Team India’s batsmen have not got much success on the tour of Ireland and England. First, Indian batsmen were seen struggling in the T20 series and now they have to face problems in the ODI series also. Especially in the conditions of England, the bounce of fast bowlers has proved to be a problem for the batsmen. In such a situation, when the ODI series is at stake, before the last match to be held at Lord’s, the coaching staff has given a simple but important tip to the batsmen – ‘Give yourself 5-10 balls to understand the situation’.
The Indian team had made a good start to the series by registering a win in the first ODI match played in Birmingham. But Team India had to face defeat in Cardiff and the series was tied at 1-1. In the second ODI, Rohit Sharma in the top order, Ishan Kishan in the middle order and then the entire lower-middle order struggled and proved to be a failure. The result was that the last 6 wickets fell for just 55 runs.
Now if the same story is repeated at Lord’s, it is a big challenge. Also a challenge is the one-sided slope of Lord’s Ground, which often helps fast bowlers in swing and seam. In such a situation, it is important for him to adapt himself and the same thing has been told to the batsmen. Bowling coach Morne Morkel revealed this a day before the match. Speaking to the media, Morkel said, “The batsmen need to give themselves 5-10 balls so that they can understand how the ball is behaving through the shield.”
Morkel asked the Indian batsmen to take the responsibility of understanding the conditions and stressed that the team has a lot of experience. Referring to the top and middle order, Morkel said that those batsmen have played a lot of cricket and many of them are familiar with the conditions and know how to form partnerships because that is going to be most important on this ground.
Now, it remains to be seen how the Indian batsmen convert this knowledge into reality at Lord’s. The Indian team has not won any ODI match on this ground since 2004. Even in the history of ODI cricket, no Indian batsman has been able to score a century at Lord’s. In such a situation, there is a good opportunity for the experienced Indian batsmen to leave their mark, gain confidence and win the series.
Leave a Reply