With the advent of the Gautam Gambhir era, Indian cricket is seeing drastic changes in the lineup. While Suryakumar Yadav and Rinku Singh were seen bowling in the Third T20 match against Sri Lanka, Shubman Gill was allowed to bowl in the First ODI match in a three-match series. Seeing full-time batters bowling in the death overs has raised many questions for spectators.
In a post-match presentation, India’s interim bowling coach Sairaj Bahutule recently revealed that there are further plans for batsmen to get more overs to bowl. Moving forward, we will see more contributions from batsmen coming from the ball as well. Preparing for the 2027 World Cup, players who are batting at the top and can significantly contribute to the bowling department can boost the morale and increase the team’s chances. “I think our batters are good bowlers as well.” He further added that since their main skill is batting they just don’t practice it enough
The Surya and Rinku heroics
In the third Twenty20 International match against Sri Lanka, Rinku Singh and Suryakumar Yadav were instrumental in shifting the balance of power in India’s advantage. Rinku bowled the deciding over, taking two wickets and giving up just three runs, with Sri Lanka needing just nine runs in the final twelve balls. Suryakumar then bowled the final over with six runs required for Sri Lanka to win where he picked up 2 important wickets. By the end of 20 overs, the match was tied at 137, and India emerged victorious in the Super Over.
Bahutule on this said that this is what he expects from the batters. This is a surprise element for the other teams and provides India with an edge when in need.
Batters with the Ball, old trend returns to the team
Earlier many Batters were seen rolling their arms on the bowling end for India. Under the captaincy of Sourav Ganguly, it was a common practice, to allow him to play with 7 batters out of which 5 were also bowling, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and even Ganguly himself were seen bowling very regularly. This trait was passed on to the next captain, who was seen playing Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina on the bowling end as well.
A change was seen under Ravi Shastri’s coaching and Virat Kohli’s captaincy, as they went ahead with frontline bowlers. This was also followed under Dravid’s regime as the coach. But with Gambhir taking over the reins, a change is persistent to take place. An example of this can be seen in the ongoing series as well.
Earlier this week Hardik Pandya was seen bowling spin, and Shreyas Iyer was seen opening his arms.
