India's conservative starts batting first in ODIs hurting them

[Mosher]

10-0-47-0

 

On a day that a lot will be said about India's bowling, these figures of the opposition's fingerspinner are the story. Moeen Ali, who averages 51 runs for a wicket and concedes at 5.30 an over in ODIs, bowled at 4.70 an over in a match where 336 was gunned down in 43.3 overs. In all, Ali was hit for one boundary, that too thanks to a misfield by Ben Stokes at the 30-yard ring. ESPNcricinfo's scorers recorded only one aggressive stroke attempted off Ali's 60 balls that were bowled in a single unbroken spell starting at the 17th over, by which time India's third-wicket partnership was 7.2 overs old.

 

Ali is no mystery bowler. He doesn't bowl the carrom ball. He was bowling to two right-hand batsmen, one of them among the greatest ever to play the format. The pitch was not turning: spinners have combined figures of 67-0-489-2 in this series. All Ali did was avoid bad balls, and India didn't bother to attack the good ones. This was a period of ceasefire where England didn't try to manufacture a middle-overs wicket, and India didn't go out of their way to hit the spinners out of the attack.

 

Consequently, for a second match in a row India needed a crazy two-run-a-ball innings to get to what was still a second below-par total in a row. In the last game a freak collapse gave India the series lead, this time the bowling reverted to type: since the start of 2020, the first wicket has cost India 115 runs on an average at 6.40 an over. And for a majority of this time, India have had their best attack barring Bhuvneshwar Kumar to choose from.

 

India are a very good ODI side. In the last three World Cups, they have won one and made two other semi-finals. They are consistently among the top three ODI sides at any given point of time. Their win-loss ratio is always impressive. Their batting takes care of itself when they are chasing. It is when batting first that their conservative attitude is keeping them from becoming the undisputed leader of the field.

 

To put it in one sentence, they don't subscribe to England's principle: they would rather be aggressive and risk falling short by 70 than consistently staying par or 10 below par. India like to take games deep. Just stay in games for long period of times and never risk losing out too early. That's the cricket this team's

leaders, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, learnt under MS Dhoni. It is not that they lack the skill. When Australia chased successfully with 10 wickets to spare in 2019-20, India responded with a 340 in the next ODI. West Indies won with eight wickets in hand, and India came back with a 387 three days later. Every time they are pressed against the wall, they respond with aggressive and successful cricket batting first, but drop back to conservative cricket at the start of every series.

The last time India were presented with such a challenge in ODI cricket - they consistently found out their 325s were not the above-par totals they would have liked to believe - they responded by overhauling their bowling.

 

The two wristspinners worked like a charm, but now the world seems to have caught up with them. With just four fielders outside the circle, they are getting attacked. Yuzvendra Chahal is a completely different bowler in T20Is when he has that extra fielder out. ODI cricket has thrown a huge challenge at spinners - as R Ashwin points out in this video - and this time India's spinners are not immune.

 

It was interesting that Kohli said at the post-match presentation that he felt India had posted a decent total on the board, and that they were blown away by a freak partnership. Three of the last 11 successful chases of 300 in ODIs have come against India. Make it 280, and India have lost four of the last nine successful chases.

The way Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya bat, especially with KL Rahul now as that dynamic middle-order batsman, it is scary how good India can be if their top order decides to bat the way England do. To be fair, Kohli takes more risks now than he did a couple of years ago, but there is a chance that with three such similar batsmen at the top, India are still lagging in that regard.

 

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ind-vs-eng-2nd-odi-2020-21-india-s-conservative-starts-batting-first-in-odis-hurting-them-1256956

[Suhaan]

Even Cricinfo called it out

[Vijy]

25 minutes ago, Mosher said:

10-0-47-0

 

On a day that a lot will be said about India's bowling, these figures of the opposition's fingerspinner are the story. Moeen Ali, who averages 51 runs for a wicket and concedes at 5.30 an over in ODIs, bowled at 4.70 an over in a match where 336 was gunned down in 43.3 overs. In all, Ali was hit for one boundary, that too thanks to a misfield by Ben Stokes at the 30-yard ring. ESPNcricinfo's scorers recorded only one aggressive stroke attempted off Ali's 60 balls that were bowled in a single unbroken spell starting at the 17th over, by which time India's third-wicket partnership was 7.2 overs old.

 

Ali is no mystery bowler. He doesn't bowl the carrom ball. He was bowling to two right-hand batsmen, one of them among the greatest ever to play the format. The pitch was not turning: spinners have combined figures of 67-0-489-2 in this series. All Ali did was avoid bad balls, and India didn't bother to attack the good ones. This was a period of ceasefire where England didn't try to manufacture a middle-overs wicket, and India didn't go out of their way to hit the spinners out of the attack.

