India coach Rahul Dravid has reasoned why there has been a sharp decline in the use of part-time bowlers in white-ball cricket and blamed it on the change in rules of the game, especially in ODI cricket.
He was speaking in a presser on the eve of the first ODI between India and Australia which will be played in Mohali on September 22, 2023. This will be part of the three-match ODI series which will see the two teams clashing in Indore on September 24 and in Rajkot on September 27.
The Indian cricket team's inclination to include more all-rounders in recent years can be attributed to the fact that many of the current top-order batters do not contribute as bowlers, unlike some of their esteemed predecessors from earlier generations.
Rahul Dravid was asked this question during the press conference and he reckons allowing only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle and two new balls at either end as the reasons for the disappearance of part-time bowlers in limited overs cricket.
Since 2015, in the second powerplay which begins from the eleventh over and lasts till the 40th, teams can have only four fielders outside the ring. This was the phase previously when part-time bowlers used to ply their trade with protection on the boundary.
"I think it could be because of the rule change. Suddenly you have gone from four fielders inside the ring to five fielders inside the ring. I think that has drastically changed the ability of part-time bowlers to be able to bowl in the middle phase," Dravid said in the presser.
In the Indian team that is picked for the World Cup, only Suryakumar Yadav has been bowling at the nets. Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma, who used to chip in a few overs during the start of their career, don’t bowl anymore.
Previously in the 2011 World Cup, India had the likes of Sachin Tendulkar, Yuvraj Singh, Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, and Yusuf Pathan, who could bowl a few overs when needed.
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"If you remember and mention all these names (Sachin, Sourav, Sehwag, Yuvraj, Raina) bowling in this phase, a lot of these guys started when there used to be only four fielders in the ring. In that kind of situation (five fielders outside the ring), you could lose a lot of part-time bowlers and not only us, but a lot of teams did that. If you will notice, the number of part-time bowlers has gone down in other teams as well. It's not only the Indian team,” Dravid pointed out.
Even in net sessions, very rarely have India’s top-order batsmen seen bowling. Dravid said it is an area India is trying to improve on with the likes of Suryakumar Yadav and Tilak Varme seen bowling regularly at the nets during the Asia Cup.
“It’s not that they are not bowling in the nets, a lot of batsmen they do bowl in the nets. If you don’t get opportunities to bowl in the middle then it becomes very difficult to develop your skill. And more and more captains and coaches are vary of the rules so they will always look to play a genuine bowler in the mix. This is something we are working on.
It’s not that we don’t work on that, we constantly work on it and we are constantly working on some of our bowlers to bat well as well. Certainly (whenever the rules changed), the count of part-time bowlers has reduced,” said Dravid.
(PTI inputs)
