OPINION
Follow UsIt is so easy to make a mountain out of a molehill on the back of inconsequential losses. We, as viewers of the sport, tend to exaggerate the importance of trivial matters following defeats, and this is almost always true in the case of the Indian cricket team. There’s a part of our brain that simply does not allow us to brush aside a defeat; we always go hunting for reasons, looking for patterns. And of course this is when we fall prey to confirmation bias.
What’s going to be written in the rest of this article could very well be a direct consequence of confirmation bias. But something curious is certainly happening with team India in ODI cricket.
Thrice now, in a row, they’ve faltered while chasing totals between 200-299, that too effectively against second string bowling attacks (South Africa without Rabada / Nortje and England without Woakes / Archer / Rashid). You’ll have to go back more than 8 years to find the last instance of this happening.
It is, of course, not anywhere near alarming. Essentially, it’s just three defeats. But it certainly is weird. Not simply because India have been a chasing powerhouse in ODI cricket for a good part of the past decade, but because these games have witnessed them go at least 80% full-strength on the batting front.
So what exactly is going wrong? Or is there anything even that’s ‘wrong’?
The top-order is not batting through
Yep, this might sound like a very lazy excuse. But go back and look at the team’s three botched chases this year (Paarl, Cape Town and Lord’s). All three chases fell apart because India did not have anyone from the top three batting through and holding the innings together.
51, 65, 79, 61, 12, 9 and 0 have been the top three’s scores in these three chases. Four healthy fifties in there — all from Dhawan and Kohli — but ultimately they’re still half-baked knocks.
Rahul isn’t playing in this series and Rohit did not feature against South Africa, so let’s get to Dhawan and Kohli, the only two top-order batters to feature in all three aforementioned losses. Not too long ago, these two — in particular Kohli — were the gods of chasing, but the duo have not registered an ODI century between them now in 36 innings.
Dhawan has batted through a chase only once in the past three years — against Sri Lanka in Colombo last year — while you’ll have to go all the way back to 2019 to find the last instance of Kohli taking the team over the line in a chase.
They’re undoubtedly still making vital contributions — evident from the fifties they’ve been notching up — but somewhere along the way, the ruthlessness seems to have faded away.
India, in all fairness, should have still gotten over the line against second-string South African and English attacks chasing sub-300 totals but they would have definitely sealed the 'W' had one of Kohli or Dhawan batted through.
As Rohit said post the second ODI, “one of the top-order guys must bat as long as possible.”
This will be something to keep an eye on, the next time India chase a total in excess of 200.
Rishabh Pant is not turning up while batting second
Rishabh Pant is now India’s permanent #4 in ODI cricket and that’s great, but there’s a problem: he is seemingly allergic to chasing.
26 games into his ODI career, Pant averages 47.75 while batting first but this number drops to 12.90 while chasing. That’s right, 142 runs in 11 innings with no scores over 35.
In fact, his last 6 scores while chasing in ODI cricket are as follows: 0, 11, 0, 16, 7, 0.
Given No.4 is such a crucial spot in 50-over cricket, the lack of stability provided by Pant has been a problem for the side while chasing. It has certainly played a part in the team’s failure to chase down 200+ totals in ODI cricket this year.
So, what’s going wrong with Pant while chasing? Wish we had an answer for that. It was hard enough decoding his struggles in T20I cricket.
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The aforementioned two points have emerged as constants across India’s losses while chasing this year but really, that’s about it. There are no other underlying issues as such. One argument that can potentially be made is that the batters were made to chase down above-par totals — meaning the bowlers were not ruthless enough — but it is worth remembering that in two of the three losses, India did not come remotely close to the opposition’s total. It will, therefore, be absurd to even think of pinning the blame on the bowlers.
In all likelihood, these losses are perhaps nothing but a minor blip. They may not even turn out to be consequential. But then again, where’s the fun in not making a mountain out of a molehill on the back of an Indian loss?
