The question had been plaguing the Indian cricket team even before the 2019 World Cup. Since their batters did not bowl and the bowlers did not bat, India always had a long tail and were always one injury away from being down to four bowlers.
Hardik Pandya’s all-round skills addressed this to some extent, but really, he was only one player. The selectors drafted in Vijay Shankar ahead of the in-form Ambati Rayudu for the World Cup; Kedar Jadhav was always around; but neither was going to be a long-term solution.
India failed to address the problem over the next four years. Ahead of the 2023 World Cup, captain Rohit Sharma was asked about the problem at a press conference. He backed himself and Virat Kohli to chip in, Rohit had responded.
India went into the World Cup with five batters, including the keeper, none of whom bowled; three out-and-out specialist bowlers with no batting credentials, and two bona-fide all-rounders in Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja. Then, they picked Shardul Thakur, a bowler with some hitting credentials, ahead of Mohammed Shami, a superior bowler but an inferior batter.
Shami’s omission led to outrage, especially after he finished the World Cup with 24 wickets in seven games (at a ridiculous rate of a wicket every 12 balls), but one could see why the team management preferred Thakur (17-0-102-2 in three matches).
Pandya’s mid-tournament injury forced India to pick Suryakumar Yadav, but the combination went haywire – because now they were down to five bowlers. To boost the bowling, they were forced to recall Shami for Thakur. Shami’s devastating bowling throughout the World Cup hid India’s long tail... until the final: after losing three quick wickets and only Suryakumar, whose ODI career had never really taken off, to follow, Kohli and KL Rahul had little option but to eliminate risk.
At the 2024 T20 World Cup, India were determined to address this lack of balance. Despite having never picked both of them together in the same T20I XI before, they picked both the left-arm finger-spin-bowling duo of Axar Patel and Jadeja throughout the World Cup. There was no question about the hierarchy – Axar faced 66 balls and bowled 25 overs, Jadeja 22 and 14 – but despite Pandya’s presence, India picked Jadeja, match after match: the “what if” from the final seven months was too raw in the minds.
Yet, it was a stopgap arrangement. Jadeja retired after the T20 World Cup. Ashwin is unlikely to make a comeback. And Pandya is injury-prone. Thakur has probably fallen off the radar, and Deepak Chahar has had his tryst with injuries. Axar will have a part to play, but India need more cricketers who can contribute in more ways than one.
Given that bowlers are likelier to be injured more often than batters, finding batters who can chip in with a few overs are a better bet. In India’s first series after the World Cup, in Zimbabwe, India picked Washington Sundar and Nitish Kumar Reddy, all-rounders ready to fill in for Pandya or Axar in an emergency. Shahbaz Ahmed is also lurking somewhere, eager to pounce upon the first opportunity that comes his way.
Reddy missed the series through an injury, but Washington won the Player of the Match. Something else happened as well. After their defeat in the first match, India picked an extra batter. As a result, Abhishek Sharma bowled 13 overs in five games, Shivam Dube eight in three, and even Riyan Parag rolled his arm over once.
A new structure
In the first T20I against Sri Lanka fielded a structurally different XI from the T20 World Cup final. Pandya and Axar were there, but there was no third all-rounder. India changed their four-batters-one-keeper-thre-all-rounders-three-specialist-bowlers combination to 5-1-2-3. Of the five batters, Riyan was the most equipped to fill in.
There was no Jasprit Bumrah or Kuldeep Yadav. The Sri Lankans, boosted by the recent Lanka Premier League in the same conditions, raced to 140-1 in 14 overs in pursuit of 214, but India did not have a sixth bowler to fall back on. The new formation threatened to get exposed, but India’s specialists turned things back to their favour.
Three wickets fell, but Sri Lanka needed 56 in 24 balls with Suryakumar, the new captain, introduced Riyan. Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj had two overs up their sleeves, but India decided to back him. Riyan had leapfrogged Sanju Samson, his Rajasthan Royals captain, into the XI, but had failed with the bat. India needed to back him ahead of his rivals in the deepest talent pool in the world.
Dasun Shanaka was run out off the first ball of the over. Riyan dismissed Kamindu Mendis and conceded five. He returned for the final over when the match was all but dusted, and struck twice more to finish with 1.2-0-5-3.
𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐮𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐧𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞 🎯@ParagRiyan delivered when #TeamIndia needed him the most 😍#SonySportsNetwork #SLvIND pic.twitter.com/mKmpaQ5pLp
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) July 27, 2024
Make no mistake. Riyan’s burst did not solve India’s problem overnight. But it gave an insight into what India plan to do. There were indications when they picked him for the ODI side – despite there being no room with Rohit, Gill, Kohli, Rahul, Shreyas Iyer, and Rishabh Pant all in contention.
While it is not always prudent to combine ODIs and T20Is, the formats have two things in common. First, no one can bowl more than one-fifth of an innings, necessitating in at least five bowlers. And the ability to hit is a necessary condition for anyone expected to walk out in the final phases of an innings.
Reddy, Shahbaz, and Washington are full-quota bowlers, but are unlikely to bat in the top five, and are viable replacements for Pandya or Axar. At this point, India need to zero in on a group of batters who can chip in with a few overs to back their full-fledged all-rounders and specialist bowlers.
New head coach Gautam Gambhir had demonstrated a preference towards batters who bowl and bowlers who bat during his stints with the Lucknow Super Giants in 2022 and 2023, and with the Kolkata Knight Riders in 2024. Every option may not be utilised in every match, but he prefers the “insurance” of options.
By picking Jadeja for the 2024 T20 World Cup, the Indian selectors (and Rohit) had already demonstrated their keenness towards the same. With Gambhir (and Rohit, in ODIs) at the helm, they are likely to back this group of cricketers.
In the future, expect batters who can bowl to leapfrog those who cannot.
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