CHENNAI: Saying that India are overdependent on Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli isn’t an understatement. That is how they have been for four years, with the middle-order having very little impact in determining their win percentage. It will be no different at the World Cup, given that there is no certainty with regards to how the middle-order will look when they take the field against South Africa in Southampton on June 5.
While Kohli expects the pitches to be more balanced, considering it is an ICC tournament, India will need to rework their batting strategy if they don’t.
Unlike England, who play the most expressive ODI cricket in sync with modern day, India still prefer a safer approach. In the 21 ODIs they have crossed 300 since the last World Cup, only twice has a No 4 made a century. Even in one of those, Rohit made 99, which means the team has given the responsibility of batting 50 overs to one of the top three.
In other words, it has made India watchful to begin with, preferring to go at around four-five an over in order to keep wickets in hand for the final push.
While that has mostly worked in their favour, in England with pitches aiding batsmen more than ever before and 350 becoming the norm, India may have to tweak this approach to run-scoring.
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That would mean one among the top three will have to dump the role of going steady and be more proactive, something that they haven’t tried in the recent past.
“Our mantra will be to be flexible according to the conditions. Because it is one country in the world where the pitches could be flat, but if conditions change, we have to be up for it. In any other country, this wouldn’t have mattered but in England it does. In London you might not face that issue but if you go up north and when it does get overcast, you can see things happen. You have to be ready for that,” head coach Ravi Shastri said.
While dumping their risk-free approach may bite them in the back given their fragile middle-order, India believe unlike bilateral series, ICC tournaments have seen some sort of balance in pitch preparations so that the host nation doesn’t get unfair advantage.
Yeah, we expect high scoring games but a bilateral series is very different compared to the World Cup. You might see a lot of — I wouldn’t say low-scoring games but — 260-270 kind of games and teams getting those totals and defending them successfully. So we expect all kinds of scenarios during the World Cup,” Kohli said.
India, unlike England, don’t have the luxury of power-hitters, but if the Men in Blue do fancy huge targets, then the lower-order comprising of MS Dhoni, Hardik Pandya may even have a bigger role to play.