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Follow UsGood length, outside off and wide outside off in the powerplay
The Indian skipper had a pretty solid IPL 2024 overall, breaching the 400-run barrier for the first time in six seasons. He was pretty productive in the powerplay especially, scoring 269 runs at an average of 38.43 and strike rate of 151.98.
However, one area he struggled versus pace, especially against the new ball, was good length deliveries outside off: Rohit put away everything that was straight or on his pads, but was kept quiet by deliveries that challenged his outside edge on a fourth and fifth-stump line.
Interestingly, the right-hander also struggled to put away deliveries that were really wide. Not your fourth/fifth stump deliveries but ones that are actually wide, something that Chennai Super Kings' bowlers targeted heavily in their clash against MI.
On the basis of this evidence, opposition captains could potentially look to have a deep point for Rohit early on and ask their premier bowlers to bowl outside the right-hander’s off-stump.
Leg-spin outside the powerplay (but any spin would do)
This is no longer a secret. By now, it’s well known that leg-spin is Rohit’s Achilles Heel.
Across the last three IPL seasons, the team India skipper averages an eye-watering 10.4 against leg-spin, with eight dismissals in 63 balls. IPL 2024 saw him average 14 against leg-spin at a strike rate of 107.7.
With almost every top international team possessing an elite leg-spinner, expect captains to play this card against Rohit every single time.
But teams would be confident of tying down the India skipper with any type of spin. Across the last three IPL seasons, the 37-year-old has averaged just 16.12 against all spin, and has struck at just 130.5. This figure comes down to 11.31 (avg) and 116.7 (strike rate) outside the powerplay.
Yashasvi Jaiswal - short balls and back-of-a-length balls outside off stump
Yashasvi Jaiswal did not light up IPL 2024 like many expected him to. That’s still fine, but the concern for team India is that IPL 2024 might have just shown every international team how and where to bowl to Jaiswal.
In the entire competition, nobody endured more dismissals against pace than the left-hander (13).
The 22-year-old was tormented with short balls by pacers (outside off-stump, mostly) and he had no answers to it.
Nearly 65% of Jaiswal’s dismissals in IPL 2024 came against short balls or back-of-a-length balls. Teams pounded that short length outside off, and Jaiswal perished every other game trying to take the pull / hook shot on and eventually miscuing it.
In IPL 2024, against balls that were pitched either 8m or shorter, Jaiswal averaged just 19.8, getting dismissed five times.
Come the T20WC, it’s almost a given that Jaiswal is going to get bombarded with short stuff throughout the course of the tournament, by all sides.
Virat Kohli - no weakness against pace; left-arm spin the only mini concern
In the last eight months, we’ve seen two major tournaments (IPL and 50-over World Cup) being played in different formats. Yet, across both competitions, no pacer was able to figure out how, what or where to bowl to Virat Kohli.
In the World Cup, Kohli averaged 64.14 against pace at a strike rate of 96.56. In IPL 2024, he averaged 64.14 against pace at a strike rate of 168.80.
So targeting Kohli with pace might be a gone case for opposition teams in this T20WC.
Their best bet might be to tie him down with left-arm spin. In IPL 2024, Kohli registered his best SR against spin in a season since 2017, but still struggled to put the left-arm spinners away.
Overall, he struck at 124.7 against left-arm spin in IPL 2024, his lowest against a particular bowling type in the season. But this strike rate dropped to 102.3 outside the powerplay.
Against every other bowling type in the powerplay, other spinners included, Kohli had a SR over 150 in IPL 2024.
That being said, despite the poor strike rate, Kohli seldom got out to left-arm spin in IPL 2024. He averaged 53 against them, getting dismissed just twice in 85 balls.
Suryakumar Yadav - good length both inside and outside the powerplay
By his ludicrously high standards, Suryakumar Yadav had an ‘ordinary’ IPL 2024, scoring 345 runs at an average of 34.50 and strike rate of 167.48.
There is this notion that you can stop him by bowling pace-off deliveries into the wicket (like how Australia did in the 2023 World Cup Final) but that’s not true.
In IPL 2024, SKY faced 58 slower deliveries from quicks, and smashed 122 runs at a strike rate of 210. Against slower deliveries that were 6m or shorter, he averaged 44 and struck at 209.5, getting dismissed just twice.
He did, however, struggle against good length balls from pacers: both inside and outside the powerplay.
Against good length deliveries from pacers overall, he had a strike rate of only 126. In the powerplay, this dropped to a further 111.
Not allowing him to get under the ball seems to be an effective way to keep the explosive right-hander quiet.
There is also the left-arm spin factor. Since the start of 2021 (all T20s), the right-hander’s strike rate of 121.8 against left-arm spin is the worst for him against any bowling type.
He only faced 18 balls of left-arm spin in IPL 2024 but managed to score just 24 runs while getting dismissed once.
Rishabh Pant - deploy spin and ask them to bowl wide outside off
Rishabh Pant enjoyed a very successful return to professional cricket in IPL 2024, scoring 446 runs at an average of 40.55 and strike rate of 155.4, but his numbers against spin in the competition were sub-par.
Pant, in IPL 2024, faced 128 balls of spin and managed just 153 runs at an average of 30.6 and strike rate of 119.5.
The left-hander particularly struggled against leg-spin, averaging 14.4 (five dismissals) while striking at 120.
The beehive below should give you a good idea of where teams need to be (and will be) targeting him in the upcoming T20WC.
In IPL 2024, Pant simply was dismal against balls delivered wide outside off by spinners. This was predominantly due to his inherent instinct to try and hoick everything through either mid-wicket, square leg or fine leg.
The left-hander having a poor strike rate against balls bowled on his pads / in line with the stumps is a surprise, but that was due to him often losing his shape, trying to be too cute.
Hardik Pandya - pace on and pace off deliveries into the surface
Hardik Pandya has been struggling with ‘hard lengths’ for a while now, but his struggles against good-length deliveries went from bad to worse in IPL 2024.
The Mumbai Indians skipper had a shocker of a season, scoring just 216 runs at an average of 18.
He was tormented by good length deliveries, with him striking at a mere 96 against deliveries from pacers that pitched between the 6m - 8m mark. Pandya also got done by short and back-of-a-length balls, averaging 7 while getting dismissed six times in 30 balls.
He specifically struggled against ‘pace off’ deliveries. Against length balls that were slow, the right-hander struck at a mere 63. And half his short ball dismissals against pace were off slower deliveries.
Things could get ugly for India’s premier all-rounder in the upcoming T20WC if he does not find a method to combat this evident weakness of his.
Ravindra Jadeja - wide outside off (full or short)
Since Jadeja is likely to exclusively bat in the death overs, that too against pace, let’s just look at where he struggles in the 16-20 phase against the quicks.
In IPL 2024, Jadeja had a SR of 167.9 at the death, which was an improvement on his numbers in IPL 2023 (147.8) and IPL 2022 (SR 150.8).
But the left-hander continued to struggle against deliveries from pacers that were wide, irrespective of the length.
He struggled to put away deliveries that were wide and bowled on a good length, evident by his strike rate of 92. But the bigger concern from an Indian perspective is how toothless Jadeja was against full tosses, striking at a just 164 - irrespective of the line of the delivery.
Jadeja, in IPL 2024, was good at dispatching deliveries that were straight and in the slot. But teams in the T20WC are unlikely to feed such deliveries to the left-hander.
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