India's death bowling is a concern

India’s bowlers conceded 78 in the last five overs in the second T20I in Guwahati and fared only marginally better in the third against South Africa in Indore on Sunday, going for 73.

These are the two latest examples of India's death bowling woes that have extended from the Asia Cup. After several experiments, some by design and some forced by circumstances, India appear to have a settled batting unit but the same can't be said of the bowling, which has looked vulnerable in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah.

Not surprisingly, the bowling group has come under harsh scrutiny since the Asia Cup but its performance has to be judged against the challenges it faced, especially at home against Australia and South Africa. The conditions were heavily tilted towards batters with flat tracks, fast outfields and short boundaries being the norm at most venues. When you see even a good ball being hit for a boundary, you know the margin for error is zero. One can't be oblivious to the fact that even the more accomplished attacks of Australia and South Africa struggled to make an impact in the given conditions.

This, however, doesn't mean the Indian bowlers should be absolved of all the flaws they have routinely displayed in the last few assignments. Some are related to execution (or rather non-execution) of plans while others are inherent. For instance, lack of pace. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a classic example of both. The wiry bowler relies on swing with the new ball, and perfectly delivered yorkers, wide or in the blockhole, towards the backend of an innings. While the pacer had mixed outings bowling in the Power Play, he was regularly taken to the cleaners in the death overs. In the absence of pace, even the slightest of errors in execution is inviting disaster.

Harshal Patel, who will be flying to Australia along with Bhuvneshwar for the T20 World Cup, was one of India's trump cards in the format with his exceptional bowling in the slog. Before an injury laid him low, he was the captain's go-to man to stem the flow of runs by taking wickets. His slow in-dippers and bouncers, full and wide yorkers were difficult to negotiate. Since his return, however, the Haryana bowler seems to have become predictable. Not unlike Bhuvneshwar, Harshal too doesn't possess the added pace and depends on variations which appear to have lost their novelty factor.

"It has become a pattern and that's the way teams play against India now," former India all-rounder Sanjay Bangar told Star Sports after Sunday's match. "They know that India are obviously missing a couple of important bowlers and they will probably look at pacing their innings in such a way they would look to cash in towards the end with wickets in the end. That's where the Indian bowlers will have to get their act together because they are missing a lot of yorkers and they are also bowling a lot of back-of-length slower balls. Those two aren't the best bets under pressure."

Arshdeep Singh, therefore, is a refreshing alternative to have for he has the pace to hustle the batters. The young bowler is also at home with the new ball, like he showed in the Thiruvananthapuram game against South Africa. With conditions aiding swing, the left-arm pacer got the ball to move both ways to dismiss three batters in a sensational first over, and had given away just seven runs in his first two overs. His next two overs, however, cost 25 runs in a team total of 106. In the second match, too, he accounted for two batters in his opening over but conceded 62 by the time he finished his quota of four overs, though he has been an acknowledged death bowler for his IPL franchise.

The problem with this attack is there are too many new-ball bowlers, including Axar Patel who was given just one over in the final T20I as skipper Rohit Sharma didn't trust the left-arm spinner’s skills against the set left-handed duo of Quinton de Kock and Rilee Rossouw. One of Bumrah's potential replacements - Deepak Chahar - too operates well with the new ball and loses his edge once the ball goes soft.

Going by the indications of coach Rahul Dravid and Rohit, Mohammed Shami seems the front-runner to take the vacant pacer's slot in the squad but does he bring anything different to the table apart from pace? With his extra pace and swing, Shami can be an asset with the new ball but he becomes too predictable with the old. He keeps hitting the same areas with little variation in pace, which makes him an excellent red-ball bowler but is a recipe for disaster in the shortest format.

Where his economy is 8.45 runs per over during the Power Play, it shoots up to 10.67 in the final stretch. In fact, a look at the table shows that barring Hardik Pandya, whose economy in the slog overs dips to 7.53 from 9.87 in the PP, the rest of the pacers suffer heavily in the death overs. This is where someone like Bumrah - with his pace and myriad variations - would have provided that cutting edge.

His wicket-taking ability, which in turn puts a brake on the scoring rate, would have benefitted bowlers at the other end. With no pressure at either end now, India have found it hard to contain batters in recent times. They have no bowler in the class of Bumrah. How well they overcome this shortcoming will define their campaign in the T20 World Cup.