India’s Abhishek Sharma, center, celebrates with teammates after the dismissal of England’s Jamie Smith during the second T20 cricket match between India and England at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, India, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. (AP Photo/Mahesh Kumar A.)
Part-time bowlers strike without any statutory warnings. Bereft of elaborate tease or rousing theatre, the first warning they file is often a wicket itself. As was Abhishek Sharma in his one-over cameo against England in Chennai. Jamie Smith plundered his first two balls for 10 runs; of the third, he skied to the long-off’s palms.
Abhishek’s ambles in like a left-arm medium pacer in slow-mo than an orthodox spinner. He rushes through his run-up, hurries through his load-up and release. He could err with his lengths, blunder with his lines, could make the captain look foolish, yet, he is not entirely without deception. Like the third ball he bowled, a scrambled seam ball like a seamer. The snap of the wrists backwards at the release generated back-spin. So the ball dipped further than Smith had judged and reached him slower, before straightening a fraction, resulting in the miscue. Abhishek, who Delhi Daredevils first picked as an all-rounder before his swashbuckling batting captured attention, has a devious leg-cutter he preserves for left-handed batsmen too. Shimron Hetmyer and Colin Munro would testify to his unsuspecting wickedness.
Not just Abhishek, Suryakumar Yadav had thrown the ball to a raft of batsmen. Surya summoned himself into serving his innocuous off-breaks in the last over of Sri Lanka’s run-chase in Pallekele. He defended five runs, grabbed two wickets and stretched the finish to Super Overs. Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh too were dialled into bowling at times. At Chepauk, Surya used seven bowlers, and apart from the wicket-keeper Sanju Samson and Dhruv Jurel, who replaced all-rounder Nitish Reddy, everyone has bowled in an international game.
It was not a wanton whim to Surya or the coach Gautam Gambhir to let the batsmen have some fun after the match had already been sealed. The contest was still in balance when Abhishek was thrown the ball. Rinku and Surya had bowled the penultimate and final overs of a nail-biting chase. Rather, it seems like a concerted venture to polish the bowling utility of India’s batsmen in time for the next edition of the T20 World Cup.
It’s a template that had enabled India to win several 50-overs games (even some Tests like 2001 Kolkata, when Sachin Tendulkar nabbed three including Adam Gilchrist, too) through the 90s and 2000s. Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Sourav Ganguly, and even Rahul Dravid had provided breakthroughs. Not to mention Yuvraj Singh, whose bowling evolved as his career progressed. In the 1983 World Cup too, India had men who could perform multiple tasks. Seven of India’s top-nine could bowl too. In recent times, India have dearly felt their absence in limited-over teams, especially in ODIs.
On good days, the multitaskers could stick to their primary duties. India possess a varied and inflammable arsenal of bowlers. Left-arm orthodox spinners, googly-spitting leg-spinners, a left-arm wrist spinner, the greatest all-format pace demon in the world, a hard-length merchant in the fringes, a left-arm seamer of ghastly cunning, a few tearaways in the stable, swing-sters and off-spinners if they want, and a pair of seam-bowling all-rounders. Such is India’s delightful balance that Surya has six specialist bowlers at his disposal. He would not mind if even one of them endures a horrible day. Most times and most surfaces, they would amply suffice.
But on bad days, its incidence more frequent in T20Is than any of its older siblings, Surya could gesture one of his enthusiastic part-timers to warm up. They might not deliver a game-changing spell like a front-liner—captains should be wary of knowing when to pull their plug and not make them over-stay—but they could produce a contest-altering over, or even a match-shaping wicket. Like Abhishek manufactured. Smith had rollicked to 22 off 11 balls, when he took out the last of England’s specialist batsmen. India boasted three spinners of better pedigree, but Abhishek provided something different and eked out a precious wicket.
It’s the format the bits and pieces could relish. Not only the batsmen who could chime in with a couple of overs, but also the bowlers could hack a few boundaries at the death. Ravi Bishnoi demonstrated the work he has put on his batting with a gutsy nine not out in Chepauk to offer Tilak the support to wrap up the game. Arshdeep, Jasprit Bumrah and Varun Chakaravarthy too have improved their batting in recent times.
The most influential all-rounders in this format are not the classical ones—those that can command a place in the eleven as a batsman or a bowler, or one who has a better batting average than their bowling aggregate—but those that could make a quick and decisive impact. The spin pair of Rashid Khan and Sunil Narine are prime examples of this pattern. The more classical ones like Ben Stokes, Pat Cummins and Jason Holder struggle to wield their all-round authority in this form. Ironically, seven of the top 10 all-rounders, according to ICC charts, are spinners who could bat. Apart from Hardik Pandya, the topper, none of them could be labelled as genuine in the orthodox sense of it.
Teams would look to groom such players in the next 15 months with an eye on the T20 World Cup next year, scheduled in India and Sri Lanka. By that time India could ignite the bowling sparks of Tilak, Rinku, Riyan Parag and Abhishek to build a devastating squad for the title defence. The bunch of men who could strike without any statutory warnings could end up performing the star turn.
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