The Vaibhav debate has missed where India are losing matches

In Ranchi last Thursday India made 249 for 5 from their 20 overs and West Indies still got there inside 18.3 overs. That result sits awkwardly beside the argument doing the rounds this week: VVS Laxman called Vaibhav the future of Indian cricket and played him in all five of his matches in charge, while Gautam Gambhir has told newcomers to wait their turn and used him in three of fourteen. Both men were picking for a side our ratings have as the best men's T20 team in the world, top of the ten we rate and worth about 39 runs a match more than an average side. The salient question is where that advantage is being squandered, and in this series the bat has done its job.

Is there a batting vacancy in this series?

If the case for Vaibhav rests on India needing a change at the top, this series against West Indies is an odd place to make it. India have lost only twice in their last ten T20s, both to West Indies in the past week, and in each defeat the batting did what a batting order is for. In Hyderabad on Tuesday they went after 247 for 3 and finished 24 short on 223 for 9; three days earlier in Ranchi they posted 249 and lost anyway. Two totals that size in a losing cause point the same way, which means the runs India concede are the problem and the batter waiting on the bench is the wrong lever to pull.

What Laxman's five straight picks do show

Any criticism of Gambhir needs tempering. Laxman's five matches in a row are a measure of how much faith he placed in one batter, and a player picked every game knows his place in the side in a way three games spread across fourteen never allow. That is a fair point for Vaibhav's backers, and nothing in this series has tested it.

What Saturday settles

The series stands at two apiece going to Bengaluru, and our forecast gives India a 58% chance in the fifth T20I, the lowest we have had them all series after 73% at Lucknow for the opener. Two defeats in four have cost India a good deal of our confidence, so Saturday at the Chinnaswamy is the closest call of the series.

What it settles is whether India's bowlers can hold a total against this West Indies side, and until they can, the bench is the wrong place to look for the fix.