Less pace brings more joy in IPL
Compared to 2020, pitches in UAE have slowed down and will continue to do so as the IPL progresses
MUMBAI: This time last year, towards the end of second week of IPL action in UAE, every third match saw 200 plus runs being chased.
Now, since the time IPL 14 resumed in the UAE, the 200run barrier has not been breached even once. Only one game at Dubai has seen a target being set over 180.
This is an important change—the way the pitches at Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah are behaving now will determine how teams plan for the T20 World Cup beginning October 17.
A week’s time after the IPL is all the curators will get to prepare pitches for the World Cup’s Super12 stage (starting October 23) where the leading teams face off. If the pitches are behaving slow and weary now, they will only get more worn out as the IPL continues.
Last year too, as the season wore on, so did the pitches—the average score for a team batting first for IPL 13 was 169. But this year, the average score batting first is already down to 148 odd runs.
“There are lots of change-ups from the opposition bowlers with the sort of batting line up we (Mumbai Indians) have,” Rohit Sharma said this week. “We need to change our tactics. Play differently in the middle overs.”
That explains MI’S decision to pick Saurabh Tiwary to control the middle overs instead of the more flamboyant but out-oftouch Ishan Kishan.
These are tactical learnings every World Cup think tank will be adding to their notes. “If these are the conditions to try and win the tournament, then as individuals we need to adjust,” West Indies skipper Kieron Pollard said. “At the end of the day you can’t get what you want all the time. As a professional athlete, you need to adapt.”
The UAE curators did try leaving more grass than usual during the first week’s IPL action but that didn’t make batting easier for too long.
“Last year, the wickets that we saw towards the end are the ones we are seeing now. The ball was coming on nicely when
we started. But we understand that the grass is coming off the pitches,” said Sharma.
The Indian selectors gave an indication of the sort of pitches they are expecting by naming five spinners in their World Cup squad. Having chosen only three frontline seamers and with a question mark still hanging over Hardik Pandya’s return to bowling, there is a strong possibility that India could look to field three spinners in their playing eleven. Although in Dubai—india plays four of its five World Cup league games there—the average first innings scores compared to last year have come down the least (see charts).
The slow wickets and resulting low scores haven’t been the spinners doing alone. In fact, we have seen marginally less spin at play so far than in 2020. One reason is that not all IPL teams are equipped to use spin well. Teams like Kolkata Knight Riders, whose stronger suit is spin, have used it prominently. And there has been more spin used in the powerplay than last year. Someone who has used the UAE conditions to great effect is Varun Chakravarthy. So versatile is the KKR spinner that he finds his name in the top ten most economical bowlers list in all three phases—the powerplay, middle overs as well as death overs.
One pick in India’s squad of fifteen that many felt was one left-arm-spinner too many— Axar Patel—has been economical in the powerplay as well as middle overs. His season’s haul (9 wickets) comes at a miserly rate of 6.40.
One of India’s spin picks, Rahul Chahar hasn’t been able to replicate the IPL form he showed earlier in India. Yuzvendra Chahal, who lost out on World Cup place, has had a lot more success (5 wickets at ER of 6). Chahal was the fifth leading wicket taker (21 wickets) last time in UAE too. Chahal’s slower but more attacking form of leg-spin has worked well thanks to the longer boundaries in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, many batters getting caught in the deep.
Interestingly, India’s team mentor MS Dhoni hasn’t gone overboard in using his spinners either. In Thursday’s game at Sharjah against SRH, Dhoni trusted his medium pacers, all good in taking pace off the ball and using variations—dwayne Bravo, Josh Hazlewood, Shardul Thakur and Deepak Chahar to do the job. Dhoni felt the ball wasn’t stopping but bouncing a lot lower. “Our bowlers adjusted very well. Initially when they tried to bowl up, it was not swinging and were hit down the ground,” Dhoni said. “After that they began to vary their pace and lengths very well.” This IPL’S highest wicket taker, Harshal Patel, has got most of his wickets off slower balls.