Indian cricket team for quite a long time has been relying more on its batting than bowling to win matches, and god knows for how many years have been playing with a combination of 7 batsmen and four bowlers. When they are chasing a score, then it is fine to have those seven batsmen, but when the score has to be defended then the gap of fill bowler has to be filled up with a patchwork of motley part time bowlers, and it most of the times leads to a situation where the matches have a close finish.

It was evident in the warm up match between India and Pakistan where Kamran Akmal waited for the opportunity and struk a deadly blow. Now coaches and batsmen of the rival teams all over the world wait for the fifth bowler to turn up and they go tong and hammer against him. So the tight lease that the front line bowlers may have maintained goes for a toss.

Problem for India is further compounded by the fact that its front bowlers, Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan are also not consistent in keeping the runs under check. Then there is Laxmipati Balaji, who in his zeal to bowl slow bowls wides way outside off-stump. May be, now that he has come back into the Indian team after a long time, he would turn something new from his quiver and help the campaign of India.

Virat Kohli is a veritable option and he needs to be tried out as he has been bowling consistently in the IPLs and has been taking wickets as well.  He is a much better option that Veeru as Veeru seems to have lost his zing to bowl. He seldom used to bowl in the IPL as well, and with the shoulder injury that he nurses can be compounded if he has to bowl on a regular basis. Virat Kohli is young and he needs to be asked to shoulder the responsibility.

For India the problem is not of batting, but the area of concern is bowling and the jigsaw puzzle has to be somehow fitted to make the effort a cohesive one.

Tags: Cricket, India, Indian Cricket Team, Pakistan, World T20