Ayush Badoni's role roulette - an overqualified floater-finisher or a bonafide No. 4
A barrage of abuses floated online during and after Badoni's knock against KKR that yielded only a strike rate of 107.41 after facing 27 deliveries. It was sedate, it was devoid of any momentum, and there was a lot of overcomplication involved.
Now, were there demons in the innocent-looking Eden Gardens surface to warrant such a display, or was all of the criticism actually justified?
Just like the aforementioned question, there are more to follow as Badoni's bizarre knock leaves behind more queries and barely any answers. For instance, the pitch was indeed a touch slow, but LSG's 161 was certainly below par based on how KKR chased it down- so how much of a hand did Badoni's knock and approach have with that?
Skipper KL Rahul admitted that LSG were 30 runs short and that the surface was better to play in the first innings, which makes his and Badoni's approach in the middle overs all the more surprising.
"It was easier to bat on in the first innings. I can't say we played bad shots. Our execution was off. We were 30 runs short. If one of the top three or four had batted all the way, we could have make it count," Rahul said during the post-match presentation
Badoni initially rose to the spotlight after being LSG's designated finisher for the majority of the first two seasons in the league. Back then, without Nicholas Pooran, and with Hooda and Pandey batting up the order, the finishing duties were down to Badoni and Pandya.
His ability to match the game's tempo right away was viewed as highly valuable by the franchise as he kept a hold of the spot. He did justice to it as well, becoming an integral part of the squad in such a short while.
He has a strike rate of 132 and 152 while batting at No.6 and No.7 respectively.
How did Badoni exactly fare at No.4?
Facing Narine and Chakravarthy at Eden Gardens was baptism by fire for Badoni in his audition for the No.4 spot. Coming into bat in a precarious situation at 32-2 in the fifth over, the right-handed batter had a huge opportunity as well as responsibility on his shoulders.
His first 14 balls at the crease included only one boundary, with the rest being five dot balls and eight singles.
As a result, it was not pretty at first as LSG were adamant about setting a platform rather than losing another wicket at that stage. The old, minimal-risk approach ended up being laborious, and even ugly for the LSG fans to witness. An unwelcome reminder to the vintage ODI middle overs only aided KKR's cause, as they rotated the spinners with ease to slowly build the pressure.
LSG were apparently ready to switch gears as Rahul hit a six off Russell in the first ball of the 11th over, but was dismissed off the next ball. Stoinis' wicket in the very next over worsened things for LSG and Badoni.
Badoni had to maneuver through the spin web, but was caught tangled up in it; but in his defence, so did the rest. As far as whether the approach was justified or not, Badoni arguably cannot be entirely blamed for it as he was not helped with wickets falling at the other end.
However, all of this does not take away Badoni's concerning numbers against spin which acts as a deterrent to his potential aspirations to play at No.4 on a consistent basis. He has been tentative against spin in the past to a degree, and the numbers back up the same as well.
In his T20 career, Badoni has scored 222 runs against spin bowling in 192 deliveries, which gives out a strike rate of only 115.62. Furthermore, more than a third of those deliveries faced have been dot balls, while more than half have been singles.
Apart from the worrying numbers against spin, there is also a case to be made for his shot selection and game awareness.
Now, could he have made something of the start had he seen through Narine's spell? Badoni was dismissed in Narine's final over following an ill-fated shot, with only a couple of deliveries remaining in his spell.
Big players back themselves to go big in the death overs, and since Badoni has done it before, striking it at 170 in the final phase, perhaps he could have trusted himself just a bit more.
Considering how the rest of the finishing unit - Krunal Pandya and Arshad Khan fared along with Nicholas Pooran, maybe his presence in the final overs was more paramount than he thought.
How has Badoni performed up the order in the IPL in the past?
His first promotion attempt at No.3, in an IPL 2022 contest against the Rajasthan Royals (RR) ended in a golden duck by Trent Boult. Can there be any more ominous signs than that? However, luckily, sinister signals cannot deter the logic of cricket, and answers can only be found after precise and sustained opportunities.
20 of Badoni's 29 IPL innings have come as a finisher. The rest have been dispersed from the opening slot to the No.5 position in the batting order. Although the sample size is small, it does not make for good reading.
He scored a quickfire 43 in LSG's record score of 257 against PBKS in IPL 2023, but otherwise, his numbers up the order are quite grim.
Can Badoni take a page out of Riyan Parag's book?
Riyan Parag, one of the leading contenders for the IPL 2024 Orange Cap, is the recent success story and the biggest benefactor of a promotion up the order. The all-rounder could only make sporadic impressions in the lower middle order and earned the wrath of fans and pundits alike over the years for his struggles.
However, Parag was a different beast in the domestic circuit. Yes, the lack of quality, when compared to the IPL, helped, but so did playing at No.4. The stars eventually aligned after Parag had a statement domestic campaign, and the Royals happened to have a vacancy in their middle order.
Similarly, Badoni plies his trade at No.4 for Delhi. He averaged 210 in the 2023 Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament, scoring as many runs in six innings, remaining unbeaten in five of them with a strike rate of 136.36.
So, is Badoni ready for a similar switch like Parag at RR? One has to bear in mind that it took Parag a number of seasons to make the switch, and the cost of pulling the trigger too soon and failing could be severe. It could hamper his confidence, could potentially cost the team, and delay the eventual progress.
It would also perhaps require a huge sacrifice on LSG's part to hand Badoni a long rope at No.4 at this stage of the season, even though they have enough firepower down the order even after taking Badoni out from that particular equation.
Furthermore, there is also doubt as to whether it would augur well with the modern approach, where a push or maintaining a positive tempo in the middle overs is quite necessary. With that, being prolific against spin comes as part of the job requirement for the No.4 slot, a department where Badoni needs to improve a lot.
KL Rahul had also mentioned that LSG need to find a way to push their scores to 180 from 160, and that echoed the sentiments of the fans as well. Now that their defending record of scores over 160 is down in tatters (only after people started making a huge deal about it), they need to conjure up something new.
Judging the conditions as soon as possible and devising a game plan would bode well for the side, along with a mandatory push in the middle overs if they desire that 180 plus totals on a regular basis. If that is the way they wish to go, Badoni at No. 4 may not be answer, at least not for now.