2022 T20 World Cup: Can India's bowling attack take us all the way?

India beat Bangladesh by 5 runs at the Adelaide Oval. (Image: @BCCI/Twitter)

In the lead-up to India’s T20 World Cup campaign, several concerns were raised over the bowling group, and specifically the death bowling. In Jasprit Bumrah’s injury-enforced absence, one huge weapon was taken out of the Indian arsenal. Mohammed Shami was playing Twenty20 Internationals for the first time since early November 2021, when India crashed out of the preceding World Cup. Arshdeep Singh, skilled as he is, is a relative greenhorn, Bhuvneshwar Kumar had been taken for plenty towards the end of the innings in the Asia Cup and in the T20I series against Australia at home, and it seemed as if the Harshal Patel slower ball magic was waning.

Four matches into the tournament, it can be safely said that most of those concerns have been put to rest. India’s bowling group is shaping up into a competent, competitive unit, and even the end-overs profligacy back home has been offset to a large extent by the bigger grounds in Australia and the greater response they have elicited from the playing surfaces.

Except against Bangladesh at the Adelaide Oval on Wednesday, India have earned early breakthroughs in each of the earlier three games. Against Pakistan, Arshdeep packed off dangerous openers Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan inside the first four overs, while Netherlands were two down in the first five overs and South Africa were 24 for three at the end of the Powerplay.

It took a freak innings from Litton Das to deny India early success in their latest Super 12 game, though even then, Bhuvneshwar found his outside edge twice. On the first occasion, the ball fell just short of a sprawling Dinesh Karthik, on the second, the keeper went full tilt to his right and got a glove but the ball burst out. To say that India’s disciplines with the new ball have been impeccable will be an understatement.

The end overs bowling hasn’t been shabby either. The 15 and 20-run overs which stacked up with alarming regularity in the last two months have been eliminated; ten an over in the last five with wickets in hand is the norm rather than the exception, and the fact that India haven’t felt the need to make wholesale changes to the bowling group – or the playing XI itself – is indication enough that the team management feels the best personnel are occupying those slots.

Arshdeep came into prominence on the back of his exploits in the IPL, for Punjab Kings from when it was Kings XI Punjab. Predominantly, it was his death-overs proficiency that caught the eye. Through hours of hard labour at the nets under the watchful eyes of head coach Anil Kumble, among others, he set stall as a yorker specialist, sending down the near-unhittable ball at will, mixing it up with a couple of variations of the slower ball and using a skiddy, troublesome bouncer to keep the batsmen honest. He has replicated much of that success with the national team too; in 17 games, he has already snaffled 28 wickets, his economy of 8.17 and a strike-rate of a wicket every 13.3 deliveries comparing favourably with the industry average.

That doesn’t mean he won’t make execution mistakes at the death, or that his colleagues won’t. Every team has had its share of problems in closing out innings, that’s the very nature of the T20 game. “It's an area of our game that we've wanted to look to address, to look to get better at,” head coach Rahul Dravid acknowledged. “Obviously, Bums (Bumrah) was one of our guys who was pencilled into bowl two of those (last five) overs. It was really heartening for us to see the way young Arshdeep has developed over the last few months.

“If you were to ask me in November (last year) when I first took over and I had a list of bowlers in my mind, sure, Arshdeep was there, but he was - certainly he hadn't had that kind of IPL. He had had one good IPL. But the way he's come along after that, he's come and forced his way into the side and done really well. That's a fantastically heartening thing to see.

“Shami and Bhuvi bowled really well for us. We have to keep developing and getting slightly better with our plans and our strategies around those games. There's one or two balls there that hopefully we can get right and get better as we go along. We want to get better in all areas, but that's certainly one we're looking at.”

In their four matches in the T20 World Cup to date, India have used just 12 players, and Deepak Hooda’s lone appearance against South Africa in Perth was a strategic one. Hooda came in for Axar Patel, the left-arm spinner, both because the Proteas had three left-handers in the top five and because India felt they needed a little more batting muscle against the formidable South African pace battery. Axar returned for the Bangladesh game and though he only had a bit role to play in the five-run win on the DLS Method, his re-inclusion points to a clarity of thought that only comes from deep introspection and no little confidence in the group.

On Wednesday, that confidence was briefly shaken when Litton went into attack mode, depositing everything hurled at him to and over the fence with casual disdain. To their credit, India fell back on their experience, refusing to panic even when the score board was rattling along. The moment K.L. Rahul created an opening with an inspired piece of fielding – a direct hit to dismiss the marauding Litton – India attacked relentlessly, using the short ball superbly to trigger an inexorable Bangladeshi collapse.

“It was easier for our batsmen than their bowlers out there, with a wet ball and a slippery outfield,” Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan conceded in a glowing tribute to the Indian bowling.

None of this means they are the finished product or will not have bad days. Again, that’s how the T20 game is set up. Zimbabwe on Sunday, or anyone else in the knockouts, should India keep their appointed place there, might tear into them, but more accomplished, celebrated and experienced attacks from other teams have endured a similar fate. The trick will be to minimise the damage to the extent possible. and in the last ten days, India have shown that they have the wherewithal to do so.