New Delhi: About a month before the start of the 2023 World Cup, former Indian leg-spinner Anil Kumble raised a pertinent issue that hit Rohit Sharma and his team later in the middle of the tournament — the lack of all-rounders in 50-over format. More specifically, he pointed out that there were hardly any batsmen who today give the option to be also used as bowlers.
“One problem that needed to be addressed, from the last World Cup to this ODI World Cup, was that we needed more all-rounders — (an issue) which has never been addressed. You don’t have batters who can come and give you those options. Yeah, bowlers giving you some batting is secondary. But, I think, batters giving you bowling options certainly increases the depth,” Kumble said in September.
Then, the former India skipper accelerated, and landed a telling blow. “You cannot create them overnight. But we had four years, so you had to develop those players; instructions had to be given. Players should have been identified and said ‘okay, you are the guys who are going to give me options. Now, for example, Yashasvi Jaiswal, I know, bowls a bit of leg-break. But I have hardly seen him bowl in any match in the last one year. Shreyas Iyer also gives a bit of bowling. But I don’t know if with his back problem, whether he will come in (to) bowl,” he told Cricinfo.
In the four years between the last two World Cups, Ravi Shastri and Rahul Dravid held the post of India head coach, for two years each. During this period, the chairmen of the selection committee were M.S.K Prasad, Sunil Joshi, Shiv Sundar Das (interim), Chetan Sharma, and Ajit Agarkar.
Kumble didn’t take names, but he was either referring to the head coaches or the selection committees, or both.
Whoever Kumble had in mind, his fear became reality in the fourth of the nine league matches that India played, against Bangladesh in Pune. Hardik Pandya injured his ankle while trying to stop Litton Das’s straight drive off his bowling, and was ruled out of the rest of the tournament. He hasn’t returned to action until India’s ongoing Test series in South Africa.
Tough to digest the fact that I will miss out on the remaining part of the World Cup. I'll be with the team, in spirit, cheering them on every ball of every game. Thanks for all the wishes, the love, and the support has been incredible. This team is special and I'm sure we'll… pic.twitter.com/b05BKW0FgL
— hardik pandya (@hardikpandya7) November 4, 2023
While Kumble talked in the 50-over context, all-rounders are as much required in Test matches to provide balance. This was underlined further after India’s abysmal capitulation to South Africa in the first Test in Centurion on Thursday.
The two all-rounders that India picked — spinner R. Ashwin and pacer Shardul Thakur — contributed a cumulative 34 runs and two wickets. But, let us not confuse ourselves — India’s innings and 32-run defeat was a combination of several factors, and not just limited to the all-rounders’ issue discussed here.
The central issue, therefore, is the lack of all-rounders who provide the crucial balance to a playing XI, more so in the Test and 50-over formats. T20s are not so much affected as the absence of an all-rounder is not felt as acutely. Quite extraordinarily, India, despite its vast population and overflowing talent pool, continues to feel the pinch of quality all-rounders who could be automatic starters in the national Test and ODI XIs, even when rotation of players is implemented. Alas, India have not found another Kapil Dev since his retirement in 1994 — almost 30 years!
The lack of good all-rounders hurt India the most when the team plays Test matches overseas, particularly in England, Australia, and South Africa, where the pace and bounce in the pitches pose a huge challenge to our batsmen. A good all-rounder provides options to the captain and depth in batting and bowling.
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A glorious past
India have had some great all-rounders, Lala Amarnath being among the top ones. In his chequered and controversial 24-Test career, he scored 878 runs and captured 45 wickets. Vinoo Mankad scored 2,109 runs and bagged 162 wickets in 44 Test matches. Adjudged the ‘Indian Cricketer of the Century’ by Wisden, Kapil Dev remains on top with 5,248 runs and 434 wickets in 131 Tests, and 3,783 runs and 253 wickets in 225 ODIs. Besides Kapil, the other all-rounders who contributed significantly to the team in the last 30-40 years have been Madan Lal, Manoj Prabhakar, Ravi Shastri, and Mohinder Amarnath.
