The time has come to split the coaching job in Indian cricket

admin — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 19:07:00 +0000

In sport, coaches usually adapt a system to the strengths of the players available rather than the other way around. Players come with different skill sets: the left-arm spinner who is also a terrific fielder, the frontline batter who can bowl a few holding overs and maybe even pick up a wicket or two and so on. It is the coach’s job to understand his players well and use them where they are most likely to mesh their skills to win matches.

All that might seem obvious. But some coaches like to disrupt the pattern. Greg Chappell was fond of moving players around in white ball cricket changing the batting order, for instance, so everybody is prepared for any match situation. India’s current coach Gautam Gambhir does that sometimes too.

Experimentation

Yet, at the end of the year, India, who lost more Tests than they won are yet to find a settled No. 3 in any format. The suspicion remains that Gambhir is trying to squeeze his players into a pre-determined system and not finding one that suits his players. Experimentation — a word being constantly thrown at Gambhir’s face in criticism — isn’t such a bad thing. With the World T20 just a few weeks and a few matches away, it is inevitable. But a coach needs to keep an open mind and ensure he has enough data for selectors to choose the right combination.

Sanju Samson, the smoothest (for want of a better term) batter in the national team since Rohit Sharma finds himself in the wilderness now. Has the coach got enough data to either drop him from the squad or use him as batter or wicketkeeper? There is very little you can learn of a player’s form when he spends all his time in the dugout. He deserves to be told if he has a future; so does Indian cricket.

White ball cricket, especially T20, is a natural platform for experimentation given that Test players need more time to mature. Here you can hit the right note early through a combination of luck and skill.

Currently there are two kinds of T20 players. The first began as First Class cricketers and then adapted to the demands of T20. Most bowlers in the Indian team belong to this category. An interesting case is that of Varun Chakaravarthy who is 34 and came through the TNPL and IPL having lost some years to academics. He is now the No. 1 T20 bowler in the world.

The most successful batter of this group is skipper Suryakumar Yadav who invented shots, played them with confidence and was for long the No. 1 batter in the format.

Attacking game

The second group is the T20 generation. Abhishek Sharma, who began his IPL career as a 17-year-old, and has a strike rate of nearly 190 in T20 Internationals is the natural here. This is the generation of varying ages but identical attitudes to playing attacking cricket, unafraid to go for their shots from the first delivery and most comfortable in the shortest format. Failure is not a stumbling lock. Tilak Verma, Rinku Singh, Vaibhav Suryavanshi, Ayush Mhatre all profess a philosophy distinctly different from the previous generation. They may or may not save a Test match, but they will strike their way to many T20 victories.

In cricket, there is a mythical delivery called the ‘unplayable’ ball. Those named above are batters capable of the unplayable shot, one that didn’t seem possible till they played it. Suryavanshi is not yet 15 and is currently setting the world alight at the Under-19 Asia Cup (50 overs). This is an excellent supply line to the senior team. At least a couple of players from this squad, all born in this century, deserve to be promoted to the senior team, and promoted early.

Now that players have become more specialised, with few overlaps between the Test team and T20, it may also be time to split the coaching. Thus, Gambhir for white ball matches, and someone like V.V.S. Laxman for Test cricket.

India do not play a Test till August next year. For a while the conversation will be about T20, with the World Cup in February next.

Published – December 17, 2025 12:37 am IST

Source link

Focus on Rinku’s form and batting position as India aim series win

admin — Thu, 14 Nov 2024 23:40:00 +0000

India’s Rinku Singh plays a shot during the 3rd T20I against South Africa, at SuperSport Park in Gauteng on Wednesday (November 13, 2024)
| Photo Credit: ANI

Rinku Singh’s batting slot and circumspect approach must be a cause of concern for the India team going into the deciding fourth T20I against South Africa as the side aims for another bilateral series victory here Friday (November 15, 2024).

Centuries by Sanju Samson and Tilak Varma on either side of an inept batting performance have kept India’s nose ahead in the series and team would want a more collective batting effort to clinch it 3-1.

The Wanderers ‘Bull Ring’ has always been a happy hunting ground for India, where they won the 2007 T20 World Cup final against Pakistan.

Even during the previous T20I series a year back, skipper Suryakumar Yadav’s last international hundred till date came at this very stadium and that too in a winning cause.

The Indian captain, who enjoys a staggering victory percentage of 81.25, having come up trumps in 13 out of the 16 matches, would like to do one better compared to the last series in the Rainbow Nation which had ended in a 1-1 draw with one game being washed out.

Curious case of Rinku Singh

Rinku, one of the finest exponents of T20 cricket has suddenly gone off the boil in the past few months, reasons of which aren’t exactly clear and it wouldn’t be lost on the skipper and interim head coach VVS Laxman.

On the face of it, it seems that his batting position and use as a floater at number six and seven isn’t helping the Aligarh man’s cause.

The next T20 World Cup in India is still some distance away in 2026 and Surya, as a skipper, has enough time to dissect and put things back on track for the man, who is too precious to be lost due to lack of clarity.

In the current series, Rinku came in at number six in two games and number seven in another and has managed just 28 runs.

The scores 11, 9 and 8 shouldn’t be taken in isolation looking at where he is coming in to bat but when the number of balls (34) he has taken to the score runs is taken into consideration, it becomes worrisome.

Even during the last IPL Rinku got to play a total of 113 balls in 15 games for KKR: roughly 7.5 deliveries per game.

Being seen strictly as a specialist “finisher” Rinku, on average, would get to face 10 balls in an innings. The strategy would have been devised to help the India team but of late it has eroded some of the southpaw’s confidence as he seems to be caught between attacking and playing second fiddle.

Most of Rinku’s better efforts have come when he has batted at number five but in a line-up where Sanju Samson is settling as an opener and Tilak Varma has staked claim as a No. 3, it might be difficult for Rinku to be promoted ahead of Hardik Pandya. It is an issue that team think-tank would do better to solve at earliest.

Team Combination

India has used 12 out of their 15 players in the first three games and it would be interesting to see if one among the two uncapped pacers Yash Dayal or Vysakh Vijaykumar gets a debut cap in case the pitch warrants an extra specialist speedster. For Samson, he would like to forget that he is turning into Marco Jansen’s ‘bunny’ after back-to-back failures.

In the final game, it wouldn’t be a bad option for skipper Surya to check on Ramandeep Singh’s steady medium pace as he can be an asset with multiple skills, including ability to field at all positions save keeping.

Squads

India: Suryakumar Yadav (c), Abhishek Sharma, Sanju Samson (WK), Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Hardik Pandya. Axar Patel, Ramandeep Singh. Varun Chakaravarthy, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Avesh Khan, Yash Dayal.

South Africa: Aiden Markram (c), Ottneil Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Donovan Ferreira, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen. Heinrich Klaasen, Patrick Kruger. Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Mihlali Mpongwana, Nqaba Peter, Ryan Rickelton. Andile Simelane. Lutho Sipamla, Tristan Stubbs.

Published – November 15, 2024 05:10 am IST