Speaking to Star Sports Tamil, Former India batsman S Badrinath explained where Team India is struggling right now, emphasizing the absence of a top order batsman who can also bowl.
“Even if Rohit Sharma returns, he is not bowling these days. At the same time, look at Australia, they have someone like Marcus Stoinis, He can bowl 5-6 overs easily. Maxwell can bowl. You need this aspect in limited-overs cricket. I think India are struggling a bit in this aspect,”
In the two ODIs that India have played against Australia, they have conceded 374 and 389 runs in 50 overs respectively. Due to Hardik Pandya’s injury that is not allowing him to bowl in full throttle, India lack a 6th bowling option. Having said that, Pandya did come on to bowl 4 overs which may be because India desperately needed someone to bowl other than the 5 main bowlers or Pandya is slowly getting back to full fitness.
Badrinath also spoke about former Indian batsmen like Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly who would often bowl 3-4 overs and act as an extra bowling option.
“No one from the top 5 or top 6 is bowling now. If you look at the Indian teams in the past, top-order batsmen managed to bowl a bit. Sehwag used to bowl, Sachin used to bowl, even Ganguly used to bowl,”
“They used to give the captain 3-4 overs. You can manage 10 overs with them. When a bowler had a bad day, they didn’t have the necessity to give him 10 overs. India is missing that now.” added Badrinath.
India play the 3rd ODI on Wednesday, December 2 in Canberra.
