India have unearthed the perfect blueprint for success thus far in the ODI World Cup 2023 – bowl out or restrict oppositions to modest-to-manageable totals, and hunt the targets down with impunity with the blazing willow of Rohit Sharma at the forefront.
It’s a formula that will change at some point; India will need to, and will, bat first and see how well they can defend a target because that’s something they might be confronted with in the knockout stages. But for now, the gameplan of bowl first and chase down anything in front of them is working swimmingly.
In their four games thus far, India have shot out Australia for 199, kept Afghanistan down to 272 for eight on a terrific batting surface, dismissed Pakistan for 191 and prevented Bangladesh from scoring more than 256 for eight on another wonderful deck for batting. These are impressive performances from a bowling group that has no obvious weak link beyond Shardul Thakur, the perceived all-rounder whose batting hasn’t been called into play and whose medium-pace has been profligate and pressure-releasing.
In all of these games, the opposition has built a solid base from which to launch and yet has been unable to do so, such has been India’s mastery of the middle overs. In Chennai, Australia had reached 110 for two, courtesy Steve Smith and Marnus Labuschagne, before India fought back in style. In New Delhi, Afghanistan could not build substantially on 184 for three with more than 15 overs left. While in Ahmedabad, Pakistan suffered a stunning collapse to lose eight for 36 from 155 for two.
In Pune on Thursday night, the script played out true to form. At 110 for one in the 20th over on a surface where 300 was perhaps par, Bangladesh laboured to 256, and that too thanks to a late cameo from Mahmudullah. Like the other teams before them, Bangladesh found the relentless pressure India imposed in the middle stages of the innings too hot to handle, losing wickets in a rush as they tried to hit their way out of trouble.
The masterminds of India’s middle-order dominance have been their two vastly different left-arm spinners, the unconventional Kuldeep Yadav and the orthodox Ravindra Jadeja. Kuldeep, the leading wicket-taker in the world in ODIs this year, has picked up six for 164 in his full complement of 40 overs, at a terrific economy of 4.10. Jadeja, not as celebrated as, say, an R. Ashwin but he is an equally versatile bowler without the same storied bag of tricks, and even better figures – seven for 142 from 37.5 overs; economy, a ridiculous 3.75 runs per over.
These stats might indicate that the conditions have been highly spin-friendly, but that’s not been the case. Maybe there was some purchase for the tweakers at the MA Chidambaram Stadium - the only time India played all three spinners - but otherwise, there has been little to no help for Kuldeep and Jadeja at the three other venues. That they have still managed to come away with such exceptional figures is tribute both to their skillsets and their accuracy, which has prevented the batsmen from lining them up or even working the singles that are the bread and butter in the middle stages of a 50-over innings.
The judiciousness with which Kuldeep and Jadeja have been used by Rohit Sharma has been complemented only by the game-awareness and gut feel of the captain, who has brought back battering ram Jasprit Bumrah at the right times to effect mid-innings breakthroughs. Overs 11 through 40 is when an ODI innings meanders; batting sides pick up ones and twos and the occasional boundaries, opting to keep wickets in hand and prepare for a final blast in the last ten overs, and fielding sides go through the motions, happy to restrict the flow of runs even if the wickets don’t come their way.
India have made that second Powerplay period their own. They took six for 113 in those 30 overs against Australia, three for 163 against Afghanistan, seven for 138 against Pakistan and five for 126 against Bangladesh. That’s where India have changed the course of an innings, the destination of a game, with Kuldeep and Jadeja as their premier weapons of destruction and Bumrah adding a new dimension with his accurate yorkers and very subtle, very clever changes of pace.
“It is quite obvious that the middle overs have become quite important, especially with the extra fielder in the ring, the two new balls,” India head coach Rahul Dravid acknowledged. “You’ve got to, in some ways, beat teams in the middle overs, whether it’s by scoring more runs than them or being able to take more wickets. Wicket-taking through the middle overs really helps you at the back end, at the death, when you don’t have to bowl to the main batsmen.”
That’s exactly what India have done thus far, their wicket-taking propensity in the middle three-fifths of every innings ensuring that the opposition doesn’t have any heavy weaponry to fall back on in the final ten overs. The gathering success in each consecutive match of Kuldeep and Jadeja has forced teams to be a little conservative against the two left-arm spinners, who are nothing if not deadly when they become aware that they have a slight mental edge. Jadeja hustles through his overs at the rate of knots, barely allowing the batsman room to think, let alone breathe. Kuldeep bounds in, a twinkle in his eye, the left wrist cocking this way and that as the ball whirls through the air with a whoosh, leaving batsmen addle-headed and flat-footed. It’s a heady concoction, finger spin at one end, wrist spin at the other with no respite, no release, no freedom.
At some stage again in the World Cup, they will be rejoined by Ashwin, that consummate master who sets up and decimates batsmen better than most in world cricket. India will be an even more incisive force in that case, as was evident against Australia. Teams will by now have realized the folly of sitting back and allowing India’s spinners to do their bidding, but they also know that the quality they possess means any adventurism is fraught with danger. What do they do now? What can they do now? Interesting.
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