Team India, over the years, had the cushion of an extra bowler or two as a few of their top-order batsmen could bowl, believes former Indian batsman Subramaniam Badrinath, and highlighted Virat Kohli’s team doesn’t have any.
There has been a lot of discussion about Team India lacking a sixth bowler, who can bat as well, during the ongoing ODI series against Australia. The regular bowlers leaked 374 runs in the 1st ODI and a record-setting 389 in the 2nd ODI and ended up getting comfortably outplayed in both the matches.
India’s new-ball bowlers — Mohammed Shami, Jasprit Bumrah, and Navdeep Saini — failed to get an early breakthrough as Australia’s opening combination — Aaron Finch and David Warner — has been a tough nut to crack.
Due to the lack of resources, as far as India’s bowling line-up is concerned, Finch and Warner have stitched 100+ partnerships in the first two ODIs. In the first ODI, Virat could only use bowlers but in the second ODI, Hardik Pandya chipped in with four overs and dismissed centurion Steve Smith.
The Indian skipper later revealed that Hardik was not in India’s bowling plans and he stepped in to bowl after he asked him mid-way during their bowling innings. Notably, Hardik, after the first ODI, had emphasized that he wouldn’t rush into bowling after having recovered from a serious back injury.
“No one from the top 5 or top 6 is bowling now. If you look at the Indian teams in the past, top-order batsmen managed to bowl a bit. Sehwag used to bowl, Sachin used to bowl, even Ganguly used to bowl,” Badrinath told Star Sports Tamil.
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“They used to give the captain 3-4 overs. You can manage 10 overs with them. When a bowler had a bad day, they didn’t have the necessity to give him 10 overs. India is missing that now.
“Even if Rohit Sharma returns… he is not bowling these days. At the same time, look at Australia, they have someone like Marcus Stoinis… He can bowl 5-6 overs easily. Maxwell can bowl. You need this aspect in limited-overs cricket. I think India are struggling a bit in this aspect,” he added.
Though Mayank Agarwal also bowled an over, he conceded 10 runs and looked far from convincing. As Badrinath rightly pointed out, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma need to chip in with a few bowlers. While Virat last bowled in an ODI in 2017, Rohit hasn’t picked up the ball in ODI since 2016. Notably, Rohit has an IPL hat-trick to his name.