India8217;s death worries: All is well,but for the end

Ishant Sharma's inconsistency in the slog overs is an area of concern.

It was the younger of the two hecklers who pointed it out first before being acknowledged by his partner-in-crime. But the older one didn8217;t simply provide the chorus. He went ahead and let Ishant Sharma,seated nearby in the Kensington Cricket Club KCC pavilion,know exactly what his lanky colleague thought of the most experienced pacer in India8217;s ODI squad.

8220;Eh tall boy,you can8217;t get it near Chris8217;s toes man. Chris gonna give you a lickin8217;,8221; he screamed,followed by guffaws,not just from his friend but also from most of the locals around,watching India train on the eve of their tri-series opener against the West Indies.

It was all in good spirit though,like most things in this part of the world. And Ishant,no stranger to the Caribbean and its highly opinionated ways,even flashed a wry smile at his barrackers. Whether he understood the full extent of what he was being subject to is unlikely. Though skipper MS Dhoni wasn8217;t around to witness the banter,he might have actually agreed with the views of the boisterous duo,who thereafter decided to beat the heat and jogged off for the shade of the trees in the far corner. From there too,they must have had a perfect view of Ishant8217;s inability to produce the yorker on a consistent basis.

Inaccurate yorker

It has in fact been the beanpole pacer8217;s bane for a major part of his stop-start ODI career. Not possessing an accurate yorker doubled with his sparse arsenal of variations has meant that the 24-year-old has tended to be a liability in the shorter formats with captains forever wary of bowling him in the death overs. In more ways than one it was this inadequacy that cost Ishant his place in the ODI team in the first place.

Not surprisingly,bowling coach Joe Dawes was leaving no stone unturned at KCC or Sabina Park on Saturday to try and get Ishant to land his yorker right. Especially against the left-handers,the Australian got Ishant to come around the wicket and use the angle to dart in deliveries at the blockhole.

With two bouncers now allowed in an over,Ishant does have a chance of getting away with his primary strength of hitting the surface hard and discomfiting the batsmen when conditions allow it. But in the subcontinent or even in the Caribbean,bowling in the death without a quality yorker is a major risk.

And another routine that Dawes got Ishant to work on repeatedly was following up a bouncer with a yorker a clichéd two-card trick but one that still works. It8217;s not just Ishant though. Despite their displays in England during the Champions Trophy,India8217;s long-standing worry regarding their death bowling following the axings of Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra continues to bother Dhoni. Of late,he8217;s even been tempted to use his spinners in R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. But it8217;s clear that he wants his pacers to get their act straight.

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8220;We want our fast bowlers to improve as far as bowling in the death overs is concerned. Look for the yorkers,and have a few variations up your sleeve. There have been a few changes in the rules which make it quite difficult for the pacers to bowl the last few overs,8221; he said.

Dhoni8217;s biggest problem area with his death bowling options though is the fact that Bhuvneshwar Kumar is already considered a gamble in the latter overs,as much for how useful he can be with the new ball as for his inability to get the yorker in consistently-though he did show signs of improvement during the IPL.

With India going in with only three seamers on most occasions,it8217;s almost impossible for Dhoni to shield two of them in the death overs. And it8217;s only understandable that Dhoni would want his senior-most pacer to share the burden with Umesh Yadav,who despite his pace has also tended to go for plenty in the back-end.

Ishant8217;s first foray with ODI cricket was marred with criticism regarding his economy rate. While he has been a regular wicket-taker in his second coming so far,his performances at the death have only worsened,what with the new rules allowing only four fielders outside the 30-yard circle.

Economy slump

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He started well in the ODI series against Pakistan but he8217;s fallen back to his old ways since,with his economy rate reading a staggering 9.12 since the five-match series against England at the start of the year. He came under heavy shelling even during the Champions Trophy,where the likes of Ryan McLaren and Darren Sammy tore into the length balls he dished out.

Not many eyes are expected to be trained on how India go during the Cellkon tri-series. But with most other facets of his new-look ODI team coming together impressively,Dhoni will be desperate to sort out this one major blip.