 

Consequently, for a second match in a row India needed a crazy two-run-a-ball innings to get to what was still a second below-par total in a row. In the last game a freak collapse gave India the series lead, this time the bowling reverted to type: since the start of 2020, the first wicket has cost India 115 runs on an average at 6.40 an over. And for a majority of this time, India have had their best attack barring Bhuvneshwar Kumar to choose from.

 

India are a very good ODI side. In the last three World Cups, they have won one and made two other semi-finals. They are consistently among the top three ODI sides at any given point of time. Their win-loss ratio is always impressive. Their batting takes care of itself when they are chasing. It is when batting first that their conservative attitude is keeping them from becoming the undisputed leader of the field.

 

To put it in one sentence, they don't subscribe to England's principle: they would rather be aggressive and risk falling short by 70 than consistently staying par or 10 below par. India like to take games deep. Just stay in games for long period of times and never risk losing out too early. That's the cricket this team's

leaders, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, learnt under MS Dhoni. It is not that they lack the skill. When Australia chased successfully with 10 wickets to spare in 2019-20, India responded with a 340 in the next ODI. West Indies won with eight wickets in hand, and India came back with a 387 three days later. Every time they are pressed against the wall, they respond with aggressive and successful cricket batting first, but drop back to conservative cricket at the start of every series.

The last time India were presented with such a challenge in ODI cricket - they consistently found out their 325s were not the above-par totals they would have liked to believe - they responded by overhauling their bowling.

 

The two wristspinners worked like a charm, but now the world seems to have caught up with them. With just four fielders outside the circle, they are getting attacked. Yuzvendra Chahal is a completely different bowler in T20Is when he has that extra fielder out. ODI cricket has thrown a huge challenge at spinners - as R Ashwin points out in this video - and this time India's spinners are not immune.

 

It was interesting that Kohli said at the post-match presentation that he felt India had posted a decent total on the board, and that they were blown away by a freak partnership. Three of the last 11 successful chases of 300 in ODIs have come against India. Make it 280, and India have lost four of the last nine successful chases.

The way Rishabh Pant and Hardik Pandya bat, especially with KL Rahul now as that dynamic middle-order batsman, it is scary how good India can be if their top order decides to bat the way England do. To be fair, Kohli takes more risks now than he did a couple of years ago, but there is a chance that with three such similar batsmen at the top, India are still lagging in that regard.

 

 

https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/ind-vs-eng-2nd-odi-2020-21-india-s-conservative-starts-batting-first-in-odis-hurting-them-1256956

solid article, but still too cautious. needed to be more hard hitting as far as our TM policies and the selfishness of senior cricketers is concerned.

[express bowling]

Shambolic batting by the Indian top 4 in the first 20 overs.

 

They are taking batting for personal records to a new level  !!

 

They are not even taking an iota of risk till they reach personal 50s ... which is so rare in white ball cricket from 2010 onwards.

 

While most teams have reinvented their batting styles after T20s have become mainstay  ... we are going back to pre-1996 style.

[Sgattick10]

Timely article, but captain cool will call it nonsense and unnecessary noise 

[Trichromatic]

Openers are happy to block pacers in 10 overs.

 

Kohli is used to playing risk free singles and doubles in middle overs. 

[Vijy]

Just now, express bowling said:

Shambolic batting by the Indian top 4 in the first 20 overs.

 

They are taking batting for personal records to a new level  !!

 

They are not even taking an iota of risk till they reach personal 50s ... which is so rare in white ball cricket from 2010 onwards.

 

While most teams have reinvented their batting styles after T20s have become mainstay  ... we are going back to pre-1996 style.

next step. play rahane and pujara as well. think about a "great" top 5 that would be - dhawan, rohit, pujara, kohli, rahane (even thinking about it makes me shudder). even our 90s lineup with likes of azhar, jadeja and so on would be better than this tuk-tuking.

[Suhaan]

2 minutes ago, Vijy said:

next step. play rahane and pujara as well. think about a "great" top 5 that would be - dhawan, rohit, pujara, kohli, rahane (even thinking about it makes me shudder). even our 90s lineup with likes of azhar, jadeja and so on would be better than this tuk-tuking.

It was same Kohli who laughed off Pujara 5 years ago for his intent in tests,yes intent in"test"matches

He is making a fool out of himself each day,now why he hasn't questioned his and top2's  intent

They bat at less than. 5rpo for first 40 on a belter ,this is disgusting hypocrisy

[dilliboy]

5 minutes ago, express bowling said:

Shambolic batting by the Indian top 4 in the first 20 overs.

