Game on as India's Long Tail Exposes Their Batting Line-up

Depth in talent has become a massive requirement in white-ball Cricket. Most sides out their have managed to produce a side that bats all the way down the order while training batters to chip in with the ball. England has Adil Rashid who has first-class centuries down at number eleven and Joe Root with handy off-spin at number three. Australia the same with Travis Head at the top and the likes of Starc and Cummins who are no mugs with the bat.

West Indies too did not look a bit flustered when Akeal Hossein and Alzarri Joseph carried the side home with two wickets remaining as the West Indies number nine and ten put pressure on the visiting side. Funnily enough, India once were a part of the motion that started the trend. While the stats may not be the best, India had the likes of Zaheer Khan down at nine, and Harbhajan Singh at eight, who could bat well enough to hold their positions. With the ball, the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina were as good as any full-time bowler back in the day.

Today though, in a time where bits and pieces cricketers are making magic happen with three-dimensional cricket, India has gone into a shell with their specialists. For the second T20 in a row, India came in with four number elevens, a problem that has been with them since the 2019 World Cup. The issue was evident back then when MS Dhoni and Kedar Jadhav controversially slowed down and played for net-run-rate rather than the win as they knew the batting depth behind them was non-existent.

During the first T20 India were left in a similar situation. They needed 37 off 30, a very gettable target and they had six wickets in hand. They lost Pandya and Samson soon though leaving Kuldeep Yadav at eight with the task of taking them home. Four wickets in hand going into the back end is often seen as a decent amount, although not too comforting. For India though in the first T20 it looked a lot tougher with the batting level of their tail very low.

In the second T20 India went with a similar side bringing in Ravi Bishnoi for an injured Kuldeep Yadav. Batting first, India found themselves four down in the 12th over leaving them in a hole as they went into a shell having to protect the tail from being exposed to early. They could not counter-attack and their top-order too had to go about business cautiously. With a weak tail, the high-risk approach could not come on display as India’s long-time issue of batters, not bowling and bowlers not batting came out again.

A change in the eleven too does not seem to be the solution with the given squad. An option would have been to bring in Jaiswal for a bowler, leaving India a bowler short, demanding Hardik Pandya to bowl four overs while not having cushion if one of the bowlers have a bad day. With the current squad, barring Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel, India does not have anyone who could play a role in both aspects. Axar Patel, with the number of left-handers in the West Indies side, has also been limited with his bowling as he did not bowl a single over in the second game.

An external option to strengthen those positions could be in the form of a Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Deepak Chahar. However, fitness issues and inconsistencies make it tough to consistently look at them as options. While the tail did decently in the second game, their credentials are a concern, and this remains an issue even for the World Cup with a lack of players who could chip in ever-so-slightly like the Indian Team of old.