India must change their ODI attack for the remaining two matches against Australia due to several of their key bowlers being consistently found out.
Star paceman Mohammad Shami and spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Jadeja all have poor recent records against the Aussies, while rookie quick Shardul Thakur took 0-43 from five overs as the tourists flogged India in Mumbai on Tuesday.
The second-ranked ODI team in the world, India’s enormous success in this format in the past few years has been built on two key planks: the dominance of their extraordinary top order of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, and the consistent ability of their bowling unit to blanket opposition batting units.
The effectiveness of India’s attack has meant their batting line-up has not needed to be hyper-aggressive like England, who do not possess an elite attack and so need to crunch huge scores to compensate.
India have the best win-loss record in the past five years despite being only the fourth-quickest scoring team in that time, with an average run rate of 5.71 per over, behind England (6.19), Australia (5.84) and South Africa (5.83).
They have not needed to constantly make massive totals to be a commanding side because their quicks have been effective in the power play and at the death and their spinners have run amok in the middle overs.
With the ball they have had all bases covered. Jasprit Bumrah (ODI bowling average of 22), Shami (25), Kuldeep (25) and leg spinner Yuzevndar Chahal (26) have formed the bedrock of a wonderful and varied attack.
(Visionhaus/Getty Images)
Now, however, their bowlers are being picked apart by Australia, who have won four matches on the trot in India.
After being thumped in his last two ODIs against the green and gold, Chahal was replaced by Jadeja. But in the past five years left-armer Jadeja has played 14 ODIs against Australia for a return of eight wickets at 87.
While he remains economical, Jadeja poses next to no wicket-taking threat, which has thrown India off balance after years of relying on their spinners to make regular breakthroughs in the middle overs.
Kuldeep and Chahal made their names doing just that. Only one year ago that pair were the third and fourth-ranked bowlers in the world – the best spin combination in the format by a mile.
Chahal since lost his spot, while Kuldeep has been worked out by the Aussies. In his last ten ODIs against Australia the left-arm wrist spinner has averaged a whopping 48 with the ball.
Although Australia have been fragile at times against spin over the past decade, their current line-up is stacked with fine players of slow bowling. Aaron Finch, David Warner and Steve Smith are three of the best players of spin in the world, while Alex Carey, Marnus Labuschagne and Ashton Turner are also comfortable against it.
(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool)
India’s spinners struggling for impact has heaped pressure on quicks Shami and Bumrah to excel.
Shami may have a fantastic career record, but in his past ten ODIs against Australia he has the awful figures of ten wickets at 55.
Even the ultra-consistent Bumrah – the best white-ball quick in the world – has laboured of late. In his past five ODIs against the Aussies he has averaged 44 with the ball, while his economy rate has been 5.80 runs per over, way above his career mark of 4.53.
India do not have one bowler who’s enjoyed recent success against Australia. They should make two changes to their attack for tomorrow’s second match in Bangalore: Thakur should make way for express quick Navdeep Saini and Chahal should replace Kuldeep.
The home side need a major lift from their highly rated attack if they are to fight back and win this series.
One game against the best one day team in the world and we're "exposing their bowlers'. Bit of a reach tbh. Let's draw these conclusions at the end of this short series.
Rob
Guest
I have a theory about good cricketers and particularly batsmen. To bat well you have to practice at a level superior to what you will encounter during a match. If a batsman is practicing against superior bowlers then they are much better prepared and decidedly more confident at the crease. I also believe the current bowling unit has changed it’s lines and length to be more focused at attacking the stumps. It has certainly worked that our Batsmen are much tighter in defence and playing with a straighter bat IMO. The fact the Australians are more successful away from home with bat and ball right now has been direct result of our bowling unit being fit and more consistent at challenging the batsmen’s stumps IMO. Lehman’s short pitch (Australian way) 140km theory was rubbish. Starc has been a better bowler since his sacking.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
Ronan...interesting article. One thing is guaranteed....India will be much better in the next match!
dungerBob
Roar Rookie
As others have said it seems a little premature to write the Indian attack off just yet. Due to the somewhat experimental nature of our middle order it won't surprise me at all if we are the ones to crash and burn in Fridays game. Again, as others have said, we might have been a single wicket away from a monumental struggle to make the 250 odd we needed. I'm going to reserve my judgement until we see how our middle order actually goes against the Indians.