The team that won the 1983 World Cup was probably the best ‘balanced’ Indian ODI team ever. It was packed with several quality all-rounders who provided many options to captain Kapil Dev while picking his XI. Even the Sunil Gavaskar-captained team that won the 1985 World Championship of Cricket in Australia was packed with all-rounders — seven in the 14-member squad. Five of these all-rounders — Ravi Shastri, Roger Binny, Madan Lal, Mohinder Amarnath, and Kapil Dev — were in the 1983 team.
There were eight all-rounders in the World Cup-winning team in England and seven of them captured wickets. The unlucky one was Sandeep Patil who couldn’t get a wicket in nine overs he bowled in eight matches. Remember, effectively there were eight all-rounders in the 13 who played the matches as the 14th member (Sunil Valson) didn’t play any game. The presence of these multi-skilled men – mostly pace bowling all-rounders — was India’s biggest advantage in the seaming English conditions.
It is not that the Indian cupboard of all-rounders got barren at the end of the 1983 World Cup, or the 1985 World Championship of Cricket. Kapil continued to play until 1994, when Prabhakar took over the baton from him. Between 1983 and 2023, the likes of Amarnath, Binny, Shastri, Madan Lal, Irfan Pathan, and even Ajay Jadeja, performed the all-rounders’ role, most of them with distinction. Some others came and went with a whimper.
Present problem
But the bitter truth is that India have, for some strange reason, not found a durable and quality all-rounder in the Kapil Dev mould since his retirement in early 1994. Shastri and Prabhakar, who often opened both the batting and bowling successfully, were the regulars in both Test and 50-over formats.
And again, since their retirements – Shastri exited in 1992 and Prabhakar four years later – India have struggled to get an all-rounder of their quality, someone who could provide the crucial ‘balance’ to the XI, perform consistently, and last long.
All-rounders are required more so in Test matches and the 50-over format, where they could perform the decisive role, like they did so successfully during the 1983 World Cup.
Forty years since that World Cup triumph, India is desperately looking for quality all-rounders of the same calibre, especially for the longer formats. Ravindra Jadeja, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, and Shardul Thakur are there, but India need a few more options when they are either not available, for being out of form, or for personal reasons, or are injured.
It’s quite extraordinary that in a country of over a billion people, Jadeja is the lone player who is an automatic starter in the India XI in all three formats and in almost all pitches, barring maybe in extremely seaming conditions like in England. After Pandya’s injury sent him crashing out of the rest of the World Cup, Jadeja was the all-rounder who was left as an automatic starter, though Ashwin and Thakur were in the group. And Jadeja, whose electric fielding and brilliant catching is a huge bonus, didn’t disappoint.
Thakur, a bowling all-rounder, was picked for only three matches and Ashwin, a spinning all-rounder, for a solitary game in the World Cup, where conditions (and the opposition) suited them. Axar Patel, a left-arm spin all-rounder like Jadeja, was ruled out of the World Cup due to an injury sustained before it began. India, however, reached the final with an all-win record in the league phase, before losing to Australia.
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Bowling or batting all-rounders?
Kumble, who was no bunny with the bat, said India needed batsmen who could provide bowling options.
Former all-rounders Manoj Prabhakar and Madan Lal beg to differ. Both insist all-rounders are essentially bowlers first. “All-rounders are always classified as bowling all-rounders not batting all-rounders, because you help your team win while batting at No.6 or No.7, besides bowling. Your first job is to get wickets and then to get runs, like Richard Hadlee, Kapil Dev, Ian Botham, Michael Holding, Andy Roberts, Imran Khan, Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson used to do,” Madan Lal told The Print.
“They were all wicket takers. They were of proven quality. India needs bowling all-rounders, not the other way round. Hardik Pandya can win a T20 game for you, whether he scores 30 runs or 40, and he gives you the breakthroughs too. But he doesn’t play Test cricket,” he points out.
