What has Aakash Chopra had to say?
The Indian cricket team is still struggling with the long-tail issue in T20 cricket. Even the team’s head coach, Rahul Dravid, acknowledged the lack of all-round players. Tilak Varma even bowled in the fifth Twenty20 International between India and the West Indies, capturing the prized wicket of Nicholas Pooran. Even past cricket players are stepping up to support the Indian team’s decision to support Varma and Yashasvi Jaiswal in their desire to bowl more frequently.
What has Aakash Chopra had to say?
Aakash Chopra, a former Indian cricketer, urged the squad to prioritize batters with bowling skills and to give young players like Yashasvi Jaiswal and Tilak Varma a long rope and encouragement to bowl as frequently as possible. In the T20I format, he also urged spin-bowling all-rounder Washington Sundar to join India’s team.
Tweet:
The Indian team needs to start advocating for hitters who can bowl because the majority of their present batters can only bowl a few overs. Give Yashasvi-Tilak a longer rope and encourage her to bowl as frequently as she can. Washington must figure into India’s T20 plan as well, Chopra wrote in a tweet on X (formerly known as Twitter).
Considering that most of the current Indian batters don’t bowl even a couple of overs, Indian team must start pushing for batters who do. Yashasvi-Tilak should be given a longer rope…and encouraged to bowl as often as possible. Washington has to be in India’s T20 scheme of…
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) August 16, 2023
Despite rolling their arms a little in their early years, Indian stars like Rohit Sharma (11 international wickets) and Virat Kohli (eight international wickets) have not bowled in years, depriving the team of the variety and options that they could have provided with their part-time bowling. As specialist batters, rising players like Shubman Gill, Shreyas Iyer, and Suryakumar Yadav have also competed.
Batsmen with good bowling performances
With batting stars like Sachin Tendulkar (201 international wickets), Virender Sehwag (136 international wickets), Sourav Ganguly (132 international wickets), Yuvraj Singh (148 international wickets), and Suresh Raina (62 international wickets) being incredibly skilled with the ball and having the ability to take crucial wickets when their team needed them, this was not the case with the Indian team of the past.
The team is heavily dependent on its full-time bowlers, including Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umran Malik, and Umesh Yadav, as a result of the lack of batters who can bowl. The only players giving the team much-needed depth and options are all-rounders Hardik Pandya and Ravindra Jadeja.
India was given the ball during the final T20I match against the West Indies, which they lost. Tilak (14 wickets in first-class, List A, and T20 cricket) and Yashasvi (seven wickets across all formats at the domestic level) both took wickets. India suffered a 2-3 series loss. India’s depth in the batting during the series was a major problem.
