When Reputation Trumps Reality

The Indian Premier League is showing more & more signs of coming of age, with players on opposite teams taking on one another. I can imagine the purists shaking their heads at players jawing each other, but from the league's perspective it can only be good news as it shows players are willing to look beyond nationalities and stand up for themselves and the team they are part of.

Most of us remember the spat between Harbhajan Singh & Sreesanth which led to the former being suspended for the remainder of the first IPL season, thereby increasing his team's chances of making the semifinals. There was another incident in 2010 involving Harbhajan when he gave Tirumalasetti Suman quite a send-off and was fined for it.

But for the most part, Indian players who were regulars in the national team seemed to only pick on the lesser names. They were easy targets as the average fan neither knew nor cared much about these no-name players who were part of the IPL mainly because the rules say that every team can have at most four international players in the eleven. Also, you did not have to worry about the awkward situation in the Indian dressing room as most of the uncapped players will likely never play for India.

Manvinder Bisla is one such player. There is a good chance the 2012 IPL Final will be the highlight of his career. His "Jyadrath moment" as Arnab a.k.a. Greatbong calls it in this discussion before the start of this IPL season. You know you aren't a popular player when even fans of your team think you're not good enough. Thankfully, Bisla doesn't care much for reputations. It's why he urged Shane Watson to throw the ball when the bowler shaped up to rip one at the stumps (Here's the video of the entire game. Jump to the 2:05:10 mark to see the incident).

But he didn't stop there as he gave Watson's captain Rahul Dravid a piece of his mind. Now, we don't know if Watson or Dravid said anything to Bisla since the cameras never captured it. What the cameras did capture was Bisla's captain Gautam Gambhir pointing to the umpires who started the duel. It is quite clear in the video I've posted in the last paragraph.

However, that's not how most people saw it. Since Gambhir has built up quite a reputation of being a hothead who picks fights with opposition players, it was assumed that he "sledged" Rahul Dravid. Since Rahul Dravid has the reputation of being one of the nicest guys in world cricket, everyone was up in arms that a nobody like Bisla was "sledging" the great man.

Firstly, nobody knows what Bisla said to Dravid. Since Dravid is captain of the Royals, he is responsible for the conduct of his players. That includes Watson. One could say that Bisla should have complained to the umpires, but then he was never the instigator so the responsibility for whatever happened should have been on Watson. Infact, Watson was captured on camera mouthing off to presumably Gambhir or Bisla after the umpires intervened.

Secondly, everyone would have praised Bisla had he taken on an opposition captain who was either not Indian or wasn't as respected as Dravid. I don't see how Watson's actions should be seen any differently depending on who his captain is. Neither do I see why Bisla should temper his protests just because Dravid was the opposition captain.

I am glad Bisla didn't, and I commend Gambhir for standing up for his teammate. There are a lot of occasions when I feel he lets his emotions get the better of him & gets into needless arguments. This wasn't one of those times. I hope more of these lesser known players stand up to the big names in the future. But what I hope for a lot more is for fans to look beyond their heroes and see a situation for what it is.

IPL 2013: Home/Away Records and Lazy Punditry

A recurring narrative during this IPL season has been that of how home teams have won most matches. We have so far had 46 matches of which 33 have been won by the home team. Four teams - Bangalore (6-0), Hyderabad (4-0), Mumbai (4-0) and Rajasthan (5-0) are yet to lose at home.

It made me wonder if there has been such a pattern in the league in the previous seasons. Apart from Rajasthan in 2008 & Chennai in 2011, I cannot remember any side winning all their home games in a season. So I had a look at the results from all the IPL seasons held in India i.e. 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and as it turns out, the highest home win % is indeed from this season. The next highest was in 2010 when the home team won 55% of the matches. Here's a chart showing the numbers season by season.

Commentators have been discussing among themselves and asking players about why home teams have been winning so many matches. There have been the usual explanations of how teams prepare pitches at their home venue to suit their style of play.

Well, from what I have seen, the pitches at Wankhede and Sawai Mansingh Stadium aren't too different from those at Chinnaswamy, yet Bangalore lost at both those venues while they have won all their matches at home. In any case, the pitch factor would have been in effect in each of the previous seasons so why didn't we have more results going in favour of the home side until this year?

