Indian cricket biggest need - a genuine all-rounder!

The Indian team are the current ODI champions but we haven’t been playing like one. We have been consistent in our losses. Most of our players have been playing inconsistently and there is lack of energy and passion on the cricket field. There is lack of team spirit and rival camps have been formed within the team. The captain has not been able to motivate the team and the Indian cricket team is facing deep crisis. One of major challenges for us in shorter format has been whether to play with seven batsmen and four bowlers or six batsmen and five bowlers. After Kapil Dev, we never had any genuine all-rounder. Indian cricket has been hit by the dearth of a genuine all-rounder.

An all-rounder adds great value to any successful team. Gary Sobers, Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Kapil Dev, Chris Cairns, Jacque Kallis and Andrew Flintoff have been the greatest all-rounders in world cricket. They were match-winners, who won matches on the merits of both their batting and bowling. Personally, I rate Imran Khan as the best all-rounder of all time, for the simple reason that he was also a highly successful captain of his team. He took Pakistan to greater levels and made them a world class team. Currently, Jacques Kallis is the best all-rounder in world cricket. He is now at end of his career. He will remembered more for his batting exploits. Kallis is a useful bowler but truly, a world class batsman. We have Angelo Mathews, Albie Morkel, Daniel Vettori, Mohamed Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzaq, Shane Watson and Stuart Broad from the current generation of star all-rounders in world cricket. These are not genuine all-rounders of the class of Botham, Imran or Kapil but are good at one aspect and useful in other.

Apart from Kapil Dev, Manoj Prabakar has been close to a genuine all-rounder for India. We also had Ravi Shastri and Mohinder Amarnath. These were more of bits and pieces cricketers. In between, we also had Ajit Agarkar but he didn’t give full justice to his batting talent. Virendra Sehwag came as an all-rounder and went on to become a world class batsman. He is an intelligent spinner but his bowling talent went unexploited in international cricket. It is a mystery for Indian cricket as to why his bowling has been royally ignored by cricket captains of India. Sachin Tendulkar‘s bowling talent was also underutilized. He could have got a few more wickets in his career but had to sacrifice bowling to extend his career as a batsman. Yuvraj Singh has worked hard on his bowling and adds value in shorter formats. It helped Indian team during the 2011 World Cup triumph also. But we still lack a world class genuine all-rounder.

Irfan Pathan, Ravindra Jadeja and Ravichandran Aswin can be more useful all-rounders as compared to Yuvraj or Sehwag for all three formats of cricket. They are not in the class of Kapil Dev or Manoj Prabakar but they can work towards being bowling all-rounders for the Indian team. Irfan Pathan and Ravichandran Ashwin are specialist bowlers who have worked hard on their batting. But their concentration on batting has affected their bowling. They need to understand that their primary skill is bowling and that has to be given more importance. The team will be happier if they take wickets and contribute with useful scores with the bat down the order. Ashwin is a world class spinner and we expect him to win us more matches on sub-continent tracks and support our seamers overseas. Irfan Pathan is world class bowler too when he is swinging the ball, otherwise his place in the team will always be in doubt.

Ravindra Jadeja is a genuine all-rounder but we see him more as a cricketer suited to shorter formats. For Test cricket, he has to either score hundreds or take wickets in heaps. For that, he will have to work harder on his game. For shorter formats, he has been playing for some time, but needs to add more value to the team. We would like to see more match winning performances from him. He has not given enough justice to his talent but age is still on his side. Jadeja should take cue from Mohamed Hafeez of Pakistan, who has been performing consistently to become a world class all-rounder for his team and has been winning a lot of matches. For Indian team to rise to next level, these all-rounders will have to put step forward.