COMBINATION ANALYSIS
Follow UsWhen Hardik Pandya walked out of the field during his first over of the World Cup clash against Bangladesh, the team management provided a false consolation that the all-rounder would be available for the remaining games of the tournament.
Pandya’s supposed return was then delayed to the South Africa tour and the upcoming home series against Afghanistan. Now, reports suggest he may miss out on some games in the IPL 2024 as the recovery has been taking time.
Injuries have been the only constant in Pandya’s career. Going by this pattern and the workload of IPL, one can never be certain that the 30-year old will be available for the T20 World Cup.
Pandya will be a big miss for India if that happens. He is India’s best bet at creating a sixth bowling option. While plenty of options exist to replace Pandya with the bat, his bowling value tactically makes him the most vital player for India.
There are still a few months left for the T20 World Cup, but such will be the void created by Pandya’s absence that India need to start looking for a solution. In this piece, we look at a few options to explore for the Men in Blue, considering that Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli will feature in the squad given their inclusion for the Afghanistan series.
Shivam Dube’s power-hitting to the rescue
Shivam Dube, of late, has been a part of only India’s second-string sides. His last two appearances for the Men in Blue were against Ireland and during the Asian Games. But advancing him to the primary side is the closest India can get to a like-for-like solution for this situation.
Even that sounds preposterous from a surface glance at the idea. Dube is nowhere close to Pandya’s expertise as a bowler. And there are many batters in the queue waiting for their chance. However, no other seam-bowling batting all-rounder has featured for India in a long time.
If the pitches in the West Indies and the USA during the World Cup are as slow as anticipated, Dube can be a handy addition as a power-hitter against spin at four or five. The slow pitches will also allow him to bowl a couple of overs if one of the other five bowlers is having a bad day.
Thus, Dube’s inclusion will cover Pandya’s absence with minimal changes to the current combination. The team management’s stance on the same will be clear after the Afghanistan series, for which Dube is a part of India’s squad.
A spin-bowling all-rounder
The slow pitches in the West Indies and the USA can persuade India to play three spinners - one of Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja, one of the wrist-spinners between Kuldeep Yadav and Ravi Bishnoi and an off-spinner for match-up bowling to counter left-handed batters.
In the current setup, India possess two off-spin bowling all-rounders - Tilak Varma and Washington Sundar.
Both Tilak and Washington are part of India’s squad to face Afghanistan. Washington is the most experienced in this lot and provides the best bowling value. Since 2017, he has featured in India’s T20I XI every year, confirming that he has always been part of plans. He has also batted in the lower-order for India in white-ball cricket. But in the biggest caveats surrounding Washington, the 24-year-old has picked up more injuries than international caps and is horribly out of touch in whatever professional cricket he has played.
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Tilak has regularly been in India’s white-ball squads since the last IPL. He averages 45.8 at number four, 45.5 at five and 36 at six while striking over 135 in all three positions. However, he is the least experienced bowler in the lot. In five T20Is for India, Tilak has bowled only five overs, picking two wickets.
India going down this route depends on how the trio cracks the first half of the IPL. The inclusion of any of them will ensure India have all three prominent forms of spin bowling in their XI. That too without recalling Ravichandran Ashwin.
Riyan Parag is another dark horse with eight successive 40+ scores in the 2023 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy. Parag also picked 11 wickets at an economy of 7.3 in that tournament.
Play both Axar and Jadeja
The current circumstances state that India will have to pick one between Axar and Jadeja as their number seven for the World Cup. That is one way to play three spinners but Axar and Jadeja are left-arm finger-spinners. Playing both will bereft India of variety in their spin attack. Against teams with multiple left-handers, India’s bowling can be handicapped despite holding six bowling options.
Also, Jadeja’s batting has not fired all cylinders for quite some time. Hence, this solution comes with more cons than pros.
Play a bowling all-rounder
India can play Axar/Jadeja at six and play a bowling all-rounder to replace Pandya. That will mean India going back to Shardul Thakur or Deepak Chahar. The mercurial Thakur has an economy of over 9 in the last three years in T20 cricket. Chahar, on the other hand, has struggled to play two successive games due to recurrent back injuries.
In addition, this move can mean India playing four seamers which can be too many for the conditions in the West Indies and the USA.
Just play a batter at six
India can ponder playing a specialist batter at six. After all, omitting Rinku Singh won’t be easy given what he has achieved as a finisher for various teams over the last 12 months. But that will mean only five bowling options. The only way to circumvent this situation would be to play an opener who can bowl a bit, ie Yashasvi Jaiswal. But his part-time leg spin is yet to be tested at the international level.