There is also the explanation that players get tired from all the traveling and living out of a suitcase during their road trips, but again that's been the case in all the previous seasons as well.

There have been some sub-narratives within the main one of home teams dominating matches. The first is that the Kolkata needed to exploit their home advantage in order to make the playoffs, and that their failure to do so has pushed them to the brink of elimination.

If the pundits had bothered to find out, Kolkata did not make the 2012 playoffs on the back of winning on doctored pitches at home. Infact, they had a 3-4 record at the Eden Gardens (Their game against Deccan was rained out). So the problem for Kolkata this season is not that they are 3-2 at home. The problem is that they are 0-5 away so far when they went 7-1 on the road in 2012.

They had a scoring rate of 7.53 runs an over in 2012, while they're scoring at 7.59 runs an over this season. However, they're giving away 7.66 runs an over this season as opposed to just 6.89 an over in 2012. There is no real explanation for it because their roster is virtually the same. While they are missing Shakib Al Hasan this season, he played less than half their games last season. They don't have the services of Wasim Akram this season, and while I think they were wrong in letting him go, I am talking from a position where I have no idea what Akram brought to the team.

The other sub-narrative is that of Chennai being unbeaten on the road while everyone else is struggling to win away. Mahendra Singh Dhoni was asked about it and he talked about how the squad was more of a family instead of a professional set up, and how the management knew its cricket through being involved with the sport for years. How the players weren't asked what went wrong after a loss, but were told what went wrong.

While all this is true for 2013, it has been true for previous seasons as well. Yet, Chennai have at various points in the past struggled away from home. They had a 2-5 away record in the 2010 and 2011 seasons. So why are they 4-0 this season while the rest of the league is a combined 9-33 in away games?

There are two very obvious reasons for it. The first one is that they are simply the best side in the league this season, a status they haven't had in the five seasons prior. Sure they're the only side to have made the last four in each of the previous seasons. But they haven't finished top of the table in any of them. They are better this season because of a number of reasons. They have a deeper and more quality batting lineup this season than any of the previous ones. Ravindra Jadeja is playing better than he ever has. Chris Morris has provided them a fast bowling option they have lacked in all but 2010 and 2011 when Doug Bollinger was at his best. Most importantly, they finally have Michael Hussey for the entire season. Why is he so critical? Well, he only has the highest average of all Chennai players. He averages 43.77 which is more than 7 runs higher than their next best batsman. Infact, they dropped him for one game this season & promptly lost to last-placed Pune.

The second reason for Chennai being unbeaten on the road is the opposition they've faced. Delhi, Kolkata, Pune and Punjab are the bottom four teams in the league. In Mohali, Delhi, Kolkata & Pune, they are a combined 7-11. Take out their losses to Chennai and they're still only 7-7. On the other hand, the four teams Chennai have yet to visit are a combined 19-0 at home.

None of this is meant to suggest that Chennai will lose all their remaining away games. Will they win all their remaining road games? Probably not. Will they all of a sudden be struggling because they're on the road? Definitely not. It would be foolish to think that the least flawed of the nine teams would turn into an average side just because the opposition is strong. All I'm trying to say is if the experts are willing to do something other than offer cliches and peddle sponsor names during their commentary stint, they can easily tell the viewers why Chennai have the kind of record they do.

The Wankhede was right, Kohlisaab

Anyone who has been to a game in Mumbai knows how partisan the crowd is. For years, foreign teams have been abused during matches at the Wankhede. Truth be told, they're abused at other venues as well but the people who are paid to offer opinion would like us to think otherwise. The difference is only in the degree and type of abuse meted out.

There have even been instances where crowds have turned on the home team itself, most famously when the Eden Gardens crowd jeered Sunil Gavaskar after he dropped Kapil Dev & when Greg Chappell dropped Sourav Ganguly. More recently, we've seen Indian fans rejoice at the fall of an Indian wicket just because it meant Sachin Tendulkar would come out to bat.

