<p>Birmingham: We live in an era of specialisation, and that is prevalent in Indian cricket too with the current generation of batters solely focused on their primary skill, quite the contrary to the situation from late 90s to through 2000s when batsmen were more than a handful with the ball.</p>.<p>Take a look at the Indian team that has assembled in England for the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. None of the specialist batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill and Abhimanyu Easwaran can bowl, even part-time, meaning all the bowling workload has to be managed purely by the bowlers themselves. In fact, that’s the case with the next line of batters too, like Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar and Ruturaj Gaikwad.</p>.Questions over Bumrah linger as ten Doeschate says 'strong chance of playing two spinners'.<p>That, however, was not the case about a decade and a half ago when batting legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina could roll their arm over whenever needed. Tendulkar was such an extremely gifted cricketer; he could bowl off-spin, leg-spin as well as medium pace based on the conditions. The Little Master loved his bowling a lot and celebrated taking wickets as much as scoring centuries. He desired to bowl a lot, but injuries stalled his ambitions, eventually bagging 46 wickets in the 200 Tests he played.</p>.<p>Ganguly, with his medium pace, was actually a good all-rounder during the first half of a celebrated career before captaincy and age forced him to slow down. In his debut series in England in 1996, apart from scoring a memorable century at Lord’s — his first ever innings in Test cricket — and another in Nottingham, he scalped six wickets, which is a good return for someone who was picked purely for his batting abilities.</p>.Pacer Prasidh's tough learning curve in England.<p>Sehwag and Raina were not in the league of Tendulkar and Ganguly, but the duo could act more than fillers. Sehwag, one of the most uncanny cricketers in the world, had the unique knack of breaking partnerships, while Raina knew how to hold one end up without conceding too many runs. More than Tests, they were exceptional in one-dayers. Yuvraj was a proper all-rounder, as effective with his left-arm spin as he was when smashing the bowlers with the bat in his hands.</p>.<p>All of them were effective whenever the bowlers had a long and rough day. They could easily chip in, dish out about five to 10 overs, and probably pick up a wicket here or there. It gave the bowlers some much-needed cushion and the captain extra bowling options as well. In essence, it was a luxury to have.</p>.<p>However, that’s not the case anymore. The entire bowling workload has to be managed by the bowlers, which becomes arduous if one of the all-rounders has a bad game, like it happened in the opening Test at Leeds. Shardul Thakur was all over the place in the first innings, conceding 38 runs in 6 overs. He fared slightly better in the second, scalping two wickets, but conceded 51 runs in 10 overs.</p>.Despite IPL lure, Brook stays committed to English cricket.<p>The other seaming all-rounder in the team is Nitish Kumar Reddy, but he’s more of a batter than a bowler. If he ends up playing the second game, which looks very likely judging by the happenings at Monday’s ‘nets’, then it’s certain the frontline bowlers will have to do all the running in the second Test too that starts in Birmingham on Wednesday.</p>.<p>Not just Tests, but the pattern is visible even in limited-overs games with batters mostly focussed on cultivating their primary skillset. Right from a very young age, they are groomed in one particular aspect of the game, and that itself, consuming a lot of energy, means they barely have time to learn bowling, which can always come in handy.</p>
<p>Birmingham: We live in an era of specialisation, and that is prevalent in Indian cricket too with the current generation of batters solely focused on their primary skill, quite the contrary to the situation from late 90s to through 2000s when batsmen were more than a handful with the ball.</p>.<p>Take a look at the Indian team that has assembled in England for the five-match Anderson-Tendulkar Trophy. None of the specialist batters like Yashasvi Jaiswal, KL Rahul, Sai Sudharsan, Shubman Gill and Abhimanyu Easwaran can bowl, even part-time, meaning all the bowling workload has to be managed purely by the bowlers themselves. In fact, that’s the case with the next line of batters too, like Shreyas Iyer, Sarfaraz Khan, Devdutt Padikkal, Rajat Patidar and Ruturaj Gaikwad.</p>.Questions over Bumrah linger as ten Doeschate says 'strong chance of playing two spinners'.<p>That, however, was not the case about a decade and a half ago when batting legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina could roll their arm over whenever needed. Tendulkar was such an extremely gifted cricketer; he could bowl off-spin, leg-spin as well as medium pace based on the conditions. The Little Master loved his bowling a lot and celebrated taking wickets as much as scoring centuries. He desired to bowl a lot, but injuries stalled his ambitions, eventually bagging 46 wickets in the 200 Tests he played.</p>.<p>Ganguly, with his medium pace, was actually a good all-rounder during the first half of a celebrated career before captaincy and age forced him to slow down. In his debut series in England in 1996, apart from scoring a memorable century at Lord’s — his first ever innings in Test cricket — and another in Nottingham, he scalped six wickets, which is a good return for someone who was picked purely for his batting abilities.</p>.Pacer Prasidh's tough learning curve in England.<p>Sehwag and Raina were not in the league of Tendulkar and Ganguly, but the duo could act more than fillers. Sehwag, one of the most uncanny cricketers in the world, had the unique knack of breaking partnerships, while Raina knew how to hold one end up without conceding too many runs. More than Tests, they were exceptional in one-dayers. Yuvraj was a proper all-rounder, as effective with his left-arm spin as he was when smashing the bowlers with the bat in his hands.</p>.<p>All of them were effective whenever the bowlers had a long and rough day. They could easily chip in, dish out about five to 10 overs, and probably pick up a wicket here or there. It gave the bowlers some much-needed cushion and the captain extra bowling options as well. In essence, it was a luxury to have.</p>.<p>However, that’s not the case anymore. The entire bowling workload has to be managed by the bowlers, which becomes arduous if one of the all-rounders has a bad game, like it happened in the opening Test at Leeds. Shardul Thakur was all over the place in the first innings, conceding 38 runs in 6 overs. He fared slightly better in the second, scalping two wickets, but conceded 51 runs in 10 overs.</p>.Despite IPL lure, Brook stays committed to English cricket.<p>The other seaming all-rounder in the team is Nitish Kumar Reddy, but he’s more of a batter than a bowler. If he ends up playing the second game, which looks very likely judging by the happenings at Monday’s ‘nets’, then it’s certain the frontline bowlers will have to do all the running in the second Test too that starts in Birmingham on Wednesday.</p>.<p>Not just Tests, but the pattern is visible even in limited-overs games with batters mostly focussed on cultivating their primary skillset. Right from a very young age, they are groomed in one particular aspect of the game, and that itself, consuming a lot of energy, means they barely have time to learn bowling, which can always come in handy.</p>