Prabhakar, a swing bowling all-rounder who bowled a deadly slower one, has this to say: “All-rounders should be medium pacer all-rounder, or bowling all-rounders, and not batting all-rounders. Jacques Kallis was a pure, world class batting all-rounder. Kapil Dev and Imran Khan were the real all-rounders, who were bowlers first. Players who are loosely categorised as all-rounders are actually just rolling their arms over; they are not dependable. They can’t win matches; you can only utilise their expertise. If, for example, someone says Axar Patel is an all-rounder, I don’t agree.”
Madan Lal, himself a pace bowling all-rounder, emphasises that quality all-rounders were produced when players went through the grind in multi-day matches in domestic tournaments, where both temperament and skill are tested to the hilt. “You have to bat for a longer period, maybe for five-six hours in Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy matches to score a 50 or a 100. That is the only way to develop all-rounders, because in the T20 format you go there and hit — but might end up hitting and missing. In the 50-over format also, you have to develop a habit of staying at the wicket. That habit is missing these days,” he rues.
When a bowling all-rounder goes through the grind in domestic multi-day matches and bats in critical situations, maybe at No.7 or No.8, and is required to win games, that is when quality comes up. “In the same manner, you can adjust your game in the 50-over format. In T20, if you have an idea you can also bat well. It’s about multi-day matches, because these days hardly anyone can bat for three or four hours to score a hundred or thereabouts,” Madan Lal explains.
Crucial role of captains
Captains play a major role in the making or the unmaking of an all-rounder, avers Prabhakar. He goes on to acknowledge the encouragement he received from his first captain Gavaskar. “All-rounders are made; they don’t come ready-made. And it is the captain who transforms players into all-rounders. Had Gavaskar not supported me, I would never have become an all-rounder. He supported me to open the innings. Captains like him are needed to turn a medium pacer with batting potential into an all-rounder,” he outlines.
This is not happening today. And one major reason is that an all-rounder plays under different captains in Tests and ODIs/T20s, so a valid question arises: Who will take him under his wings?
Prabhakar played 39 Tests. And in 30 of the 58 innings, he opened the batting, scoring 958 runs out of his 1,600 runs in that role. “Many of today’s medium pacers only know how to bowl. And many of them don’t have the guts to stand up to good bowlers. They are scared of getting hit by the ball, thus ruining their careers. I hardly see lion-hearted all-rounders these days,” he says, without mincing words.
T20/financial factor
The absence of quality all-rounders can also be related to excess T20 cricket where the mind-set of players is completely different from those who play the two longer formats. With so much T20 cricket being played, the temperament of cricketers has also undergone a sea change.
“It is definitely a temperament issue. You require good temperament to bat for longer periods and you develop that only by playing in the Ranji Trophy and Duleep Trophy, or whatever long version games are there. You have to apply yourself for hours in different conditions, looking at the overall picture of the game,” Madan Lal says.
The mind-set has changed also because in T20 good money could be made in a short time compared to the longer version. There are several instances of cricketers appearing in select longer domestic matches just to qualify to play in the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), as required by the rules.
“T20 cricket has ruined everything. Today, pacers just want to bowl at 150 kmph; they don’t know how to take wickets. A majority of Purple Cap winners in the IPL have been swing bowlers,” Prabhakar says. Purple Cap is awarded to a season’s highest wicket taker, and 13 of the 16 winners have been pace/swing bowlers.
It is also a fact that T20 leagues bring quick bucks for players, therefore attracting modern-day youngsters. Evidently, quick financial rewards are closely linked to many players turning their backs to multi-day cricket that produce quality all-rounders.
“No good players want to play multi-day matches. They are content playing T20 and limited overs matches. And those who are running the game are responsible for this scenario. I fear India going the Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka way in five years,” Prabhakar cautions.
Madan Lal says when he coaches, he observes how youngsters are keen to play the T20 format. “Financial rewards are a must, and you can see this in the way the players are being sold in IPL auctions. Nobody wants to play domestic cricket. They just turn up for the T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy and the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy, that’s it. They think Ranji Trophy (four- and five-day matches) is boring,” he stresses. “That’s why a lot of teams are suffering; the young kid who is watching the auction is thinking how I can also earn big bucks.”
The writer has covered cricket for over three decades, based in New Delhi. He tweets at @AlwaysCricket
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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