Is India up to the mark?

T20 has raised the premium on genuine all-rounders, who are good in all three departments of the game. Do India have one?  

MUMBAI: With this new version of cricket presented as more intense version of the 50-over format, it stands to reason that the concerns of teams in that format will likewise intensify during the upcoming tournament in South Africa. India's recent tinkering in England has brought the issue of team balance to the fore.

Unlike in Tests, where the top order can be expected to protect their wickets and score the necessary runs, the pace of scoring in limited overs games leads them into taking risks that put their wickets in danger. This means that the lower order must contain runs to ensure consistently good scores.

Likewise, with only a set number of overs allocated to each bowler, there must be enough players in the team capable of both containing batsmen and taking wickets. The solution to these two colliding requirements has always been simple in theory and somewhat trickier in practice: the all-rounder.

With so much aggression required and so much pressure on bowlers, only permitted 24 legal deliveries per match, Twenty20 has further raised the premium on genuine all-rounders. As well as batting and bowling, the ability to field well has gone from being a welcome bonus to an absolute requirement for inclusion in a Twenty20 team.

As such, the pressure on a batsman who does not bowl, or a bowler with little realistic chance of making runs, becomes tremendous. Specialists will be far from flavour of the month this September, while catches will definitely win matches and a missfield is often all that is needed to cross that thin line between victory and defeat.

India will be feeling this pressure more than most. With Irfan Pathan's abilities in doubt, while his brother Yusuf and young Piyush Chawla are largely untested, the closest the team has to an established all-rounder is the batting-cum-wicketkeeping Dhoni, but a big hitting 'keeper is merely par for the course nowadays.

India have, of course, no one to blame for the fact that no World class allrounders have been produced in a generation, but pity England, who have seen first Andrew Flintoff and now Ravi Bopara ruled out through injury.

Nevertheless, the sight of bowlers like Zaheer Khan and Chris Tremlett hammering sixes in the later overs in the recent series in England may be a sign of things to come in South Africa.

It remains to be seen who will emerge as the most versatile side, but there is every chance that whoever tops that particular list will be holding a trophy on September 24.