 

They are taking batting for personal records to a new level  !!

 

They are not even taking an iota of risk till they reach personal 50s ... which is so rare in white ball cricket from 2010 onwards.

 

While most teams have reinvented their batting styles after T20s have become mainstay  ... we are going back to pre-1996 style.

As long as fans and Indian media lap up these stats and milestones while ignore unselfish play like Pant's yesterday, we will see this crap. Yesterday in some mid match analysis show, one expert was saying that why doesn't Pant want these 100s when they were there for the taking? I was like wtf..if he didn't play out of his skin 300 would have been farfetched. Our obsession with meaningless century landmarks needs to stop

[express bowling]

2 minutes ago, dilliboy said:

As long as fans and Indian media lap up these stats and milestones while ignore unselfish play like Pant's yesterday, we will see this crap. Yesterday in some mid match analysis show, one expert was saying that why doesn't Pant want these 100s when they were there for the taking? I was like wtf..if he didn't play out of his skin 300 would have been farfetched. Our obsession with meaningless century landmarks needs to stop

 

 

Pant, and his approach of not playing for personal milestones, needs to be marketed strongly for the good of Indian cricket.

 

We need more such players who are able to win matches for the team, ignoring personal 100s.

[Vijy]

4 minutes ago, Suhaan said:

It was same Kohli who laughed off Pujara 5 years ago for his intent in tests,yes intent in"test"matches

He is making a fool out of himself each day,now why he hasn't questioned his and top2's  intent

They bat at less than. 5rpo for first 40 on a belter ,this is disgusting hypocrisy

if it's dhawan, even if he makes 20 out of 50 balls, Rat will praise him for taking the shine off the ball (or some such nonsense).

[GautiMaan]

13 minutes ago, Sgattick10 said:

Timely article, but captain cool will call it nonsense and unnecessary noise 

Captain Cool is MSD, who for all his shortcomings cannot be faulted for not making the best use of the resources at his disposal, he would have taken this team to another level if he had likes of Bumrah,Pant,SKY,Kishan etc.The guy had no qualms phasing out the top 3 of his time who were much more accomplished than these guys.

Captain Fool is another story though

[bowl_out]

If not for Pant's innings in the this game and Krunal in the first odi,  we would have ended with a sub 300 score in both games 

[Suhaan]

1 minute ago, bowl_out said:

If not for Pant's innings in the this game and Krunal in the first odi,  we would have ended with a sub 300 score in both games 

Had they both failed ,Clown would have said-batsmen coming later(MO/lower MO) in the innings should have taken more responsibility and offcourse would have got dropped

 

[Vijy]

1 minute ago, Suhaan said:

Had they both failed ,Clown would have said-batsmen coming later(MO/lower MO) in the innings should have taken more responsibility and offcourse would have got dropped

 

even now, he will steal credit by saying that the "great top 3" laid the foundation so that the youngsters could express themselves freely. and when they fail while "freely" expressing themselves, they will get bad-mouthed and then dropped.

[rkt.india]

11 minutes ago, Vijy said:

if it's dhawan, even if he makes 20 out of 50 balls, Rat will praise him for taking the shine off the ball (or some such nonsense).

There is no problem in taking the shine for first 10. No problem at all but at least capitalise overs 11-40 with 4 fielders outside the circle. Don't tuk tuk. Look for sixes. These are small grounds. LoI cricket now is all about hitting sixes.

[Suhaan]

2 minutes ago, rkt.india said:

There is no problem in taking the shine for first 10. No problem at all but at least capitalise overs 11-40 with 4 fielders outside the circle. Don't tuk tuk. Look for sixes. These are small grounds. LoI cricket now is all about hitting sixes.

Flat pitches don't make you take too long to take shine off the white ball

[Lone Wolf]

It was funny how Rahul suddenly started swinging his batbonce he reached a ton.  Reminded me of 90's & early 00's.  

Absolute shameful approach.  Kohli has made a career outta these type of knocks.  

They Absolutely believe 300 is fine & anything above is bonus.  

This is a Absolute joke of a template. 

[Stan AF]

I don't even have to read this to know that cricinfo would be spot on.

[Stan AF]

Quote

Not long ago, with Dhoni and others struggling in the middle order, there might have been a case for the top order to be conservative so that they can be at the back end to maximise the death overs, but that is not the case now. Even if Sharma sets himself up for a crazy assault at the end, he won't be going much faster that what Pant, Rahul and Pandya anyway do. With the bowlers getting further marginalised, there might be a case for India to relook at how they bat in the first 30 overs when batting first.

Have to love these pinpoint needle into the banana pricks.