India: The problem of too many specialists

With the Indian cricket team’s struggle to get over the line in what was expected to be a straightforward run-chase against Bangladesh in the Final of the Asia Cup 2018, the middle order trio of Ambati Rayudu, Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni have received flak for not being able to capitalise on a golden opportunity to score runs in the middle order.

While there is undoubtedly a run-scoring problem here where Positions 4,5 & 6 don’t seem to be contributing enough to Indian ODI team totals, a deeper, more difficult problem has been lurking under the surface of Team India’s ODI travails ever since the left-handed batting duo of Suresh Raina and Yuvraj Singh have been moved out of their ODI plans.

The problem? Too many specialists. Or in this case, batting specialists.

As Harsha Bhogle recently put it:

“The problem with this Indian team is that the batsmen don’t bowl and the bowlers don’t bat.”

Let’s rewind to one of India’s best-ever ODI Teams: The ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 Champions.

Here’s a look at the team that played the final of that tournament:

Sehwag - Tendulkar - Gambhir - Kohli - Yuvraj - Raina - Dhoni - Harbhajan - Zaheer - Munaf - Sreesanth

And now here’s a look at what the Indian ODI XI would be if the World Cup were to begin tomorrow:

Rohit - Dhawan - Kohli - Rayudu - Dhoni - Jadhav - Hardik/Jadeja - Bhuvneshwar - Kuldeep - Chahal - Bumrah

The key difference lies in the number of bowling options available to both lineups.

The Indian Team that won the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 had several bowling options scattered throughout the Starting XI

The World Cup-winning XI had three quality pace bowlers in Zaheer Khan, S Sreesanth and Munaf Patel, complemented by a young 23-year-old Virat Kohli who at the time bowled an over or two of medium pace (he even bowled an over in the final). But India could back these pacers up with a veritable army of spinners as well, including the ever-reliable Harbhajan Singh, and Yuvraj Singh who was having his best ever tournament as a left-arm orthodox bowler.

In addition, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag & Sachin Tendulkar were all more than useful part-time spin-bowling options who could stem the flow of runs against weaker batsmen, hold up an end and get through overs quickly in case Dhoni wanted to accelerate the over rate for some reason.

That equates to a total of NINE bowling options in the Starting XI. A massive, massive bonus for any captain, who would have the option of FOUR extra options to choose from in case any of his five frontline bowlers were getting smashed for runs or picked up an untimely injury.

In the current Indian ODI Setup, Kedar Jadhav is the only batsman capable of chipping in with overs and making a difference

On the other hand, the current Indian lineup genuinely struggles to have more than five-six bowlers in the starting lineup, and has to play Kedar Jadhav in every ODI match just to have that sixth bowling option it desperately needs in case any of the main five has a bad day at the office.

Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli & Ambati Rayudu don't really bowl, leaving Jadhav as the only real batsman who can contribute overs to the bowling effort. And even having just one extra option in Jadhav’s low-arm off-spin can only take you so far; batsmen will eventually work out how to play him, and there won’t be a backup option in case he can’t produce the goods.

This problem has, of course, basically been brought about because Rohit Sharma (an off-spinner till he was 17) and Virat Kohli have decided to stop bowling, and unfortunately the Indian team management hasn’t seen fit to surround them with other batsmen who can bowl part-time overs if necessary to supplement the bowling attack.

Strong international teams are full of redundancies, or back up plans to turn to in case the main plan of action does not prove effective. In this, the Indian team has declined from its vintage best of seven years ago; there has been a drastic decline in the number of bowling options available to the captain.

This is no isolated case restricted to Team India in international cricket either. All over the world, there’s been a steady rise in the number of “all-rounders” being slotted into Cricket Playing XIs to give the team more balance and flexibility to address difficult match-situations. And provided these all-rounders perform well in at least one of either batting or bowling, which can be a big “IF” sometimes, teams with a higher number of such players generally prove to enjoy a higher level of success.

Let’s compare and contrast a typical starting lineup from two franchises of IPL 2018 that had very differing fortunes in the tournament:

The Chennai Super Kings (CSK) vs The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB)

Comparing the typical Starting Lineups of CSK & RCB reveals a difference in the number of bowling options available to each captain

CSK (Typical XI - IPL 2018)

du Plessis - Watson - Raina - Rayudu - Dhoni - Bravo - Jadeja - Harbhajan - Chahar - Thakur - Ngidi

RCB (Typical XI - IPL 2018)

Parthiv - de Kock - Kohli - de Villiers - Mandeep - de Grandhomme - Moeen - Washington - Siraj - Chahal - Umesh

As witnessed in the IPL, CSK’s astute team selections carried them all the way to the trophy, whereas RCB’s perennial lineup balance problems led to them being eliminated by the end of the league phase of the tournament. While the CSK outfit here bats slightly deeper than the RCB lineup and has more overall quality, another major difference between the two lineups is in the number of bowling options available to Dhoni and Kohli.

MS Dhoni could call on as many as eight different players from this XI to bowl overs if necessary, while Virat Kohli only had six, primarily because the batsmen in his squad do not bowl. This is just another example among many of how having a higher number of bowling possibilities in a cricket XI is now becoming as important as having quality bowling specialists.

This is because of how the rules and conditions of white-ball cricket are now heavily weighted against bowlers, who now need as much help as they can get to finish the quota of 20 or 50 Overs, leading to a rise in importance of part-time bowlers who can make a difference.

As far as Team India is concerned, however, with the direction in which the selectors have chosen to go in selecting new batsmen for the ODI/T20 Teams, there does not appear to be a satisfactory solution available to increase the number of bowlers in the Starting XI from six to even seven, not without sacrificing a batsman and playing both Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja in the same Starting XI.

So for the time being, India have to manage the problem of only playing with six bowling options by making sure their specialist bowlers are given every chance to succeed. In the long-term though, Indian domestic cricket and junior age-group cricket must focus on ensuring the talented batsmen coming through the ranks can also bowl part-time when necessary, to help with the balance of future Team India Starting XIs.