Indian veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin shared his opinion regarding India’s long tail in the batting going into the ODI World Cup on home soil, as he questioned the ability of the Indian lower-order batter to close out the crucial games in the World Cup.
India’s batting depth in white-ball cricket is a cause of concern for the Indian team management and it is also a reason behind India’s loss against the West Indies in the five-match T20 series as the Indian tail failed to score runs in the lower-order as the team went with proper four bowling option in the team alongside two all-rounders, which is proved to be costly for the team.
Speaking on his YouTube channel, Ravichandran Ashwin wants the all-rounder Shardul Thakur to come at the No.8 side for the Indian team as he has the ability to strike big at the death overs.
Besides, he feels that the Indian team will have a conundrum to choose between playing an extra all-rounder or going in with a proper bowler in World Cup and said that India would have a batter short if they play both Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal.
“You don’t want your tail to start so early, and that’s why you need someone like Shardul Thakur to come and smash a few balls coming in at No. 8. But you should play your best batters and bowlers to win a match”.
“At the same time, if you needed 36 to win from 30 balls when you are six down, you should have the ability to close down such games as well. So, that is the conundrum that India will go into ahead of the World Cup. If they play Kuldeep and Chahal together, then it gets to a situation where Kuldeep has to bat at No. 8,” Ravichandran Ashwin said.
The Men in Blue were over-reliant on the top-order batters to score runs in the T20 series against the West Indies, as they lost a few close games due to long-tail in the Indian playing 11. Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal, Arshdeep Singh, and Mukesh Kumar formed the batting for India in the T20 series.
.It Didn’t Allow Us The Flexibility In Some Ways To Be… – Rahul Dravid
Rahul Dravid admitted that the Indian squad for the West Indies series didn’t have the flexibility to change the team combinations and said that the team will be looking at certain areas where they can improve and also added that they will try to address their batting depth going into the next T20 series.
“I think in terms of our squad here, probably it didn’t allow us the flexibility in some ways to be able to change the combinations a little bit,” Rahul Dravid said.