India's No.3 roulette eventually lands on Harmanpreet Kaur

"You can guess it - [if] you go through the scorecards, and you'll find out."

On the eve of India's 2024 T20 World Cup campaign in Dubai, head coach Amol Muzumdar wasn't as cagey about the team management's dedicated choice for the No. 3 slot as maybe he was 10 days ago in his last media interaction in Mumbai. For clarity, in the quote above he's referring to the team sheets of the two official warm-up games where Harmanpreet Kaur earned a surprise promotion.

Over in Dubai, there were reasons to believe India's move to send the India captain at one-down was a smokescreen. Prioritising game time and better acclimatisation for a sure-starter, hoping for a return to form and what have you. However, in that case, what difference would walking out at No. 3 have made as compared to her usual no. 4 slot? Moreover, Harmanpreet did alleviate any concerns regarding her T20 form with a fifty on a tough track in an intra-squad game at the camp back home.

And so, there were even stronger reasons to believe that Harmanpreet's return to No. 3 in India colours was the card Muzumdar was holding close to the chest ahead of the team's departure to UAE. After nearly a year of experimentation with five different candidates, why else would the captain and coach decide to chew up on someone else's game-time? That at the time when the one-drop spot, or lack of its clarity in their buildup to the World Cup, appeared the only chink in India's batting armour.

In the current World Cup cycle, India put a total of five players in the hot seat. In continuation of her prior role, Jemimah Rodrigues was the top candidate. At No. 3 no Indian batter has more than Rodrigues' tally of 1492 runs at an average of 30.44 and she's fourth in the all-time list led by Meg Lanning.

No. 3 for India since 2023 T20 World Cup

However, for the conditions India continuously found themselves playing in in preparation for a subcontinental World Cup, Rodrigues emerged as a better option lower down the order at five with her ability to easily manipulate gaps and keep the scoreboard ticking against spin. Hence, the last of Rodrigues at three was during the back-to-back series against England and Australia at home in the winter of 2023-24, when Muzumdar had just taken charge.

For the next international assignment - a five-match T20I series in Bangladesh where the World Cup was originally slated - Rodrigues missed out due to a bad back, providing opportunity to kick in new options at three. Yastika Bhatia earned the role after a second successive 200+ WPL season as Mumbai Indians' opener. The left-handedness giving her an added edge, Bhatia earned a recall to the XI right away and vindicated the move with a breezy 36 on India return. As luck would have it though, a knee injury meant a premature return from Bangladesh, leading to a four-month rehab to make it back in time for the 2024 World Cup squad.

For the remainder of that series, D. Hemalatha - another one to earn a national recall through a breakthrough WPL 2024 - stepped up. Picking back up from where she left the WPL, Hemalatha scored 109 runs in four innings at an average of 36.33 and at a vastly improved strike-rate of 141.55 that was the best for any batter across the two teams despite typical Sylhet conditions.

On a much better T20 batting track in Chennai in the South Africa series, Hemalatha made a 17-ball 14 in the opening game and got dropped for the remainder of the series, primarily due to team combination concerns caused by a concussion to frontline wicketkeeper-finisher Richa Ghosh. India's chase in the second game was washed out and the openers polished off the low target in the third match by themselves to never allow a peak into who could have batted at one-down in that case.

In the precious few matches left before the World Cup, at the 2024 Asia Cup, India tried out S Sajana and Uma Chetry, alongside Hemalatha, without ever giving a hint of having nailed down their choice. Bhatia's expected return threw another candidate back in the mix whilst Rodrigues settled in her new role as India's new no. 5 with impressive returns to boot.

Rodrigues at No. 3 vs No. 5 in all T20s

So, the five intra-squad games just ahead of the team's departure for the UAE prompted the move from the team management to zero in on their skipper.

Harmanpreet had donned many hats in this Indian line-up. She's even opened the batting at a T20 World Cup before, scoring her then career-best 77. Shuttling up and down from no. 8 at the beginning of her international career, she went on to play 116 T20Is at no. 4 and making that position her own. Nine of her 12 fifties for India have come at that position, and no batter in the world has scored more than Harmanpreet's 2474 runs in T20Is coming in at four.

She doesn't necessarily start with a bang like say, England's No. 3 Alice Capsey, but Harmanpreet is among the best in this Indian line-up to exploit spinners. And once set, her power-hitting prowess has few equals. On the slow and gripping pitches of Dubai and Sharjah, that's the experience and potential India are looking to tap into by affording her a bit of extra time to get her eye in.

"Not just the warm-up games, but we had already decided back in India, in the camps that happened before we set off for the World Cup" Muzumdar said on Thursday ahead of India's tournament opener against New Zealand. "We had a lovely camp in Bangalore [and] we had decided there itself. And, these pre-World Cup matches absolutely stamped that choice for us."

Jury is now out on whether the timing is right. It's not like Harmanpreet hasn't sporadically batted one-down prior, but a drastic switch like that at the cusp of high-stakes competition would seem akin to the mistakes of 2018 World Cup where a move in the right direction wasn't backed up methodically by offering the player enough time getting habituated to new role.

Harmanpreet's vast experience - she's the most capped T20I player in the world across genders - plus consistent performances in the intra-squad games away from spotlight at Bengaluru's Just Cricket Academy will come to her rescue, or so Muzumdar alluded to.

Not just in batting, Harmanpreet will also be expected to draw upon that experience as she prepares to roll her arm over once more after giving this half of her allround abilities a rest for the last 43 T20Is. The indications of which were in that one miserly over she sent down against South Africa in the last warm-up. It goes without saying that the return of Harmanpreet the offspinner also solves a major bowling conundrum for India - the sixth four-over frontline bowling option in their top-order, the pinch of which was felt most recently in the shock Asia cup defeat to Sri Lanka in their last competitive game before the World Cup.

"To be very honest we were thinking of a very different combination. That is five batters, a wicketkeeper who I consider as an allrounder, and then three [bowling] allrounders and then two [pure] bowlers. We were trying out a few things, and in the end 5-5 and one wicketkeeper is what we've [settled on].

"We have paid a lot of attention to the sixth bowling option. Also, for the fact that we've had multiple discussions within our top-six that at least 3 to 4 have to bowl. And if we can get those overs out of them then nothing like it. And all of them [India's top-six] could bowl. So, it's just a question of applying and just putting in those hard yards in the nets and converting that into a match performance. Yes, Harman hasn't bowled much recently [besides] the second warm-up, but she's experienced enough to bowl those overs [in a World Cup]."