India’s death bowling is a major concern with T20 World Cup around the corner

In the past, India’s major concern in T20 cricket was its conservative batting approach. But this has changed now, as India has shown a massive improvement in their batting intent after Rohit Sharma has taken the captain’s role with head coach Rahul Dravid. Recently, India has continued to put up good scores on the board, but unfortunately, they are unable to defend those scores due to rising bowling concerns in their team.
 
India were the favourites to win the recently held Asia Cup 2022 in the UAE, but they failed to reach the finals as they lost their matches to Pakistan and Sri Lanka in the Super 4 stage. The major reason behind their exit from the tournament was their bowling, especially their death bowling. India’s death bowling has become a huge concern for them in the recent past, and this continued in their first T20I match against Australia in Mohali.
 
Indian batters continued their good form on Tuesday when they scored 208 runs while batting first on a flat pitch in Mohali. Indian bowlers were given a huge total to defend, and Indian fans would have hoped that this time they would deliver. However, India looked almost clueless in their bowling against hard-hitting Cameron Green, Matthew Wade, and Tim David. Australia chased down a mammoth total of 209 and won the first T20I match by four wickets with four balls to spare.
 
India have now lost their last three T20I matches batting first, defending 54, 42, and 41 in the last four overs. The common factor in all of these matches was the absence of Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar, who conceded 16, 14, and 19 runs in the 19th over. When Bumrah is available, he is an obvious choice for Rohit Sharma to bowl in the 19th over. But during Bumrah’s absence, Rohit has gone with Bhuvneshwar, who is the most experienced bowler to bowl in the 19th over.
 
However, the last three matches are the most expensive 19th overs Bhuvneshwar has bowled in his entire T20I career while defending totals. In his entire T20I career, Bhuvneshwar has bowled only one costly 19th over, bowling second.
 
Bhuvneshwar has been the third-best Indian death bowler after Jasprit Bumrah and Arshdeep Singh, who were not playing in the first T20I match against Australia in Mohali. Bhuvneshwar was not quite able to execute his plans as he struggled to bowl yorkers at a perfect length and was hammered by Matthew Wade in areas where there were no fielders.
 
For the first time in T20Is, Bhuvneshwar conceded 52 runs off his 4 overs and went for more than 50 runs for the first time. Even Harshal Patel, who was returning to the team after an injury, failed to restrict the Australian batters and went for 49 runs from his 4 overs without any wickets.
 
Rohit said on the official broadcast after the match, “I don’t think we bowled well today. 200 is a good score to defend, and we didn’t take our chances on the field. It was a great effort from our batters, but our bowlers were not quite there.”
 
“You can’t score 200 every day, you need to bat well. Hardik batted really well to get us there. We need to look at our bowling before the next game”. Rohit added.
 
Hardik confirmed there wasn’t any dew to handicap them. “You need to give credit to them, they played some good cricket,” he said. “Maybe we did not execute our plans. Maybe we did not execute our deliveries.”
 
“We all know exactly what Jasprit Bumrah brings to the side and how important he is for us,” Hardik Pandya, who scored 71* off 30, said. “There will be concerns here and there, but we have got to trust our boys. These are the best fifteen people who are in the country. That’s why they are in the squad. Jasprit being there makes a big difference, obviously, but he is coming back after an injury so it’s important to get enough time to come back and not put a lot of pressure on himself.
 
“As a team, we want to get better. Losing teaches you a lot and where we can get better. We are a process-driven team and by the time the World Cup comes, we will make sure and get our processes and see where we can improve. I am very confident about the guys. Few games here and there don’t change much”.