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The former Indian chief selector, Sunil Joshi feels that the Indian batting unit did not take enough responsibility during the recent tour to Australia.
India knocked out of race to qualify for WTC final. (Picture Credit: AP)
Reflecting on India’s disappointing tour of Australia for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the former Chief Selector, Sunil Joshi shared his two cents on how the side’s batting unit needed to take more responsibility. He also commented on what the coaching staff need to do to rectify any possible concerns within the squad.
In an interview with IANS, the former Chief Selector for India’s winning team in the 2020-21 tour Down Under explained how the coaches were to help players understand their deficiencies, which were communicated effectively to get the best out of each player.
“It’s pretty hard to take it, but the batters need to take responsibility. Of course, the coaching staff also needs to be aware of how they can communicate with the players – be it the hard way or the subtle way. It’s a bitter pill and we have to accept it. Every player on that tour understands what is the importance of playing for India,” he commented.
“They would always like to give their best, but at times it may not happen. So the players need to be told what they need to add or adapt in terms of patience and a little bit of adjustment in their skill levels and techniques. For me, if you look at the dismissals of our top six batters in all five Test matches, I don’t see any change in that,” he added.
He was also critical of the batting unit and felt that the top six were getting out in the same fashion repeatedly, but the difference was that the hosts were willing to make the necessary changes to get the big runs on the board.
“It looked similar dismissals, and I’m not saying that even the Australians also got out the same way. But the difference between us and the Australians was clearly shown by the partnerships they built upon and the top order taking responsibility time and again. Also, we need to look at our fielding, as that was an area of concern,” said Joshi
Joshi also felt that India may have missed a trick when they decided to go for multiple all-rounder options and should have focused on getting five quality bowlers in the side instead.
“If you want to win overseas or even in India if you want to win a Ranji Trophy, you need five bowlers. You cannot go with four bowlers, and for me, if your six batters and seventh or eighth batters are not going to score runs, you then need five proper bowlers who can win Test matches for you by picking 20 wickets,” Joshi shared.
The former Indian cricketer also expressed his concerns with the overuse of the Indian pace spearhead, Jasprit Bumrah, and felt that bowling significantly fewer overs throughout the series could have improved his effectiveness.
“If you look at the amount of load Bumrah had in the five Test matches, he bowled above 150 overs. In case you’d have reduced his load to somewhere around 60 or 65 overs, his effectiveness could have been much more. In this series, every time it was Bumrah – even in the last Test match, Bumrah went out (due to back spasms) and we looked very ordinary,” he commented.
