5 important problems that the Indian team must address right now

#1 The fifth bowler conundrum

The problem with Pandya is that he does not have enough variety in his repertoire

All through the tournament, India were faced with the problem of an inconsistent fifth bowling option which made life difficult for them. The presence of Hardik Pandya in the side allowed them to go in with two other genuine pacers and two specialist spinners after Umesh Yadav was dropped from the side.

While Pandya was brilliant with the ball in patches, including the final, there were others times when he was too inconsistent and Kohli had to use Kedar Jadhav to complete the quota of the fifth bowler between them.

Pandya has good pace to work with and is not shy of bowling short to surprise the batsmen. But that also becomes a bane for him at times as he disappears fast on flat decks. The problem with him is that he does not have enough variety in his repertoire which is essential for any fast bowler bowling in the middle overs.

As long as he does not have variations like a perfect yorker, a good slow ball or even a deceptive slow bouncer, delivering fast at a good length makes him vulnerable to being taken for runs on good batting wickets.

While Jadhav has been brilliant at times, the combination of Jadhav and Pandya as the fifth bowling option remains hardly feasible on flat decks in the subcontinent. There remains an option to go in with five genuine bowlers which will, however, weaken the batting which the Indian team does not seem to want to do at the moment.

Yuvraj Singh also remains an option to be utilised as the fifth bowler but he did not bowl at all in the tournament which means India want to play him only as a specialist batsman these days. The other option would be to groom another spin-bowling all-rounder who might be useful.

Whichever is the case, the Indian team management would have to wrack their brains to solve their fifth bowler problem.