The Late News
Roar Rookie
I think their top order is sooo strong that the lower order hardly get to bat...Early wickets had them under all sorts of pressure and in uncharted waters...no surprise really given how good their top 3 or 4 are!
The Late News
Roar Rookie
I hope its not a long term problem. No one likes to see this kind of thing.
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
Interesting take Brian. Certainly take your point that T20 has influenced the batting roles and structure of the order. Top order collapses still occur in all formats so I think the middle order is still a key requirement to a quality team I would argue that at the last WC ENG have a good middle/low order and Aus had some good talent with Maxwell and Carey. Current Aus middle order strenght is pretty good with Turner, Carey, Maxwell, Stoinis, Handscomb all available. India previously had a one man middle order in MS who seemd to be able to single-handedly win games for them
Paul
Roar Guru
What article? That's more than a day ago? Sure it wasn't fake news?
Paul
Roar Guru
has Bumrah played a lot of cricket recently Tanmoy? I note he played a couple of T20s against Sri Lanka in January, but doesn't seem to have done much since August. Obviously injury hasn't helped his cause, but he seems to be a bowler who needs work and the more he gets, the better he bowls.
Paul
Roar Guru
It's interesting because I listened to some recently retired Indian players straight after the game and they collectively said the same thing - it was simply a bad day at the office, which it was. I'm certainly not writing the Indians off at all and the next game should be a beauty because India will be super keen not to lose this series.
Pumping Dougie
Roar Guru
Pretty harsh on Ronan. I love his articles and always find them well argued. He uses stats to support his case. People can disagree with his views but don't play the man. His job is to write articles that engage the readers and he does that really well, consistently.
Tanmoy Kar
Roar Rookie
Bumrah is no more the same after returning from his injury recently.
The Bush
Roar Guru
I do feel that some of these "he averages X against Australia/India" etc statistics are a bit too small in sample size to mean much. Yes Bumrah has averaged 44 against Australia in the last five games... but if you change that sample size to be from the start of our tour of 2019, then it does to 35.5, still not great, but not terrible. Having said that, I don't think Bumrah is quite as amazing in ODI cricket as people make out (though he is very good) - he averages 32 overall against Australia and 45 against England, so pretty modest against the two best ODI sides, and a whopping 48 against Pakistan (another decent ODI side).
Tanmoy Kar
Roar Rookie
Due to concussion Pant will not play the 2nd match, Rahul will do the keeping. They may bring back Manish Pandey to strengthen the middle order.
Tanmoy Kar
Roar Rookie
Yes, India need to make some changes in their bowling line-up, they could not pick up even one wicket in a 255 runs chase.
Brian
Guest
No one has a good middle order anymore. With T20 all the best batsman play in the top 4. Guys at No 5-7 are either all rounders or the last guys picked in the XI.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
Re second sentence - 100% correct.
Jeff
Roar Rookie
"Humour or a statement based on a perceived generalisation is not racism" Yet two days ago you also claimed that Joffre Archer being abused with comments relating to his skin colour, was just "name calling" and didn't warrant the attention of NZ police assistance to find out who made the remarks so that the spectator could be penalised by NZC. It's clear to everyone what your agenda is and what you are attempting to achieve with this latest comment on yet another article; why don't you just move your focus to some dark-web forums that are more aligned with your particular societal view. In those places you can stay in the shadows and even continue to be an anonymous "Guest".
Sgt Pepperoni
Roar Rookie
He (Shami) looked fairly innocuous the other night. Not sure what his problem was. I don't think it's that the aussies had 'worked him out'. Maybe just an off night For me the thing that has set the Indian team apart over the last few years has been their pace attack. They've always had great batsmen and spinners but it was their pace attack of bumrah, shami and ishant that really stood up in three Australian tour. Out of the three bumrah seemed the most unplayable. With arms going everywhere, swing both ways, incredible control and great pace he has led their attack. Hopefully he can return to form post injury. Without him they seem a lot less of a team and this is compounded by a weak middle order and no dhoni
Paul D
Roar Rookie
That was classic. We all piled on beforehand too, don't get me wrong, but poor old Ronan carried the can