The recently concluded ODI series between India and Australia saw a record-crunching number of runs scored, which saw the bowling and nature of pitches come under the microscope.
The general consensus was that India’s weak, inexperienced bowling let them down.
But while the bowling obviously didn’t rise to the occasion, you cannot see the scorecard in isolation and put the onus squarely on the bowlers.
The Indian team lost the series because of lack of strong middle and lower-order batting, rather than weak bowling options.
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While the lowest score, of 295 runs, indicates the Indian batsmen did their jobs, at every outing they were around 20 runs short.
India played their A-list bowling choices, with the exception of the injured Mohammed Shami, and once again they failed to make an impression on the flat pitches. So they are a work in progress, and you can only show patience and hope they find a way to deliver.
Australia, on the other hand, had probably their third-list bowling options, with their premier bowlers either recently retired, injured or rested. They had a few debutants in their ranks, and did no better than their counterparts, barely managing to go past the Indian top order in the entire series, as well as failing to defend 330 and almost failing to defend 350.
Australia won the series because the Indian batsmen failed to deliver the knockout punch in the last ten overs. While the Indian top-order was outstanding, they would have been more expressive with a stronger middle and lower-middle order to follow them. Instead the top order knew they had to take it deep, as some players were making their debuts that series, which prevented them from changing gears.
India must improve or experiment with who bats from five to seven. Bowling, they have to make do with what they have.
Ritesh Misra
Roar Guru
Overall i agree. In all the matches we were 30-40 runs short. That was mainly because the last 10 overs were not used properly. One more reason for that is Dhoni has been doing this so consistently for almost a decade now and there was yuvraj too with him. Suddenly the team is found wanting. 5, 6 and 7 are crucial pieces of jigsaw puzzle which need to be fitted in as early as possible. After the end of the series Ashwin said that they had miscalculated the par score. That is possible too. This also shows that only batsmen cant be blamed for being 30 run short. Once they have put up 300 on board its up to the bowlers too to defend it. In the 1st 3 ODI's India had set record chases which Australia did so and therefore Bowlers are to take the blame too for not defending it
Cadfael
Roar Guru
I agree with your comment on the batsmen. Too often they seemed to just look at keeping the scoreboard moving but without any sense of urgency in those last ten overs. I kept waiting for someone to take on the bowling at that stage but the players seemed more inclined to keep their wickets intact. Both lots of bowlers tried but that was it and the wockets were abysmal.
James
Guest
Fair comment, but i still think their bowlers played a large part too Watching every game, it was almost impossible to work out where they had NOT made the right amount of runs. Good run rate, loads of wickets, good batsmen, but somehow they never had the score to reconcile that... Death bowlers? They needed more death batsmen!