever-yearning search for a seaming-allrounder could be quenched if Pandya performs to expectations. He certainly didn't in his first over today, when he gave away 19 runs, including five wides.
"After the first over, I knew that whenever he comes in to bowl the second over, it will be better than his first. And that's what happened. I was quite happy with his second and third overs. But still, he'll have to be more and more consistent with his line and length and that will give me a lot of confidence to consistently play him as a third seamer if the need arises."
"That's why Hardik was playing this game, because if he also gets going, it gives us the kind of stability we are looking for. And in turn that can go into the ODI team also. For now, we play only T20s, but we'll see how they keep performing and how consistent they are, and in turn that will give us a lot of stability in the side," Dhoni added.
It does look like we'd be jumping the gun if we claim Pandya is the panacea to all of India's problems of finding a genuine seaming allrounder. But there is certainly scope for promise. He allows the captain a lot of stability and flexibility, and for a team that is looking to chart its success over the next few years, he could be the vital cog.
And if there is a problem of plenty, that would be, like for Australia, the greatest thing about Indian cricket.
