New Delhi, Feb 19(.) India’s left-hand heavy batting line-up has increasingly come under the scanner in the ongoing ICC T20 World Cup, with opposition captains repeatedly deploying finger spin to choke the scoring through the middle overs.
Assistant coach of Indian team Ryan ten Doeschate has acknowledged the concern after India’s 17-run win over the Netherlands in Ahmedabad, admitting the team needs clearer plans on surfaces that aid spin heading into the Super Eight.
“I think on better wickets, you won’t see it (batters struggling against spin),” ten Doeschate said. “You can hit through the line with more confidence. But the point is that we need to have plans where the wickets do hold and the [longer] boundaries are there. We need to be able to have a game plan to deal with that threat,” the former Dutch international said at the post-match press conference.
India’s top eight features six left-hand batters, a composition that has encouraged rival captains to lean heavily on off-spinners, more specially finger spin. Through the group stage, no team has faced more off-spin than India (102 deliveries in total). Among 13 teams that have faced at least six overs of off-spin, only Nepal (5.25) and Oman (5.42) have scored slower than India’s 6.23 runs per over.
“I wouldn’t say (there are struggles against) offspin, I’d say fingerspin [on the whole],” ten Doeschate said of India’s worry heading into the Super Eight.
“If you take the combined figures, I think Pakistan bowled 14 [17] overs of fingerspin in the last game, and off the top of my head, I want to say [they got] something like 4 for 78 or something like that [5 for 125]. So it’s not great numbers [for India].”
The pattern repeated against the Netherlands, who introduced Aryan Dutt in the first over. Dutt dismissed Abhishek Sharma for a third consecutive duck and finished his powerplay spell with 2 for 17, also accounting for Ishan Kishan.
With early wickets down, Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varma opted for consolidation rather than aggression, as India scored at 7.44 runs per over between overs 7 and 15.
“It’s been a trend in this World Cup,” ten Doeschate said about the middle phase, where India haven’t been able to break free. “In IPL or bilateral series, the pace of the innings carries through from powerplay. Across all games, particularly across Sri Lanka [at this World Cup], you get off the books quickly, and batting becomes difficult through the middle phase, and teams are getting a lot more clever now.
“The Dutch guys took pace off a lot of the time. Teams are bowling a lot of fingerspin to us because we have so many left-handers, so it’s a challenge, and [it’s] going to be a differentiator in the second phase of this competition.
“Colombo [against Pakistan] was a particularly difficult wicket, and I think the numbers tonight got sort of improved towards the back end. But again, Aryan Dutt bowling four overs, it is a big challenge. I think these two venues in particular with the bigger boundary here [in Ahmedabad], and obviously a slower wicket in Colombo sort of does exaggerate that. But it’s something we’re going to have to focus on, like I said, with the amount of fingerspin we’re going to get in the next three games.”
With limited right-hand options at the top, ten Doeschate admitted the composition does narrow tactical flexibility. “It has,” ten Doeschate said. “We don’t have many options [in the top three]. We’ve got Sanju [Samson] sitting on the side, and we feel on balance, particularly with the games coming up, if we look at what fingerspinners we are going to come up against, New Zealand have got [Samson] few guys who bowl fingerspin, so do West Indies, and so does South Africa if you include Markram… But on balance, we still feel that these are our best batters, and we’re going to make do with the abundance of left-handers.”
Despite the trend, ten Doeschate played down concerns around Abhishek’s lean run. “He looked a little bit down,” ten Doeschate said. “He wants to do well, he understands the magnitude of the competition. He’s well aware of how good a player he is, he understands a small run of form like this can happen, but he’s batting well.
“Yesterday [on match eve] was the love he needed. He batted for close to 90 minutes, really looked like he had his rhythm back. So he’ll be fine. Just got to keep filling him with confidence. His record is the confidence he needs.”
As India prepare to face South Africa in their first Super Eight encounter on Sunday, their left-hand heavy line-up remains both a strength and a tactical pressure point, one that Aiden Markram & Co are certain to continue probing.
. XC .