IND vs IRE: “I would make a rule that if you are…” - Irfan Pathan turns India coach to send strict message to batters

Former India cricketer Irfan Pathan made a massive statement ahead of the T20 World Cup 2024. He said that if he were the coach of Team India, he would’ve made it mandatory for the batters to bowl.

India team will be heading into the T20 World Cup 2024 on the back of quite a few options this time around. But there aren’t any specialist batters who can bowl. There are all-rounders in Shivam Dube, Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja. But no one from the top can chip in.

Ever since the likes of Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Virender Sehwag, Sachin Tendulkar, and others have left, India has been struggling to find batters who can chip in with the ball as well. This has been a massive miss in the team and potentially one of the reasons for India's struggle in ICC tournaments.

On the other hand, some of the successful teams in Australia, England, Pakistan, South Africa, and others have the luxury of players who can bat as well as bowl. This has been one of the major reasons behind their success in the tournaments.

Irfan Pathan stressed on the same that India needs to have batters who can bowl. He highlighted examples of England players in Liam Livingstone, Mooen Ali, and Will Jacks. He also talked about the kind of combination India can have and while speaking to Star Sports, he explained:

“If I were the coach, I would make a rule that if you are a batsman, you have to bat and if we need side-arm, you can’t go without bowling. Otherwise, you won’t get side-arm batting. If you take the example of England, Livingstone, Moeen Ali, and Will Jacks are bowling. They are bowling decent after four or five frontline bowlers.”

“We can make two combinations. Six bowlers where you can play Axar Patel. Another option is where you have four front-line bowlers where you can hope that Shivam Dube and Hardik Pandya will bowl.”

This problem can be solved to a good extent - Irfan Pandya on how India can have batters who can bowl

Irfan Pathan further backed Yashasvi Jaiswal to bowl a few overs in the T20 World Cup 2024. He said that if the batter can bowl at least one over in the game then pressure can be less on Hardik Pandya.

Irfan Pathan further talked about different batting positions for Rishabh Pant and Sanju Samson. He suggested two different teams and while stressing on the same, he explained:

“There is one more player if you play, Yashasvi Jaiswal is regularly bowling in the nets, but he’s yet to bowl in the match. So, you don’t know what you’ll get. You can expect him to bowl at least one over in the T20 World Cup. If he bowls one over and Hardik Pandya bowls at least three overs, then this problem can be solved to a good extent.

“In the USA, you can afford to have one extra seamer, but when you go to the West Indies, you can have three spinners in your playing XI, two fast bowlers plus all-rounders. You can have that combination. The good thing about this squad is you can have one squad where Rishabh Pant is ideal in the starting XI and obviously, he’s gonna be batting down the order. And then, you have Sanju Samson in the XI, but he has to bat up the order.”

Based on the warmup game, Rishabh Pant seems to be the first-choice keeper in the team. He scored 53 runs in the warmup game.