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Mohammad Kaif: under the kosh © Getty Images

It's easy to like Mohammad Kaif. He looks every inch the team man and there is air of selflessness about him. A livewire on the field, he infects his team-mates with enthusiasm and energy; and a hustler with the bat, he is forever looking to pinch a single, running hard for his partner's runs and not overly concerned with giving his wicket away for the team. But goodwill can only do so much: Kaif is now confronted with a situation where the next two matches may decide his immediate future.

In the last 15 ODIs he has averaged 13.60 with four ducks in his last six innings and has managed to get out different ways: bowled, lbw and caught on either sides of the wicket. But if you have been looking closely there is one common factor; on most occasions, his demise has been a result of indecisive, or non-existent, footwork.

Although he possesses an attractive off-drive, there has always been a certain crudeness to Kaif's batting. Fidgety, awkward-looking and with an almost bow-legged stance, he has a strange way of offering a dead bat - the blade is pushed straight, with no curves, as the bottom-hand drives the movement, all arms and no wrists. Of late, the feet, the hyperactive pair which tread the arena restlessly while fielding, are caught neither here nor there, neither forward nor back and the bat protrudes in an ungainly firm fatal push. But it's with this very technique that he has survived for so long: producing a defiant Test knock against Australia in Chennai, then a stirring fightback at Lord's. And on numerous occasions he has stitched together some valuable runs that have meant the difference between victory and defeat.

So what's the problem then? Greg Chappell provides a clue: "It's probably more mental. He is only a boy. I went through a similar run in my career when I had seven ducks in fairly close proximity in the one-dayers some years ago. What I found at the end of it was that it was a mental problem. In the end I realised that the focus was not quite right. When you have a couple of failures, you get anxious and anxiety does not help you play well.

The emergence of Suresh Raina has put an extra burden on Kaif. In Tests, he comes in for a deposed batsman, trying to impress in an effort to break into the established line up and although there is pressure, it's not the same as playing for your own place. In ODIs the situation is different: each failure makes his position in side more perilous, creating more anxiety and doubt.

"He [Kaif] is not watching the ball onto the bat. He is playing tentatively and more worried about failing than scoring runs," believes Vasu Paranjpe, former batting coach of National Cricket Academy. Paranjpe also feels that being shunted up and down the order might have played a role. In his last 15 matches, he has played six times at No. 5, three times at No. 7, twice at No. 4 and once at No. 3 and No 6. And he has not played at the same position for more than three games in succession. His best average, overall in his career, comes while batting at the No. 3 (average of 67 in seven matches).

He is playing tentatively and more worried about failing than scoring runs - Vasu Paranjpe

But Paranjpe asserts "... it's all in the mind, nothing else". After all, Kaif just got a hundred against England in the warm-up game in Jaipur. "He is an experienced player and a player that we want with us, says Chappell. "He got everything that we need. He blends with the team well with his style of cricket. His fielding is excellent as we know."

Even though his obvious strengths in the field and his place in the broader picture has a longer run than what would have granted to some others, Kaif can not take his place in the team for granted for much longer.

For inspiration, there is no better man to turn to than Chappell. There is an instructive story of how Chappell just thought his way into form, a triumph of mind over matter. "Years after I finished playing Test cricket I was invited to play in a match," he recalls. "Not having played or practised for a while I felt the best thing for me would be to play myself in. Believe me, I could not get the ball off the square and I got out. A few months later I played in another game. This time I simply decided to play as I used to when I was good form. This time, the ball found the middle of the bat, the timing was good and everything seemed to fall into place."

Easier said than done, of course. As Chappell himself once wrote, "Confidence is an emotion, and the beauty about emotions is that they can be manufactured. Most technical problems come from not thinking well. When you are thinking well, you move well. When you are not thinking well, your movements are disjointed".

In the next two ODI matches, in the absence of Rahul Dravid, Kaif might be sent up the order. It won't be a bad idea, in short-term view, if it would help him regain his form but the bigger question remains. Whether India needs an in-form Kaif at No. 3 or down the order? Rahul Dravid and Yuvraj Singh will fill in the vital No. 3 and No. 4 positions and hence, Kaif will have to score in the lower order. He will have to swat the cobwebs between his ears, because that is where the problem may ultimately lie.