Whether I or anyone else thinks such behaviour is justified or not is irrelevant. Fans who come to the stadium do so at the cost of their time and money. It is their passion that ensures the players now get paid the kind of money that they wouldn't have dreamt of a decade ago. The endorsements they have, the central & IPL contracts they've earned are a result of millions of people turning up to watch them play in sub-standard facilities in ridiculously oppressive weather conditions and being treated like they're a nuisance. These fans have a right to voice their opinion as long as they don't resort to physical violence.

So when Virat Kohli points a finger at the Wankhede crowd after being heckled because he refused to withdraw a run out appeal in which Ambati Rayudu's bat was knocked away off Vinay Kumar's foot, I can't help but disagree with him. Here's what he had to say:

"I don't know what is wrong with people in this venue. It feels a bit weird because at the end of the day you play for India and you don't come here to be hated," Kohli said. "It has happened to a few players in the past as well. I don't know why they get so worked up during IPL. IPL is not the end of the world. They forget that the players they are booing for also play for their country."

First off, I remember the Chinnaswamy crowd boo Gautam Gambhir a few weeks ago at the post-match ceremony after he got into an altercation with none other than Virat Kohli. An altercation that Kohli could have easily avoided. Instead, he chose not to. So while he got worked up & got into an argument with a fellow Indian player during an IPL game, a tournament that is not the end of the world according to him, he seems to think the crowd shouldn't.

What is even more alarming is the subtle implication that a player can be booed if he doesn't play for "their country". So if you're an overseas player, you're fair game if one goes by Kohli's reasoning. In a more evolved & globally aware environment, his words would have been considered bigoted.

Here's something more he had to say:

"It is only creating hatred among the players. When I come back and play for India, they are going to cheer for me. It doesn't work that way."

Newsflash, Mr. Kohli: This is exactly how it works all over the world. Footballers get abused, some of them racially, when they play an away game in their league. The same players are egged on just as passionately when they turn out for the national side. If you think it is okay for the crowd to heckle your opposition in an international game, you better not complain when that crowd heckles you when you're playing on the away team in a club game. And if you think the IPL is not the end of the world, don't pick a fight with your national teammate when you get out. It doesn't give you the right to tell the fans what they can or can't do, but atleast your stance would be consistent and you won't end up looking like a sore loser.

The Wankhede was right, Kohlisaab. And they got under your skin, which is exactly what home advantage is all about. The sooner you come to terms with this, the sooner you'll be able to evolve into a leader capable of captaining the Indian team if that is what you aspire to.

How to Bat with the Tail - The Tendulkar Edition

Scene: It is the final game of the first class season in India. You are the greatest batsman your country has ever produced. You are batting on 109 off 164 balls when your team - the recently crowned domestic champions, lose their 7th wicket still 166 runs short of the opposition score. It is your job to try and get your team the first innings lead which is likely to be enough to win you the match. What do you do?

You face only 33 of the remaining 87 deliveries (38%), although you score 31 runs off them. Breaking it down partnership-wise, you face 28 of 66 balls (42%) for the 8th wicket, 4 of 19 (21%) for the 9th, and 1 of 2 (50%) for the 10th. You take a single off the 1st ball of the over 6 of the 11 times you are on strike to start the over, with your team losing two its last 3 wickets in those 6 overs. Also, only once in four times that you are on strike for the fifth ball of the over do you take a single so that you might face the first ball of the next over. What's worse, two of these times are when you cross over during the fall of a wicket.

I am not going to go into the reasons behind this since I don't know what goes on in the minds of people who are not me. There are still two days of cricket left in the match & although Mumbai are 144 runs behind, they can win this match should they take the 9 remaining wickets with an hour or more to go in Day 4. All I'm going to say is they didn't give themselves the best chance to get close to or surpass the total put up by Rest of India.

The Season of Shame - II

(This is the second part of my review of Indian cricket over its home season. Part 1 is here)

With the test leg of India's season over, it was time for the Limited Overs Internationals. India were in a weird place wherein they would go top of the ODI and T20 rankings if they won their remaining matches in the year - 2 T20Is each against England and Pakistan and 1 ODI against Pakistan.

