India are an elite defending team — and it's because they attack

Why have India been so good at defending totals in T20I cricket recently?

Since the start of 2023, India Men have played 42 T20Is. Their record stands at 31 wins, eight defeats, two ties, and a no result – and a T20 World Cup crown to boot. Among teams that have played at least 20 matches in this period, they sit second behind Uganda for the best win-loss ratio. Australia have the next best record among Test-playing nations, but theirs is barely half as good as India's.

Split this by whether India have batted or fielded first, though, and there is an interesting trend. Their win-loss record is 19-4 batting first (two ties), and 12-4 batting second (one no result).

Both are excellent, but India stand out compared to other top sides when it comes to defending totals. The next best among Full Members with a 10-game cut-off while batting first are Afghanistan, with a record of 9-6.

So what is it that makes India such a good defending team?

Defending targets: Is it about bowling well?

When a team displays a prowess for defending totals, the natural, understandable tendency is to look at their bowling. Doing so, one finds that India are undoubtedly among the best teams when bowling in the second innings in this time period.

India's bowling average of 19.5 is bettered only by Afghanistan among Test-playing nations. Their rate of picking up a wicket every 14.8 balls is the best of any Full Member nation, and the third-best overall after Uganda and Scotland.

India's economy rate when defending totals in this time period is intriguing, though. At 7.9 an over, they are significantly better than the West Indies (8.8) and Sri Lanka (8.2), and marginally better than New Zealand (8.0). For a champion defending team, however, you might expect them to stand out a bit more from the crowd in this respect.

These figures nevertheless paint an insightful picture. Essentially, when defending totals, India pick up wickets frequently while conceding runs at a rate that is slightly quicker than par. What this suggests is they come up against teams that go hard, i.e., take risks by batting with high intent.

Inevitably, the next question is, why are teams batting with high intent against India?

For India, attack is the best form of defence

The simplest answer is the best here. Chasing teams bat with high intent against a team like India because, well, they are chasing high totals. And it is the fact that India set high totals that creates the foundation for their recent stellar defensive record in T20Is.

Until 2023, teams that scored 180 or more in the first innings ended up winning men's T20Is 85 per cent of the time. In their 25 matches batting first, India made it to this mark on 15 occasions. With even an average bowling lineup (which India's is not), most teams on most days would successfully defend it.

Their increased intent with the bat, aided by the emergence of players in the mould of Yashasvi Jaiswal and Rinku Singh, has helped turn India into a side with the capability to effectively bat opposition teams out of the game. In fact, this trend holds true not only since 2023, but since the start of Rahul Dravid's reign as head coach.

During Dravid's entire tenure (November 2021-June 2024), India's record batting first remains dominant when compared to other Test nations. They won nearly three times as many matches as they lost, over a span of 49 games. In a format as volatile as this one, tipping the odds in your favour to that extent over that long is not to be scoffed at.

In these 49 games, they scored 180+ on a total of 31 occasions, putting up a win-loss record of 35-12. No other team breached the 180 mark in more than half their matches, except South Africa (9 out of 16).

The question that can be posed now is, were India not doing this before?

In short (and in long, really), the answer is no. In the three years preceding Dravid's time in charge (October 2018-October 2021), India batted first 23 times in T20Is. They crossed 180 six times, just over one-fourth of the time. This was accompanied by a win-loss record of 10-11, hardly that of a dominant side.

In the eight matches T20Is India have played since Dravid's departure, they have batted first on five occasions, posting 180 or more thrice. They have won four of these matches, and tied the other.

So does the bowling matter at all?

In short, yes. But perhaps not to the same extent as the batting, or shift in approach with the bat. India's bowling being above average is what helps them rack up wins to the extent that they have.

An inferior or average attack might still have yielded good results, but almost certainly not established this level of dominance. India's bowlers are good enough to help them do that, but even the best attacks will struggle to keep the opposition below a certain score unless the conditions on the day are extreme. It does help, though, that they can call upon the game-breaker, Jasprit Bumrah, whenever he is available.

But in essence, India's improvement in first-innings batting has a knock-on effect on the bowlers. Oppositions are chasing large totals, which shifts the onus onto them to take more risks.

This increased risk-taking against an Indian attack that is usually one of the top three or four in the world, means they will be unsuccessful more times than not. India rarely have to go searching for wickets. Rather, the bowlers can often wait for them to happen.

Is India's defensive record Rahul Dravid's greatest legacy?

What is more impressive about this record is the fact that batting first in T20 cricket is considered a difficult proposition. Chasing is largely thought to be easier, partly because of the dew factor in certain conditions during night games, and partly because the team batting second knows exactly how many runs they need to get.

The last calendar year in which teams batting first in men's T20Is won more than half of all matches was 2018. Since 2019, the record is 1006-969 in favour of chasing sides. Against this backdrop, India winning over 70 per cent of their matches when batting first under Dravid is astounding.

But it is also no surprise that this has flown under the radar. Successful defences of high totals are simply not noticed, because teams are expected to do that. Afghanistan, for example, have garnered a reputation of being a solid defensive unit, because of the quality of their bowlers and the eye-catching nature of how they defended some low first-innings scores. Their overall record is nowhere near India's.

This transformation of India into a defensive behemoth in T20Is may turn into one of the defining features of Dravid’s time in charge, with its foundations built on a remarkably simplistic logic. There is also a certain poetry around his team becoming, in a sense, impenetrable. As for the method of this change, it's hard not to crack a smile at it being through the means of attack, something alien to the image of Dravid the batter.

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