Hit through middle overs call of the hour

India vs England: Consolidating in the middle overs in ODI decider may not work for India as England hitters push limits.

England have been worthy opponents, though India have found ways to beat them across formats over the past two months. India have wrapped up two formats, and the final series will be decided on Sunday when the two highest ranked ODI sides try to finish on a high.

India can benefit by going after the bowling in the middle overs rather than leaving it for the last 10. (BCCI)

The visitors had been threatening to explode for the past six white-ball games. While the pitches in Ahmedabad were testing, their chase went off the rails in the first ODI in Pune. When it all came together on Friday, they chased down India’s 337 in 43.3 overs. Now, they have left India wondering if they can be beaten.

“If it’s not my day, Jason’s (Roy) day, Ben’s (Stokes) day, we have the strength and depth of the batting line-up…,” Jonny Bairstow summed up why England stick to an all-out attack strategy.

India may not be adopting that slam bang approach, but once the new ball is dealt with they can afford to show more urgency due to their depth in batting. India have Rishabh Pant coming in at No.5 and he can send the ball over the boundary even when it’s not in his hitting zone. He can hit sixes with one hand, be it disbalanced, or pure improvisation. In Hardik Pandya, they have one of the better power hitters at No.6. Krunal Pandya bats at No.7 in this series and a versatile batsman like Suryakumar Yadav can’t make it to the playing eleven.

Do India end up underutilising their batting fire-power in one-day cricket by overdoing their middle overs accumulation? It happened in the last match. They were content with 173/3 in 35 overs with the blitz in the last 15 overs giving them another 163 runs. “There were certainly stages (India could have accelerated). Look how many they got in the last 10 overs!” England’s stand-in skipper Jos Buttler said at the presentation. “I thought our bowlers in the middle overs did an excellent job to restrict them at that stage.”

It could also be said India overdid their risk-free batting. Batsmen of the calibre of Virat Kohli and KL Rahul played the waiting game for too long. Spinners Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid were allowed to bowl unchanged for 18 overs at 5.5 runs per over. “We were actually thinking we will get to 300; getting those 35 extra runs was purely down to Rishabh’s counter-attack and Hardik finishing off strongly,” Kohli said at the presentation.

Well, 336 didn’t prove enough. As it is increasingly being seen in ODI cricket, in batting friendly conditions 300 runs have long ceased to be par totals. India experienced it in the last series in Australia where they were told to chase down 375 and 390. In the series before that in New Zealand, India posted 348 and 297 and failed to defend them. India ended second best in both those series, and may need to be different to prevent a hat-trick of ODI series defeats.

“If you look at the way the game is going, whether it is T20 or 50-overs cricket, who gets more boundaries generally wins; and if those boundaries are sixes, it stacks up slightly more,” said Bairstow. “If we can keep putting pressure on the bowlers, they keep missing lengths.”

While England’s attacking batting philosophy may look modern, India is no stranger to chasing down 350-plus totals. In the top ten list of successful 350-plus ODI run chases, India are mentioned thrice, the same as world champions England. In each of those matches, Kohli finished with a hundred.

India tend to lose the ambition of aiming higher when batting first, unlike England who have under Eoin Morgan cultivated and nurtured an enterprising approach. England pushed India into making refreshing changes to their T20 approach. Friday’s result might have the same effect on India’s ODI outlook.

India’s spin woes

A mere change in approach may not be enough though. The hosts will need to find a bowling combination that can pick wickets. That’s the only way England can be contained. Ben Stokes, who identified Kuldeep Yadav and Krunal Pandya as his match-ups, carted them multiple times into the empty stands at Pune. In two matches, India’s spinners have, on average, conceded more than 8 runs per over and all-rounder Hardik Pandya hasn’t been bowled for workload management. India may want to consider replacing Yadav and Krunal with Yuzvendra Chahal and Washington Sundar.

If Hardik won’t bowl and India want a sixth bowling option, an option would be to draft in Sundar into the top order to replace opener Shikhar Dhawan.

Amongst seamers, India have T Natarajan waiting to bowl his varied left-arm stuff, Prasidh Krishna has looked threatening and Shardul Thakur has more big-match experience. England could look to bring back Mark Wood for Tom Curran, who has proved to be expensive.

“You have to be better than the opposition on the day when the top two sides are playing each other. The T20 series went to a decider as well and we surely are going to bring our A game,” said Kohli.

India’s understanding of their A game may also give a peek into the future.