How India rediscovered their bowling powerplay mojo in The Oval ODI vs England

We’re at The Oval. Much of the talk is around England entering a new era, with Jos Buttler being handed over the white-ball reins. This is also a summer where England’s Bazball has become the catchiest buzzword in the sport. It’s also a time when excitement accompanies everything and anything England do.

Funnily enough, India, who installed Rohit Sharma at the ODI helm in December 2021, arrive at The Oval undergoing some sort of transition themselves. Akin to England’s set-up, it doesn’t involve many drastic tweaks. Whenever a new captain is appointed, however, there is a sense of anticipation. A sense of how the new skipper would implement his ideas, and of course, what he will retain from the previous regime.

India, to an extent, have cracked the ODI code. Their results in ICC events might not testify for it but they have a well-established blueprint. In the recent past, though, a slight weakness seemed to have crept into their system – an inability to pick up wickets in the powerplay.

With Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Deepak Chahar, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami and Prasidh Krishna in the mix, it remains as perplexing an anomaly as any in the cricketing landscape. But, that is exactly what has happened in the past couple of years.

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During this particular phase, India have been led by an assortment of captains. Virat Kohli was skipper in a majority of these games. KL Rahul and Shikhar Dhawan have tried their hand too. Rohit, as captain, however, has had more of an impact than anyone else.

Prior to 2022, India had been wretched in the powerplay. Between 1 January 2020 and 31 December 2021, India only accounted for eight batters in 15 ODIs, nearly averaging a wicket every two games. Against South Africa in January 2022, they improved, bagging three wickets in as many games. The overall numbers, however, which read 11 wickets in 18 games, still painted a damning picture.

Due to their wicket-taking struggles at the top, India couldn’t contain powerful batting units. They won a series against England at home in March 2021, although the series-defining moment arrived in the third ODI when Bhuvneshwar got the better of Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow in the powerplay. Against South Africa, they lost all three games, with the Proteas either getting off to brisk starts or capitalizing through the middle overs.

When Rohit has been in charge, though, India have fared slightly differently. He has led India in only four ODIs – three against the West Indies and one against England. But in these games, they’ve picked up 11 wickets in the powerplay, including five at The Oval on Tuesday.

Prima facie, it might seem an inflated figure, considering the destruction Bumrah single-handedly caused at The Oval. On deeper introspection, though, it seems a pattern that is borne out of the aggressive brand of cricket Rohit and this current regime is trying to preach.

Bumrah at his best!
With his magical spell of 6/19, Jasprit Bumrah becomes the first Indian pacer to take a six-wicket haul in #England.#bumrah #INDvsENG #TeamIndia@Jaspritbumrah93 @BCCI

#bumrah pic.twitter.com/2uhfxaswBr

— ARPITA ARYA (@ARPITAARYA) July 12, 2022

At The Oval, Bumrah got the ball to swing and seam around corners. He tied Roy in knots before inducing a false stroke. A couple of deliveries later, he got the ball to jag off the surface sharply, extracting bounce and forcing Joe Root to edge it through to the keeper.

Bairstow fell next, with another delivery angling into him before pitching and nipping away. Liam Livingstone tried to upset Bumrah’s rhythm by advancing but was bluffed by an in-swinging yorker that clattered into middle and leg stump.

It is a good place to be when the ball is swinging, says Jasprit Bumrah

Each of these dismissals, apart from being an illustration of Bumrah’s brilliance, came about because India weren’t afraid of pitching the ball up. It might’ve been overcast and there might’ve been more than a tinge of grass on the surface.

But this was still a bowler who had picked up only one wicket in his last 47 powerplay overs in ODI cricket. In fact, when Bumrah accounted for Janneman Malan at Boland Park in January 2022, it was his first powerplay wicket since the semi-final of the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup. After his performance at The Oval, he now has five powerplay wickets since the start of 2020, with all of them having come this year – a stat that narrates a story in itself.

Shami, too, followed suit, bowling wicket-taking lines and lengths. Ben Stokes’ dismissal was a perfect example. There might’ve been a temptation on Shami’s part to bowl a back-of-a-length delivery and just assess what the all-rounder had on his mind. Instead, he pitched the ball on a length and got it to nip back into Stokes, who could only feather it through to Rishabh Pant.

Even against the West Indies, there was a concerted effort on Chahar, Prasidh and Siraj’s part to attack the stumps. Siraj, in particular, was quite impressive against Shai Hope. The West Indian, for those unaware, is excellent at cover-driving. When doing so, however, he leaves a gap between bat and pad. He also has a tendency to fall over to the off-side. Siraj was hit for the odd boundary but he kept at it, outfoxing Hope twice during the powerplay that series.

Thus, there is plenty of evidence suggesting that India are embracing change. It also highlighted that the carnage at The Oval was the result of a conscious process, rather than being a flash in the pan, or being an aberration to what had become a worrying norm.

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For a while, it felt that they had lost their way in the powerplay, almost being oblivious to what was happening around them. The captaincy musical chairs didn’t help either. In Rohit, though, they seem to have a skipper who understands the importance of early wickets, and knows how to hoodwink batters. That he has world-class resources at his disposal only makes the January 2020-December 2021 pattern even more confusing.

It's not as if India have stumbled upon Bumrah today. Or that they have suddenly discovered Shami can move the ball both ways. They’ve known for more than a decade how Bhuvneshwar can make the ball talk too. A possible explanation is that they thought batters would throw their wickets away in the powerplay, just by aweing at the aura of India’s pacers – a narrative that clearly didn’t hold.

In many ways then, Bumrah’s spell was emblematic of India rediscovering their powerplay mojo and earning their stripes during the field restrictions, all by sticking to the basics and by being courageous enough. And that’s what’s most important – even more than the new era England is ushering or the embarrassment of batting riches existing in India.

It’s unclear how many will be able to appreciate it at this point in time. But in a year, when the 50-over World Cup rolls into town, they’ll probably look at The Oval and realise how crucial it was for Bumrah and India to return to their wicket-taking ways in the powerplay.

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