Abhishek's hat-trick of ducks: India's unexpected hiccup highlights a deeper pattern
Predicting that Abhishek Sharma's form would be India's biggest worry heading into the Super Eights would have been the cricketing equivalent of crying wolf. Except, the wolf showed up.
India have secured four wins in as many games of the ongoing T20 World Cup and yet, not a run was needed off the bat of the No. 1 batter in the format. Three consecutive ducks later, Abhishek has ensured that even the most destructive batting line-up in the competition isn't at its flawless best.
Ryan ten Doeschate, India's assistant coach, has brushed aside this minor concern for the time being, at least publicly. "He batted really well last night in the nets, he spent 90 minutes batting," ten Doeschate said after India's 17-run win over Netherlands on Wednesday. "You also have to give him a bit of space. He came into the group phase not feeling too well, he spent a few days in the hospital and missed the game [against Namibia]. It's been a very disappointing tournament for him so far. But I saw some really good signs with his ball striking last night. So no worries about him, he'll be fine when the second phase comes."
It's understandable why Abhishek's inability to buy a run in this competition isn't alarming. Firstly, he has entered the tournament at the back of a prolific run of a year and a half, which has powered him to the top of the ranking list in the world. Secondly, there is no specific pattern to his dismissals even as both USA and Pakistan admitted to having spent a fair amount of time plotting the southpaw's fall.
He well-timed a loft off Sanjay Krishnamurthi to deep cover, mistimed a pull off Salman Agha to mid on, and missed a pull against Aryan Dutt to get cleaned up. No pattern really.
Given that the rest of the batters have chipped in at various points, Abhishek's struggles haven't come to bother the team as yet, much like what has happened on most days when Abhishek has failed to take off. Ishan Kishan's rampage against Pakistan ensured that Abhishek's early dismissal wasn't a cause of concern. Earlier, in similar rare early dismissals, Sanju Samson stroked centuries against Bangladesh and South Africa when Abhishek didn't click.
India's dominant run in T20Is have come at the back of his early control seized by the openers. On the surface, all the players who have occupied the opening slots since the last World Cup, have fared reasonably well, enough to ensure that the big boots of Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli weren't hard to fill, and even for the sake of nostalgia, their presence hasn't been missed.
But lift the rug slightly, and there's a lot more swept under it than you'd realise. The individual brilliance of the openers - Abhishek, Sanju Samson, Shubman Gill, Ishan Kishan and Yashasvi Jaiswal - has overshadowed the reality that India haven't been getting good opening stands in this period of dominance where they have won nearly 80 percent of their games. Much pressure for that control has fallen on the shoulders of the No. 3s - Ishan Kishan, Tilak Varma and the likes, especially in the phase when Suryakumar Yadav too was struggling.
In these 45 innings, only three times have the openers managed to stay on till the end of the seventh over (two of which came against Zimbabwe in Harare). The high percentage of at least one opener getting dismissed early is understandable. Theoretically, given India's all-out attack approach, the openers are bound to find themselves in such a position more often than anyone else. Not only are they expected to be on the offensive to take advantage of the powerplay, and look to hit shots on the up, they also have the least access to the conditions of the surface and how the ball is likely to behave. And if there is any early movement on offer, the challenge is on them to take. The intel of the conditions are low, and expectations of runs and setting the tone are high.
But the short time spent in the middle aside, the runs too haven't been healthy, with Indian openers crossing 35 runs for their partnership only 12 times in these games (including once against UAE and twice against Zimbabwe.
Ten Doeschate does confirm that while it remains a point to be noted, there are way too many players who are chipping in at different times, which does the job for the team. "The team's record speaks for itself. There's always this one guy who gets us out of the powerplay even if we are two or three down. We still manage to come out of the powerplay pretty strong," Doeschate said.
Doeschate is right. Despite losing at least one of the openers in the powerplay on 39 out of 45 games, India have motored along at more than 10 runs an over in almost every second game, and faster than 12-an-over in every five. The early dismissal of an in-form batter hasn't usually come to hurt them. The flow of runs is usually halted when this aggressive approach backfires and India lose wickets in a chunk. That's where the caveat is. India have lost three or more wickets in the powerplay 13 times in these games, and on only four of these occasions they have managed to score at more than 8 runs an over.
So far, Abhishek's lack of runs haven't come to hurt the team. As Suryakumar Yadav had suggested, in T20 cricket, you don't need all your batters to fire every day. A good day for two or three batters does the work for the team where eight are expected to contribute in that department. If it's an all-out attack approach with the bat, many are bound to fail. The dependency is on those few who are going to stand up under pressure on different days. It's a consciously chosen path. Of the six times an opening pair has batted past the powerplay since the last world cup, Gill has featured in all of those, and Yashasvi has partnered him thrice.
For as easily as the rewards of this method have been witnessed - and impressively consistently - it is no secret that it is fraught with risks. But it's a danger the team management has made peace with. "If Ishan and Abhi fire, it's a dream. You cannot find better opening partners to bat for six overs. But a part of the strategy is that we will be playing this high level, we have to accept that you are going to lose wickets as well. The guys deserve a lot of credit for how we have managed to bounce back and get [big] scores after losing [early] wickets," ten Doeschate said.
Abhishek's lack of runs may not be a concern for the team as yet, but against tougher oppositions going ahead in the more crucial stage of the competition, his contribution could be the differentiator.
The absence of his contribution has been observed in small measures already. Despite winning all the games, India's batting is yet to come close to its peak standards in this competition. Would an Abhishek Sharma show have made a difference?
He is going to be tested further. Given India's left-handed heavy line-up, it's natural for teams to turn towards their offspin options - including part-timers. And in most cases, they would be operating right from the first over, just like Aryan Dutt and Salman Agha did against India. With the team's trust to repay, the task will be on Abhishek to figure a way out of this unexpected wolf fight.
