Two last-over defeats in the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup has laid bare India’s problems with team combination ahead of their T20 World Cup campaign next month. Rohit Sharma isn’t willing to press the panic button yet and is clear that “90-95 per cent of the team is settled”.

However, there’s no doubt that Ravindra Jadeja’s sudden injury has sent the team’s plans into a tizzy. The batting has mainly suffered with KL Rahul struggling to regain his touch following an injury-induced break. The opener has aggregated 70 runs in four matches at a strike-rate of 104.47.

Rahul’s inability to play aggressive cricket from the start has upset the team’s plans. In his desire to break free of the shackles he has often been forced to sacrifice his wicket. On Tuesday against Sri Lanka, he contributed only six. Rahul will take some time to adjust to this fearless approach and the home series versus Australia and South Africa could be the ideal platform.

Multi-nation tournaments hardly give you an opportunity to experiment and India’s inclination to do so has left them in a spot of bother. Head coach Rahul Dravid has also been forced to play Rishabh Pant in the middle-order since Jadeja’s absence has meant India don’t have another left-hand batter in the top six. But Pant has never been a threat in the shortest format.

Pant’s inclusion has also meant that Dinesh Karthik has been forced to sit out with Deepak Hooda failing to adjust to the role of a finisher. India play Afghanistan on Thursday and it would be interesting to see if the thinktank decides to initiate much sought-after changes in the XI. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to get Rohit to open the innings with Virat Kohli since he has the experience in the IPL. That would allow Suryakumar Yadav to come in at No.3 and Hooda to play upfront. But will the team management sacrifice Pant for Karthik?

“See, it is simple. We wanted a left-hander to bat in the middle,” Rohit said after the loss to Sri Lanka. “That’s why Dinesh Karthik is out. Not because of form... “We wanted a left-hand batter in the middle to take pressure off, but it didn’t happen. But by no means DK has been dropped because of poor form. We always want to have flexibility in the group. We will keep changing players every now and then...

“When you talk about experiments, yes, we wanted to try out certain things... Yes, there are a lot of questions we need to answer...,” Rohit acknowledged.

“There will be a time where we will draw a line and say, ‘this is the combination we want to play for the World Cup.’ After this, we have two more series and then the World Cup.”