Ofcourse, India ended up splitting both T20 series (if you can call them series) and lost the first ODI to Pakistan. What was frustrating, though, was the management's insistence on picking players who were either out of form (Gambhir) or not suited to the format (Rahane).

While T20s can be a bit unpredictable, it is the 50-over format in which India have done really well. But with both openers (Gambhir & Sehwag/Rahane) being out of form & Virat Kohli suffering his first real lean patch since 2009, it was imperative for the captain to push himself up the order. Instead, we had Yuvraj Singh coming in at 4 every game with Raina at 5 while India's best ODI batsman batted at 6 (He even batted at 7 in one game). India's score when he came in to bat in these ODIs: 29/5, 70/4, 63/4, 198/4, 119/4, 144/3, 158/4, 49/4.

Yuvraj seems to be having the same problems as he has always had, in that he struggles against offspinners as 5 of his 8 dismissals were to offspinners. He finished his ODI leg with a duck today, which brought his average to 20 with just 1 fifty in 8 innings. I think he has been back long enough for people to question his place in the side, or at the very least where he bats.

None of the openers played with any amount of assurance, although an 83 from Rohit Sharma brought out all his fanbois. Some of them even drew a parallel between his numbers and those of Sachin Tendulkar before he opened the innings. Ofcourse they conveniently ignored the fact that Rohit had opened in ODIs before albeit on just three occasions. Sure enough, he was out today driving on the up for just 4 runs. Ajinkya Rahane put up a very mediocre run of scores, although I fail to understand why people expected someone with a List A average of below 40 to do well in ODIs in the first place. It's the same with Rohit Sharma who averages slightly less than Rahane in List A matches but has played 87 ODIs while players like Pujara couldn't make the squad until the England series despite having a List A average of just under 57!

Bhuvaneshwar Kumar and Mohammad Shami gave the fans something to be happy about. Both seem to possess the accuracy and discipline essential for being an international bowler. Kumar can even bowl long spells as Dhoni has bowled him out at the start of the innings on more than one occasion. What impressed me about Shami was he decided to attack Nasir Jamshed from around the wicket right from ball one. Jamshed had looked at ease against the Indian seamers as none of them really had threatened his stumps, pads and either edge of his bat until then. After scoring a hundred in each of his last 3 ODIs against India, he looked really uncomfortable and was beaten time and again by all the bowlers. For some inexplicable reason, he was dropped for the first ODI against England and India promptly lost the game.

Among the spinners, Ashwin continued to be erratic and should be a cause for concern going forward. It's a pity that the selectors don't consider Pragyan Ojha good enough for LOIs because he is a better bowler than Ashwin in all formats. Fortunately for them, Ravindra Jadeja had a terrific run in the ODIs. It's high time people realise he is a bowler who can bat a bit rather than the other way round.

While the 1-2 and 3-2 scoreline reflects the performance of the respective sides, I feel that an Indian team with the right personnel and right batting order would have beaten Pakistan 2-1 and swept England with plenty left in the tank. The Champions Trophy is in June and India aren't scheduled to play any ODIs before that. Not the best way to prepare but then I seem to be one of the few who seem to care about that competition.

This has been one of the worst home seasons for Indian cricket. Probably the worst since Tendulkar made his debut. The side needs to undergo a massive overhaul in tests and a few changes in LOIs, which brings us back to the upcoming Border Gavaskar Trophy and the squad I think India should pick.

1. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
2. Virender Sehwag
3. Ajinkya Rahane
4. Cheteshwar Pujara
5. Virat Kohli
6. Subramaniam Badrinath
7. Ravindra Jadeja
8. Ravichandran Ashwin
9. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar
10. Umesh Yadav/Ishant Sharma
11. Pragyan Ojha
12. Shikhar Dhawan
13. Rohit Sharma
14. Pankaj Singh
15. Mohammad Shami

After 3 years without a hundred and a tendency to cost the team wickets with his running between wickets, it is time for Gautam Gambhir to make way for someone else. While I'm not a fan of Rahane in LOIs, I feel he has been kept out of the test side way too long given his record in first class cricket. Although the selectors should have told Sehwag to shed some of that fat long ago, they can still do it and pick him but make it clear that a bad series against Australia would lead to him being dropped and out of contention for the South Africa tour unless he dazzles them by putting in some hard yards in County cricket post IPL. Shikhar Dhawan can be the reserve opener.

