New Zealand series loss: Lessons to be learnt for Team India before World Cup 2015

The Bowling (If we can still call it that)

Varun Aaron (L), Ishant Sharma (C) and Umesh Yadav – Bowlers need to get the act together

There is nothing that scares, angers and frustrates an Indian cricket fan more than the dreaded ‘B’ word. Indian bowling has been the most common subject in the cricketing circles recently, and to be honest, the flak is justified.

Barring Ravindra Jadeja, none of the Indian bowlers have been able to produce respectable performances consistently. And for the kind of batting that India has, coupled with the new rule changes, anything below 300 can be categorized as ‘respectable’.

But, right from the start of the season against Australia, the Indian bowlers have consistently allowed the opposition to amass scores of over 300. Even on pitches that had something in it for the seamers, such as the ones at Johannesburg, Centurion or even Napier, the seamers failed to impress. As the Indian skipper himself admitted in the press conference after the 4th ODI against the Black Caps, it’s not just the rule changes, but some poor bowling by the Indian seamers that has led to the terrible results.

Though Ashwin has been unable to have a major impact in recent times, he has still managed an average economy rate of 5.67 over the ODI series against Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. When compared to the average economy rates during the same period of the leading fast bowlers Ishant Sharma (6.77), Mohammed Shami(6.90) and Bhuvneshwar Kumar(6.09), Ashwin’s figures look even better.

Moreover, both the Indian spinners – Jadeja as well as Ashwin – have often contributed with some useful knocks down the order. Also, when assisted with helpful conditions such as the ones in the Champions trophy final or in the fourth ODI in New Zealand, the spinners have looked really threatening. Thus, the duo of Jadeja and Ashwin backed with the reserves outside the squad such as Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh give the spin department a formidable look for the World Cup in 2015.

The real problem and a complex one too is with the seam bowling options. Ishant, Vinay Kumar, Irfan Pathan, Umesh Yadav, Jaidev Unadkat and a few more have been tried with not much success. Even Bhuvneshwar and Shami have not been as effective as one would want them to; nevertheless, they still are clearly the two best fast bowling options available in the country.

Umesh Yadav and Varun Aaron have decent pace but fail to complement that with enough control. But, with the limited alternatives in hand, one of the two definitely deserves a look into the One-day squad. Assuming that India would ideally want five seamers in the world cup squad, the rest two places are up for grabs but worryingly with no prime contenders.

Ishant, Vinay, R.P Singh, Unadkat have all flattered to deceive. Even Zaheer Khan doesn’t look like a viable option presently because of his fitness and fielding or the lack of those, and his exploits would be further restricted with the new playing condition of two new balls, which has nullified any scope of the main weapon in Zak’s armoury – reverse swing.

If consistently horrendous performances and no truly exciting prospects don’t warrant a change in strategy, then probably nothing does. The change here refers to bringing in seamers who are not just out and out seamers but can also contribute significantly in other disciplines. With the performance bar in recent times set so low by the so called ‘specialist’ Indian seamers, it is very hard to believe that the prospective bowling all-rounders can possibly yield worse results.

The best option available presently to fulfill the role of a seam bowling all-rounder is Rishi Dhawan, who has not only been amongst the highest wicket takers in the domestic circuit in the past couple of seasons but also has a decent batting record with first class and List A averages of about 40 and 24 respectively. Apart from him, Irfan Pathan (subject to his fitness), Stuart Binny, Rajat Bhatia, or even the Bengal veteran Laxmi Shukla can also be tried for that role. But keeping in mind the tracks of Australia and New Zealand, the choice should probably be skewed primarily between Irfan and Rishi Dhawan.

None of the above mentioned measures can be categorized as knee-jerk reactions, and a team which has won 6 out of 7 ODI series just a year ago probably doesn’t even need a major overhaul. But with the horrendous performances in overseas conditions of late and the world cup scheduled just a year away in similar conditions, the above mentioned tweaks are definitely worth going for.