4 overs remain and required runs is 54, 42 and 41. This was the equation in three of the last 4 games that Indian bowlers were supposed to defend. The opposition were Australia, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. All the games were lost well before the final ball was bowled. India must have won all of those games, especially in Dubai where the batsmen batted extremely well to post high enough totals for the bowlers to defend but the bowlers came a cropper. Just before the T20 World Cup and for the future too, Indian bowling is in serious trouble.
Supporters will point to the fact that Bumrah did not play any part in any of those games. The point is that if it the case that the absence of one bowler will affect the entire bowling unit, than that team is in real trouble. Moreover, none of the so-called fast bowlers, Bumrah included are capable of bowling at 145KMPH. Leave alone 145, except for Bumrah, the rest operate in the 135KMPH bracket. Not enough to threaten the power hitters of the opposition.
The Mohali pitch is the only pitch in India that can simulate the pitches that the Indians will find in Australia. Good enough bounce without any movement. If the last night’s game is anything to go by, the bowlers are likely to leak runs by the dozen. It actually puts enormous amount of pressure on the batsmen. They know that whatever runs that they score, the bowlers are likely to give away a run more. It will make them take much more risks that necessary and in trying to score an enormous amount of runs, they will falter easily. This was the case in ODIs during the first half of the millennium when the Indian batsmen tried to compensate for the lack of penetrative bowling.
The bowlers
Harshal Patel is quite good in the IPL. The pitches are slow and low on which his slower deliveries carried lot of bite but on truer pitches like Mohali, he was found wanting. He will surely encounter more of the same in Australia. What is he going to do and how is he going to adapt is something I am looking forward to? If he is unable to find a way, that will be a serious concern.
Chahal is another who is struggling. The bigger grounds of Australia may encourage him to flight the ball, not that he is not doing it already, but it may not be possible to clobber him though I expect shorter boundaries during the World Cup. The Indian selectors made a blunder by not including Bishnoi who can contain better than Chahal.
Kumar, what can one say about him. He has become untrustworthy when it comes to death bowling.
“I don’t think we bowled well,” Rohit said on the official broadcast after the match. “Two hundred is a good score to defend, and we didn’t take our chances in the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but bowlers were not quite there.”You can’t score 200 everyday, you need to bat well. Hardik [Pandya] batted really well to get us there. We need to look at our bowling before the next game.”
Wrapping up Indian bowling is in serious trouble
Even though Bumrah and Arshdeep may come in, the lack of pace among any of the Indian bowlers is a serious concern. We can all kiss a goodbye to the World Cup already.