All-rounder, please?

With less than four months and 10 ODIs to go, India have some miles to cover in their preparation for the 2011 ICC World Cup — the season’s blue riband event.

Despite the euphoria of winning a one-day series against Australia at home after 24 years, the Indian team management would have anytime exchanged playing the full three-match series than a 1-0 win. After all, the larger goal is the World Cup preparation and the games leading up to the mega event are mainly a trial run to identify the best combination and address the weak links.

The batting line-up is more or less settled and the Vizag ODI provided another proof of it. But, for long, India’s main concern in the one-day format has been about bowling at the death and the lack of a genuine all-rounder and both still remain unaddressed. Of the 10 ODIs, five are against New Zealand in India and five against South Africa in South Africa.

The experts are not happy with the situation though. The view is that New Zealand, who were blanked 4-0 by Bangladesh, is a weak side and they are not sure how much playing in South African conditions will help as the conditions will be quite different from how it will be during the World Cup.

“New Zealand is not a challenge. That they lost to Bangladesh 4-0 shows how good they are. Only when you play against teams like South Africa and Australia, you will come to know where out bowling attack stands,” said Manoj Prabhakar, a veteran of the 1996 World Cup, the last time when the event was held in sub-continent.

As the main focus of the series was on testing options in the concerned areas, hence, a full series against Australia, the World’s No 1 ranked side, was crucial to India’s plans.

“One of the important aspects to look into is our bowling in the death overs. That is one of the important areas we need to look as we will be playing in subcontinent and it is not easy to bowl here,” said Ajit Wadekar, who was India’s coach in the 1996 World Cup.

The problem was again highlighted in the Vizag ODI against Australia when the Indian bowlers conceded 114 runs in the last 10 overs without taking a wicket as from 175 for three in 40 overs, the visitors finished at 289 for three.

“Death bowling has been a major problem for us. It is nothing new. We need to have a genuine quick bowler to bowl in that situation however unfortunately we done have one and we can’t produce one in short time too,” said another 1996 veteran Nayan Mongia.

Analysing the weakness, Prabhakar said: “Until and unless the bowler is able to swing the old ball, we will always struggle in the slog overs. Zaheer Khan has a mastery in the art of bowling with the old ball, but he has no support from the other end. Fast bowlers always do well in pairs and if Zaheer doesn’t get support from the other end, he will also get hit for runs.”

Venkatpathy Raju, who was the left-arm spinner in the 1996 squad, said: “As far as batting is concerned it is very strong, but we have to find a proper all-rounder before the World Cup. Whether it is a fast bowling all-rounder or spinning all-rounder we have to find one soon.”

Prabhakar, who carried out the all-rounder’s role in 1996, is not confident about left-arm spinner-batsman Ravindra Jadeja being able to do that job this time. “The all-rounder has to be a pace bowling all-rounder, not a spin bowling all-rounder. He has to be able to win matches on his bowling alone like Ian Botham, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan did. Or he has to be as good as Jacques Kallis. Yusuf Pathan, Jadeja are not the options,” observed Prabhakar.

The Delhi coach believes if the team lacked a natural all-rounder, the management had to groom one. “If you have a bowler who can bat a bit, the team management has to push him a bit. They have to make him realise that the team is depending on him and make him give his 100 per cent. Sunil Gavaskar had showed the same confidence in me and helped me succeed in that role,” said Prabhakar.

In 1996, the expectations were high and the hype was big, unfortunately India lost in the semifinals. We had the best team for the 2007 World Cup but we lost, so it’s important to get things right before the 2011 World Cup.