The search for Team India's sixth bowler is on at the moment after suffering significant defeats in the first two ODIs against Australia. The hosts set targets of 375 and 390 in Sydney after India's premier bowlers went for plenty.
Since then, only Hardik Pandya has shown positive signs of becoming the sixth bowler if fit. None of India's top-order batsmen rolls their arm over and it is proving to be a huge factor for the visitors.
Shikhar Dhawan, Mayank Agarwal, Shreyas Iyer, and KL Rahul have bowled a total of 100 overs in List A cricket combined and just 3 overs in ODIs. Skipper Virat Kohli used to be a part-time seamer but hasn't bowled enough in the last 5 years.
Former Indian cricketer Subramaniam Badrinath cites this as a weakness for the current lot. He cited the examples of Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag who could chip with a few overs and fill in the slot of a bowler who is having a bad day.
Badrinath told Star Sports Tamil, "No one from the top 5 or top 6 is bowling now. If you look at the Indian teams in the past, top-order batsmen managed to bowl a bit. Sehwag used to bowl, Sachin used to bowl, even Ganguly used to bowl."
"They used to give the captain 3-4 overs. You can manage 10 overs with them. When a bowler had a bad day, they didn't have the necessity to give him 10 overs. India is missing that now," he added.
Team India has four more limited-overs games to go and will have to think of a solution for the sixth bowler problem.
(With inputs from India Today)
