Cricket in India is like a religion to people. People here expect their team to win every single game, irrespective of the level of opposition and the playing conditions. Fortunately, the Indian Cricket Team has done quite good with the bat in the recent past but when it comes to bowling, especially in the death, the bowlers have not really clicked. Let’s discuss five main reasons why Indian bowlers lack behind in death overs and possible alternatives:
- Accuracy and Consistency
While bowling in the death with seamers, the ideal length should be yorker length or delivery bowled wide outside off to prevent hitting. Bowling low full tosses is another tool but the Indian bowlers have not used it so well in the recent past. An attempted yorker or low full toss generally goes for a full toss, inviting batsman for a slog sweep or a lofted shot. Here, the seamers have to really drain out some sweat during net practice.
- New variations in the bowling
Bowlers like Mohit Sharma have mixed the bowling variations quite nicely till now but the time demands for a change in these variations. With the IPL cricket going side by side, the batsmen tend to predict the bowlers’ length.The slower ones are easily read by the batsmen now and the task becomes a bit difficult for the bowlers.
- Heavy reliance on spinners
The key for Indian bowling has always been the front-line spinners and the part-timers. Though, in Indian subcontinent wickets they can come & provide breakthroughs during those middle overs, but always relying on them can prove to be India’s weakness in long run.
- Regular seamers missing
In ODIs, it becomes very crucial for any team to play with its regular fast bowlers who can clock over 140 km consistently. The problem with the seamers is that they lack pace and consistency in their lengths. It is very much necessary to go with atleast 2 regular pacers like Shami, Yadav or Ishant. This not only helps the spinners to complete their role at those middle overs, but also lessens the burden on part-timers in the powerplay overs.
- Ashwin needed in death overs
When the pitch does not offer much to the fast bowlers, using front-line spinner Ashwin in the slog overs is not a bad option to go with, keeping in mind that India at present has no experienced fast bowler in their side.
Moreover, with changing patterns and trends in cricket, teams nowadays like to settle till 35th or 40th over and then look for big shots, what we call as “clean acceleration.” Therefore, using a quality spinner like Ashwin can help the team in restricting the opposition under a run rate of 7.5-8 an over, which doesn’t seem to be bad in the death.
