India vs Australia | Absence of sixth bowler, the hurting point of Virat Kohli's side
On Friday (November 27), Australia exposed a chink in India’s armour in front of the world – lack of a sixth bowler. Mohammed Shami was India’s best bowler on view – 10-0-59-3 but the other four faltered. Their analysis read: Jasprit Bumrah (1/73), Navdeep Saini (1/83), Yuzvendra Chahal (1/89), most runs conceded by an Indian spinner in ODIs, and Ravindra Jadeja (0/63).
With Hardik Pandya not bowling these days, Virat Kohli had no one to turn for a relief. In fact, Kohli would have been in far greater trouble had a struggling Chahal left the field a couple of overs earlier. Perhaps, he would have had to brought on himself to bowl a couple of overs.
It is going to be a problem for India the whole of this Australian summer, except, perhaps, in Tests where they have the option of Hanuma Vihari. Since Vihari does not figure in the white-ball scheme of things as of now, India do not have a batsman who can bowl in those formats. In contrast, Australia can turn to Glenn Maxwell for those cushion overs or for that matter even Steve Smith.
A few years ago, India too were blessed with batsmen who could have slipped in a few overs – Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina and more recently Kedar Jadhav. But in the recent years, batsmen have become more unilateral and the best example of it is Rohit Sharma.
Rohit used to turn in for a couple of overs in the initial part of his career but he does not bowl anymore as it increases the chances of him getting injured. Now, the Indian top-order is bristling with Shikhar Dhawan, KL Rahul, Manish Pandey, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer etc for whom bowling is what gangsta rap to a vicar.
