When head coach Rahul Dravid fronted up to the media after the 0-3 ODI debacle in South Africa, he had to defend the team citing injuries, unavailability, and inexperience of the squad. Looking ahead to the 2023 50-over World Cup, there are a lot of question marks on India’s preparation, as one reads the fine print.
Does India’s template for 50-over cricket need to change, given how more successful teams approach the format?
What Dravid said: We certainly could do better with the batting in the middle overs. We understand the template, but a large part of that template is also dependent on the balance of your squad. Some of the guys who help us balance the squad out and give us the all-around options at 6,7, 8 are probably not here, not available for selection. So, hopefully, when they get back, they probably give us the depth to play in a slightly different style.
Counterpoint: India has traditionally followed the approach of the top order getting in and one of them playing through the innings. If Rohit Sharma was available, that’s the way he would have played. That’s how Virat Kohli has made his name in ODI cricket. Shikhar Dhawan is considered the aggressor at the top of the order, but his strike rate is generally not comparable to Jason Roy or Jonny Bairstow, who are given the license to fail. Dhawan’s reluctance to play the all-out attacking role cost him the T20 job. It’s not easy to change the way a team has been playing, across generations, in a short time.
The top four, if one slot in KL Rahul at No.4 once Sharma comes back, is a bit of an oddity in itself. They all take their time to get going and have the class to make up later, but the problem seeps in if they don’t go on for a big knock. Then the pressure falls on the middle and the lower middle-order where there is no real firepower to finish off in style. Rishabh Pant can but it appears the team is trying to slot him higher up in the order. Going by the reluctance to play Venkatesh Iyer in the opening slot, it seems that the top order is more or less sealed. It’s a pretty good line-up, especially in a 50-over game, but two things need to happen for it to be a grand success: the top order has to play long knocks to make up the run rate and the people below them have to amp up the aggression.
What Dravid said: South Africa, who batted first on two occasions, only scored 290 and 280. At the 30th over in both those games, I felt we should have chased them down. We didn’t because we played some poor shots and we didn’t play smart cricket in critical situations.
Counterpoint: The batsmen who were in at that stage, Kohli around that mark in both games, as well as Rishabh Pant and Shreyas Iyer, have played a lot of cricket and should know the demands of a situation. Pant and Iyer have not played a bucketload of ODIs but enough limited-overs cricket for India and their franchises to know the merit of taking a chase deep. If they don’t, it’s the team management’s job to make them aware.
You must be logged in to post a comment.