Fast bowling all rounders

If Indian cricket team is lacking in something it is an all rounder who can bowl fast or at least fast medium or medium fast. All the other big teams in the world cup have such an all rounder. Some have two. For Australia there is Shane Watson. Jack Kallis for South Africa, Abdul Razzaq for Pakistan, Angelo Mathews for Sri Lanka, Andrew Russell and Kieron Pollard for West Indies, Paul Collingwood and Ravi Bopara for England and Scott Styris and Jacob Oram for New Zealand.

India has batsmen who can bowl spin like Yuvraj, Yousuf Pathan, Suresh Raina. Virender Sehwag hasn’t bowled in this world cup because of injury. They are at best part-time bowlers and not genuine all rounders in the strict sense. For India after the exit of Kapil Dev, Irfan Pathan was the only who could fit into that role. Saurav Ganguly was too much of a batsman than a bowler and that too of military medium pace.

A real fast bowling all rounder should be at least 60 % bowler and 40 % batsmen. The likes of Shane Watson and Jack Kallis are more batsmen all rounders. But captains rely on them to complete the quota of ten overs. If you look at the great all rounders of the past like Kapil Dev, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Ian Botham, they are all fast bowling all rounders not just in ODIs but in tests too. At times their batting did shine more than their bowling. But they were essentially bowlers who could bat well. They had better bowling averages than batting averages.

In India’s case, the so called all rounders are batsmen but are called by the captain to bowl when the conditions suit them or when other bowlers are giving too many runs. Irfan started as a good swing bowler. But he lost pace and ability to swing probably due to a faulty action while his batting improved considerably. But he was in the team primarily as a bowler. When wickets dried up he lost his place in the team. I’m hoping that he will make a comeback.

In ODIs such an all rounder gives plenty of options to the captain of the team as he can be the fifth specialist bowler who can lend solidity to batting in the lower order. Indian team in this world cup has played matches so far with four specialist bowlers and seven batsmen and has been struggling to get the combination right. The other teams don’t face this problem as they have a fast bowling all rounder. Of course some teams face a dearth of a good spinner but that is another matter.

Even if India wins the world cup, I think to maintain its supremacy as a top ODI team a fast bowling all rounder is essential as the batsmen acting as part-time spinners may not be that effective in the pitches outside the sub-continent. When Australia reigned as a champion team for around ten years since late nineties, it had Steve Waugh and Andrew Symonds playing this role efficiently.