India vs Windies | Takeaways: India’s new ODI template for top three and Kuldeep’s diminishing mystery factor

10/24/2018

The 2nd ODI between India and Windies ended in a thrilling tie as the latter rode on twin centuries to give India a run for their money. In the game, Virat Kohli put forward a new template for the Indian team and how can Indian top-order utilize it to full effect to score runs in the last 10 overs.

Can India bat with this template in a long run?

This has become a cliche in Indian cricket, but the current top three is the best of all-time in the history of the Indian cricket. While the talent of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Virat Kohli were never in doubt, the most impressive thing was the way they pace the innings. The trio have combined skill, fitness and the right mental approach to ODI batting to boss the first 40 overs. However, the story ends for them there which has been one of the biggest problems for the team since the 2015 ICC CWC. India have the highest dot-ball percentage among all 10 World Cup teams since the last three years and in terms of boundary percentage, only Windies, New Zealand, and Sri Lanka have been worst than India.

It only points to the fact how India have lost the plot in the last 10 overs. It has been a case said over and over again, but as Virat Kohli proved it today, there is a way to come out of that situation. Knowing that there is a lack of firepower during the middle-overs, especially from over No. 20 to 38, the either of Kohli, or Rohit Sharma or Ambati Rayudu can take the role of the accumulator and hopefully, carry out enough momentum to be the enforcer in the end. India scored as many as 100 runs in the last 10 overs and at the heart of it was Kohli, who scored 68 runs off 31 balls during those 10 overs. If Rohit could sustain that long, he can surely bat like that, which will force the opposition to try all their resources to get him out in the second power-play only. Eventually, the opposition will be left with lesser bowlers in the end. With Hardik Pandya coming in towards the end, India will be able to score at least 30 more runs than the par score.

Kuldeep’s mystery factor diminishing

History is a cruel mistress that keeps on showing her face again and again in different eras. Sometimes incidents keep on reminding all of us about the dark past and Kuldeep Yadav’s performances in the last two ODIs have forced me to think along the same lines. Kuldeep is a very rare commodity in world cricket and his angles, drift, and turn are way too hard to pick. To go with that, on surfaces where spinners get very little assistance, he can find control easily. However, there is a chance that he may lose his incisiveness which comes from the mystery factor and history is my witness to prove it.

Laxman Sivaramakrishnan became one of the most fearsome spinners around after claiming six wickets in each innings of Mumbai Test against England in 1984-85. However, gradually he became less potent as the batsmen learned to pick his leg-spin and after 12 wickets in that first Test, he claimed seven in the second and then just four more in the next three Tests. The likes of Paul Adams and Ajantha Mendis also came up with a mystery factor attached to their bowling, but with time, they faded into oblivion after batsmen found a way to counter them.

A fact to be noted is that Kuldeep has no more than three deliveries in his arsenal - conventional leg-break that turns into the right-handed batsmen, a googly that turns away from them and a straight quicker ball. Given the fact that he lands most of his deliveries in good length and full length areas, the only concern for batsmen was to pick the type of deliveries from the hand. And once the batsmen do find a way, the onus will be on Kuldeep to come up with new plans. Today, from the very first delivery, he unleashed those sliders and with time, he bowled those wrong ‘uns as well. However, the problem was it was very predictable and lacked the ability to penetrate too. Was it overexposing? Maybe.

Kohli’s body transfer may haunt him in the long run

Virat Kohli, King Kohli! When he bats, it is like river flows and heart sings. There is a pattern to his batting that seems out of the world and unreal. He seems to have scored all around the ground without even hitting sixes like Rohit Sharma. 10,000 runs in 205 innings. You surely gotta be kidding me. It is a remarkable consistency.

While Kohli’s body of work has been immense to put him as the all-time greatest ODI batsman, there is a small yet significant technique in his game that stands out, which may create a lot of problems in the future. Like VVS Laxman, Gundappa Viswanath and Greg Chappell, Kohli depends on his trigger movement to flick in front of the square. While Laxman simultaneously lunged forward and guided the ball in that direction, Kohli uses the wrist to generate power. He's quick to use his feet to the spinners, to get to the pitch of the ball, and use his height to lean forward before sending the ball out of the ground with all his energy.

As a biomechanist will say that is too much pressure on the wrist and considering all the shots depend on the movement of the delicate part of the hand, it is widely advisable not to use them much with power. When Kohli uses it, you are always certain that he is going to get runs off it, but the problem is he is gradually using it more and with more power. Surely, he can do away with that.