The middle order should see Virat Kohli move up to number four as there is no place for a struggling Tendulkar in the side. I am well aware that the selectors will never do this. However, I can't make my picks based on what they will or won't do. The number 5 spot should go to one of Rohit Sharma, Subramaniam Badrinath or Manoj Tiwary. I am tempted to go with Badrinath at 5 with Rohit as backup. Harsh on Tiwary but he didn't exactly have a great season before he got injured. Neither did Badri, but has been consistent for much longer than any of his peers and has shown that he can put a price on his wicket better than any of the younger batsmen.

Ravindra Jadeja won a place in the test side with excellent performances with bat and ball. He outbowled two of the frontline spinners in Nagpur so he retains his place. While Mahendra Singh Dhoni hasn't done too well of late, any decision on his future in tests should be taken after this series. If he doesn't do well, the selectors should announce his replacement as soon as the series is over rather than wait till the eleventh hour like they did with Laxman. Again, I know they are unlikely to do any of this.

The spinners retain their places although with Ashwin it's more down to a lack of viable alternatives more than anything else. If he has a bad series Ojha should go ahead of him for the spot of first-choice spinner, although recent history suggests the selectors are unlikely to do it. I don't see the need for a third spinner as Jadeja is more than capable of bowling long and accurate spells.

Coming to the seamers, I think it would be a major risk to pick Zaheer Khan given his injury problems. There is no news on Umesh Yadav but if he's fit, he plays in the 11 alongwith Ishant Sharma. If not, either Pankaj Singh or Bhuvaneshwar Kumar should make their debut with Mohammad Shami getting the final spot. It might be a risky move but Pankaj Singh has ticked all the boxes without being considered for a place, while Bhuvaneshwar Kumar has also been consistently among the wickets in first class cricket.

I fully expect India to win this series given how inexperienced the Australian side is likely to be. Of their top 7, Clarke is the only one to have played test cricket in India. It is anybody's guess as to which pace bowlers will make the trip as there are major injury concerns for a number of them. Nathan Lyon is their first-choice spinner and with all due respect to him, he isn't as good as either of the England spinners. Expect a close series with India winning by either 2-1 or 2-0.

The Season of Shame - I

With England finally completing their tour of India & the Ranji season being a couple of days away from its end, it feels like the right time to look back on Indian cricket over the past season. Yes, the Aussies are yet to tour but I will come to it later. Also, this is the first of two parts as writing about the entire season in one post would've made it too lengthy for my liking. (Part 2)

India's home season started amidst a lot of turmoil. While Rahul Dravid had announced his retirement well in advance, VVS Laxman decided 5 days before the start of the first test against New Zealand that it was time for him to retire. There were reports that he had trained hard at the NCA and played club cricket to prepare for the test series but when he was given an ultimatum by one of the selectors he decided to walk away.

If these reports were indeed true, this was one among many cases of poor planning and co-ordination among the people running and representing Indian cricket. The selectors, the coaching staff, and the captain had months to figure out if they wanted Laxman in the side, whether they had a deadline in mind after which Laxman wouldn't be picked even if he were available. Yet, none of this happened and we were left with a major hole in the middle order.

The two-test series went by with Cheteshwar Pujara and Virat Kohli showing a lot of promise with the bat while Ravichandran Ashwin and Pragyan Ojha continuing to dominate batsmen who were ill-equipped to play spin.

There were, however, concerns about the opening pair as neither Gambhir nor Sehwag managed to score a hundred. Gambhir's run of innings without a hundred went back to January 2010 & spanned 40 innings while Sehwag hadn't scored a hundred in his last 30 innings going back to November 2010. Gambhir went so far as to pointing out their average as an opening pair was 53 and that people who talked about them not contributing should look at the stats. Equally worrying was the form of Sachin Tendulkar who hadn't scored a hundred in his last 24 innings - his longest run of scores without a hundred in his 23-year career.

