Biggest Challenge For India Will Be To Develop Finishers - Shaun Pollock
Former South African bowling legend Shaun Pollock believes that India has a lot of batting talent who can play in the top-order but the biggest challenge will be to find finishers for the side.
In the ODI format, Pollock believes that finishers are a necessity and without the likes of Hardik Pandya or Ravindra Jadeja, India has been struggling to find options. They have tried Venkatesh Iyer and have even called up Shahrukh Khan to test in the finisher’s role.
“I think you guys are fortunate with the wealth of batting abilities. I think the biggest challenge for you, as an Indian side, is going to be finding the right 5 and 6. In a 50-over format, you got to develop finishers. It is the key. Often, you get the runs from the top order. But who is going to do the job of finishing?”
“I think when Jadeja comes in, he does that. But in that middle order.. with the amount of T20 cricket being played and when you talk about these guys (Suryakumar Yadav, Shreyas Iyer), all of them are going to bat in top-3 for their franchise invariably. That doesn’t give you the amount of experience in closing the games out,” Pollock said on Cricbuzz.
“Hardik Pandya has had the consistent practice of finishing in T20s” – Shaun Pollock
Injuries are Hardik’s biggest foe and he has battled them constantly throughout his career. They have worsened of late and he is currently on a break to get back to full match fitness. Without him, finishing games off will be hard for India.
“I think Hardik Pandya is the one who comes in that middle order. He has had consistent practice of doing that (finishing) in T20s and he could probably translate that to one-day format when he returns. Shreyas Iyer wants to go higher, he wants to bat at top-3. So there’s a challenge,” Pollock added.
India leads the 3-match ODI series against West Indies by 2-0 and Rohit Sharma has already mentioned that Shikhar Dhawan will be coming back into the side for the final game.
Also, Read – You Did A Splendid Job For India And Never Bowed Down – Syed Kirmani Praises Wriddhiman Saha
