In Stats: India’s Opening Pair Failures & Aus vs Left-Arm Bowlers
Statistician Arun Gopalakrishnan cracks down India’s issues through numbers ahead of Sunday’s clash with Australia.
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- Statistician Arun Gopalakrishnan cracks down India’s problems through numbers ahead of the Men in Blue’s clash with Australia.
- Arun feels India’s batting is a cause for concern, especially the opening pair.
- Interstingly, the Australian batsmen have struggled against left-arm bowlers in the World T20.
India sneaked through to a one-run win over Bangladesh in their previous outing to stay alive in the ICC World T20. Now, they take on Australia in what is a virtual quarter-final; both teams are tied on four points each – though Australia are ahead on the net run rate – and a win for either team will mean a semi-final berth.
Heading into this winner-takes-all match, there must surely be plenty running through the Indian captain MS Dhoni’s head already. At The Quint, we dish out some key numbers – some which he probably is already aware of, and some which might be new to him - that could perhaps help him during his pre-match pep talk or aid him in decision-making on match-day.
It is no secret that openers play a very critical role in the success of a team whatever the format. However, their contribution is that much more crucial in the 20-over format given they set the tone for the innings, have the advantage of the fielding restrictions and have the opportunity to play the entire 20 overs.
That is one area that India haven’t done well; despite the team’s unprecedented success in T20s in 2016, India have had only three 50-run partnerships in 16 matches and a average of 31 runs for the opening pair. In the World T20 2016, India’s average opening partnership of 20.33 is the third-poorest among all teams competing in the Super 10s stage. This is in stark contrast to Australia, who average the highest at 44.67.
One of the areas worrying the Indian team must be the form of the four left-handers in the batting line-up. Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and Ravindra Jadeja together have only faced a total of 111 deliveries in the WT20 2016.
That’s not to say they have not had the opportunity to face more deliveries; Shikhar bats at the top of the innings and has the opportunity to bat the entire innings, while Raina and Yuvraj have walked out to bat within the first five overs in two of their three innings.
Jadeja is the only one who has come late in the order and has perished in attempt for quick runs. This is the business end of the tournament and India cannot field a team with so many chinks in their line-up.
The Indian bowling line-up has done its job fairly well; in their three matches so far, they have kept their opponents to totals of 126, 118 and 145. While surfaces have certainly contributed to India restricting their opponents to sub-par totals, there is no denying the bowlers have bowled well too.
However, India, who have only fielded four specialist bowlers (counting Jadeja as a specialist spinner here), will need to use their fifth bowler’s quota smartly. In the tournament so far, MS Dhoni has used Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya to fill the fifth bowler’s quota; while the duo have picked up wickets, they have also leaked runs.
India cannot afford for the fifth bowler, or for that matter any bowler, to leak runs against Australia.
As the Australians know how to milk the bowler having an off-day. Ask Bangladesh’s Saqlain Sajib (3.3-0-40-0) or Pakistan’s Mohammad Sami (4-0-53-0).
One statistic that has stood out from Australia’s campaign in the WT20 2016 so far is that they have lost 16 of their 18 wickets to left-arm bowlers. The likes of Corey Anderson, Mitchell Santner, Mitchell McClenaghan, Shakib-al-Hasan, Mustafiqur Rahman, Wahab Riaz and Imad Wasim have had a field day playing against Australia.
Given how poor the Aussies have been against left-arm bowlers, MS Dhoni will do well to give Yuvraj Singh a chance to roll his arm over. He could just be the man with the golden arm!