None of this seemed to worry the new selection panel which picked an almost identical squad for the England series. The only changes were Yuvraj Singh replacing Suresh Raina and Harbhajan Singh replacing Piyush Chawla. Neither Yuvraj nor Harbhajan had put in a prolonged run of good performances in first class cricket. Harbhajan, infact, had struggled to take wickets for Essex in the second division of County cricket in the 2012 season.

Things were just as ridiculous off the field as BCCI officials claimed that the India and England would not be competing for the Nawab of Pataudi trophy, as the trophy was named after Anthony de Mello - One of the founders of the BCCI. Never in all these years had the board informed its fans about this, not even in 2008 when England toured India for the first time after the Nawab of Pataudi Trophy had been so named. Clearly, the babus took precedence over the cricketers when it came to being recognised.

The first test came & went as most people expected it to. India put up a big first innings total thanks to typical knocks from Sehwag and Pujara. It helped that England made the mistake of playing a third seamer in place of Monty Panesar. They appeared clueless in their first innings and although they put up a spirited fight in the second innings, India went on to win the match by 9 wickets. There was some bad news for India as Umesh Yadav was declared unfit for the second test. He had looked the most effective of the five seamers in Ahmedabad with his ability to reverse the ball at high pace and an unusual accuracy. There was no comment on how long he would be out, although anyone who has followed Indian cricket long enough would have known he would play no further part in the series.

The second test was played on a proper turning track. Both teams played an extra spinner. India seemed to have an advantage by winning the toss but threw it away with an awful start which saw them reduced to 119-5. They recovered to post a decent total of 327 but followed it up with some very average bowling from Ashwin and Harbhajan. Alastair Cook laid a rock-solid platform with his second hundred of the series, but Kevin Pietersen played the innings of the series to give England a lead of 86. India lost 7 wickets in a session and that was pretty much the end of their challenge as England won the test by 10 wickets.

Those who thought it couldn't get worse were proven wrong in the third test at Kolkata. Some incredibly terrible running from Gautam Gambhir cost the side Sehwag and Pujara in the first and second innings respectively. The two were the only ones to score a hundred in the series upto that point and seeing them get run out thanks to someone who has always been terrible between the wickets was all the more frustrating. To make matters worse, the musical chairs in the slip cordon saw Pujara in shin pads fielding at first slip when Alastair Cook nicked one on 17. The England captain went on to score 190. The incident epitomised the difference in the fielding of the two sides. The visitors took the series lead after another horrible session for hosts in which they lost 6 wickets.

The fourth test was one of the most snoozeworthy matches in recent memory as neither side was able to score freely or take wickets. It was baffling to see such a pitch when the home team was in desperate need of a win. England were more than happy to play out a draw and win their first series in India in 28 years. It was also India's first loss at home since 2004. Gambhir and Tendulkar extended their run of innings without a hundred by 7 innings while Ashwin proved that he had a long way to go before people consider him a top class test bowler.

To put things into perspective, the team that beat India in 2004 had Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Adam Gilchrist, Shane Warne, Glenn McGrath, Jason Gillespie, and Michael Clarke making his debut. Even they needed a rained out final day in Chennai, a green top in Nagpur & a half-fit Tendulkar who missed the first two tests to conquer their final frontier. Siddharth Monga captured the decline of India's test side with a collection quotes from various people over the past few months. You know things are bad when everyone right from top board officials to players still making a mark in test cricket refuse to accept the reality of India's decline into an average test side.

The Futility of a Long Batting Lineup in T20s

This title of this post seems counter-intuitive since most people believe Twenty20 cricket is a batsman's game. I should, infact, clarify that I'm not suggesting you pick four number 11s in your lineup. What I'm alluding to is the tendency of most sides to go in with bits and pieces players just to ensure they bat as deep as possible, thereby compromising on their chances of restricting the opposition to lower scores through good bowling.

