Rohit Sharma and Suryakumar Yadav had Jasprit Bumrah and Kuldeep Yadav. Who does Shreyas Iyer turn to? As India’s new T20I captain searched for an elusive win in his trip of UK, in each of the three completed fixtures, Shreyas has instead found a headache, which he quickly needs to address before it turns into a migraine.
Within the India set up there is sympathy for the 31-year-old, who has to make do with a set of bowlers, who still appear to be carrying the scars from bowling on flat, lifeless decks in the IPL, where scoring-rate of 9.68 rpo was a record high for the tournament.
Even if one wishes to brush the series defeat to Ireland under the carpet as an aberration, the same cannot be said about India’s defeat to England in the second T20I. Of course, there are some minor issues in the batting department, but since arriving in England, India has posted big totals that it is used to. May be the extra 20-runs that would give the bowlers the cushion have been missing, but there are some encouraging signs.
However, it is with the ball that India have appeared totally flat. If they let Ireland off the hook in the matches in Ireland, in Manchester despite Arshdeep Singh beginning England’s innings with two wickets in the first over (1/2), India never looked in control of the game. If anything, it appeared as if England just needed a couple of overs to seal the deal, and it duly occurred. While Ravi Bishnoi’s back foot no-balls cost him severely, it wasn’t the case of the leg-spinner costing India dearly.
That India would be without Bumrah in the format was a given. Beyond him, the next best pacer Mohammed Siraj isn’t in T20 scheme of things. With Arshdeep being able to rise up as a lethal new-ball option and a reliable one at the death, the left-arm pacer was who both Rohit and Surya relied on alongside Hardik Pandya. Beyond them were the spinners – Varun Chakaravarthy, Kuldeep Yadav and Axar Patel.
Now for this new cycle, Shreyas is yet to find a bowler who is the leader of this pack. For all the match-winning performances that Arshdeep has produced, in the absence of Bumrah, he hasn’t evolved into one who can take responsibility and provide wickets when the team needs. Of course, he continues to make early inroads with the new ball, but has also been easy to put under pressure as Harry Brook showed on Sunday, taking him apart for 27 runs in his second over after he started the chase with two wickets down.
That over meant Shreyas immediately turned to spinners, which Surya or even Rohit seldom did during their stint. Of course, the two former captains did use spinners in the powerplay, but those were rarely signs of desperation. At Manchester, Shreyas had to use Bishnoi and Axar for three overs in the powerplay, which meant in the middle-overs, he only had Varun – a spinner who has struggled of late, and can’t be relied upon to squeeze. But never in their chase were England left to panic and take more risks as their calculated hits were enough to do the job.
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Apart from Arshdeep, there is Harshit Rana, a seamer who is returning from a long injury lay-off and is yet to operate full throttle. And without Pandya and Nitish Kumar Reddy, the other options for Shreyas to use with the ball were Shivam Dube and Abhishek Sharma. But neither were used. On such days, even one bowler having an off-day can let the game slip out of the hands and at Manchester, only Axar provided them with control.
The huge worry for Shreyas must be Bishnoi. Before the T20 World Cup, the leg-spinner made an impressive return, but played only 9 matches for Rajasthan Royals. With just 11 wickets to his name at an economy rate of 9.88, he didn’t merit a spot and his inclusion for UK trip came as a surprise as he took the place of Kuldeep. While the left-arm wrist-spinner didn’t have the best of the IPL, in India colours he has conjured magic when given a sustained run. This tour would have provided him time and also wickets, given how England batsmen struggle to pick him off his hand.
Instead India have at their disposal a bunch of bowlers with wounded confidence, who didn’t have the best of IPLs. Then there is the unfamiliarity aspect for Shreyas as well, who is getting to know his bowlers’ strengths, having come into the picture out of nowhere.
While he has captained Arshdeep at PBKS and Axar (DC) and Varun (KKR) in the past, it was equally baffling to see him complain about the ground dimensions as one of the reasons for defeat in Ireland. It is one of the first things discussed at team meetings. Once again at Manchester – where one side of the boundary was shorter – India had Shreyas as the only right-handed batsmen in the top seven, showing he still had a lot to grow as a captain.
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At present, Shreyas and India are a team desperately seeking a win. For that they need to dial the bowlers for help.
