As India prepare for the Super 8s in the T20 World Cup, Ryan ten Doeschate, the squad’s assistant coach, has identified two critical problems: the left-handed top-order’s predictability and the batters’ difficulties against finger spinners.
After their victory over the Netherlands in their last league match, Doeschate told a few members of the media that the title favourites still haven’t performed flawlessly.
He acknowledged that the fact that Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan, and Tilak Varma are the three left-handers in India’s top three has made it simpler for opposing teams to prepare for them. In order to control the top order, which includes Sharma, who was in his prime not long ago but has yet to score a run in the tournament, other sides have started using off-spinners in the powerplay.
On Wednesday, Aryan Dutt, an off-spinner from the Netherlands, bowled three overs during the powerplay and got rid of Sharma and Kishan.
Doeschate believes that India’s overall performance against finger-spinners needs to be significantly improved rather than their off-spin problem in and of itself. In their Super 8 matches against South Africa, Zimbabwe, and the West Indies, the host squad will have to figure out how to handle finger-spinners.
“It has (made it easier for teams to plan against India). We don’t have many options (in the top three). We’ve got Sanju (Samson) sitting on the side and we feel on balance, particularly with the games coming up, if we look at what finger spin is, we are going to come up against New Zealand. We’ve got a few guys who bowl finger spin and so do the West Indies and so does South Africa, if you include Markram. But, on balance, we still feel that these are our best batters and we’re going to make do with the abundance of left-handers,” said Doeschate.
Before Usman Tariq, Salman Agha, and Saim Ayub of Pakistan were able to put pressure on the bitter rivals in Colombo, Namibian skipper Gerhard Erasmus had bamboozled the Indian batters in Delhi with his round arm off-spin. According to Doeschate, when the ball is holding a little bit, batters must figure out how to get past finger spinners.
The assistant coach stated, “I wouldn’t say off spin, I’d say finger spin,” in reference to the areas that needed work before the ICC event’s next stage.
“If you take the combined, I think Pakistan bowled 14 overs of finger spin in the last game and off the top of my head I want to say something like 4 for 78 or something like that. So it’s not great numbers.
“Colombo was a particularly difficult wicket and I think the numbers tonight got sort of improved towards the back end. But again, Aryan Dutt bowling four overs, it is a big challenge.
“I think these two venues in particular with the bigger boundary here (Ahmedabad) and obviously a slower wicket in Colombo sort of does exaggerate that. But it’s something we’re going to have to focus on, like I said, with the amount of finger spin we’re going to get in the next three games,” said Doeschate.
On Sunday, India will meet South Africa in their Super 8s opener in Ahmedabad.
“I think on better wickets you won’t see it (batters struggling against spin). You can hit through the line with more confidence, but the point is that we need to have plans where the wickets do hold and the boundaries are there. We need to be able to have a game plan to deal with that threat,” said Doeschate.
After witnessing India’s difficulties against Pakistan, even the Netherlands had intended to strangle them with spin in the powerplay.
“We obviously looked at the Pakistan game and saw that they’d struggled with spin. So we had a focus of – in the power play bowling spin, trying to limit their scoring options. I think their spinners bowled really well to stop them from getting off to good starts, so credit to the,” said Bas de Leede.
Doeschate is not concerned about Sharma’s form even though he has three consecutive ducks. Due to a stomach infection that required hospitalization, the left-hander was unable to play in the Namibia match. In the last two games, he was dismissed by Aryan Dutt and Salman Agha’s off-spin.
“He batted really well last night in the nets (on the eve of Netherlands game). He spent 90 minutes batting. I think we’ve also got to give him a bit of space. He came into the prep phase not feeling well, obviously spent a few days in hospital and then missed the game.
“So it’s been a very disjointed competition for him so far. But I saw some really good signs last night with his ball striking and instead of a hound in my heart, absolutely no worries about him. He’ll be fine for the second phase,” added the assistant coach.