There was no better example of this than the qualifier between the Delhi Daredevils and Chennai Super Kings earlier this year. The Daredevils had lost Irfan Pathan thanks to an injury sustained in the previous game. Since Pathan was in the side as an allrounder, the team decided for a like-for-like replacement in Andre Russell. Unfortunately, it meant that they would have to drop an overseas player as they could only have 4 in the playing eleven. They could have dropped Ross Taylor, who had scored just 173 runs at a strike rate of 110 that season. But in what must count as one of the dumbest decisions ever made by an IPL franchise, the Daredevils decided to drop the leading wicket-taker of the tournament and picked Sunny Gupta who had never played an IPL game before. The 4 overs shared between Gupta and Sehwag, went for 68 runs. Morkel, on an average, was bowling his 4 overs for 29 runs and taking over a wicket and a half every game. Needless to say, the Daredevils were eliminated from the competition.

You would be mistaken if you thought such brainlessness was confined to the IPL. India tried the tactic of packing the side with batsmen in the 2010 World T20 and were comfortably beaten by Australia and the West Indies. They tried the same tactic against New Zealand yesterday, with Irfan Pathan slotted to come in at 8 & Ashwin at 9. Eventually, they batted 20 overs & lost just 4 wickets, with the last one falling with 2 balls left.

So why do sides insist on picking bits and pieces players instead of specialist wicket-taking bowlers? I went through the stats for all teams by batting position to see just how often to players down the order get to bat, and how long do they bat when they get the chance.

Overall
Position	% Innings	Balls/Team Innings	Balls/Individual Innings
Open	99.24%	18.72	18.86
3	97.33%	17.34	17.82
4	95.04%	16.33	17.18
5	91.41%	13.26	14.50
6	84.54%	10.19	12.05
7	76.34%	7.24	9.49
8	62.84%	4.63	7.37
9	53.07%	2.89	5.44
10	35.63%	1.41	3.96
11	23.95%	0.75	3.12

As you can see, a number 7 batsman gets to bat in roughly 3 out of 4 games. The number is significantly lower for test playing nations. Essentially, it means that the lower down the order you are, the less likely it is that you'll play an innings that swings the game in your team's favour.

For India (See the table below), the number 7 batsman gets to bat in roughly 3 out of 5 matches. Even when the number seven batsman does get to bat, he faces, on an average, eight deliveries in the innings.

India
Position	% Innings	Balls/Team Innings	Balls/Individual Innings
Open	97.22%	18.58	19.11
3	94.44%	20.61	21.82
4	94.44%	18.39	19.47
5	88.89%	10.50	11.81
6	77.78%	11.33	14.57
7	61.11%	5.00	8.18
8	41.67%	3.67	8.80
9	33.33%	2.64	7.92
10	25.00%	1.25	5.00
11	16.67%	0.33	2.00

If India pick a side along the lines of the one they picked yesterday, the number seven spot will be occupied by either Manoj Tiwary of Rohit Sharma. It might even be Mahendra Singh Dhoni if India lose early wickets. Bear in mind that Irfan Pathan and Ravichandran Ashwin will follow in the batting order. Interestingly, none of the three batsmen likely to bat at 7 have a record that sets them apart from Pathan. While all 3 of them have a better average than him, their strike rates are either considerably lower as in the case of Tiwary, or almost identical as in the case of Dhoni and Sharma.

Player	Average	Strike Rate
M S Dhoni	35.05	129.18
Rohit Sharma	31.87	130.4
Manoj Tiwary	30.75	114.65
Irfan Pathan	23.96	130.19

A bowling lineup featuring Zaheer, Pathan, Dinda/Balaji & Ashwin is average at best and mediocre at worst. With just 4 specialist bowlers, it will be left to some combination of Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Manoj Tiwary & Virender Sehwag to bowl 4 overs. In a scenario where whoever bats at 7 will get barely any deliveries to face, it really doesn't make any sense to have an extra batsman who doesn't score any quicker than your allrounder instead of a bowler who will give you 4 quality overs. I would have gone with Pragyan Ojha but unfortunately, the selectors have picked Harbhajan Singh and Piyush Chawla as backup. It may not be a bad idea to pick Harbhajan as he will atleast be more economical than the part-time bowlers. None of this, however, makes India favourites to win the World T20, in my opinion.