Meanwhile, sides like Pakistan and England have suffered due to their reliance on part-timers.
England’s Adil Rashid and Pakistan’s Abrar Ahmed (right) are the only specialist spinners in their teams
It is abundantly clear that only the teams well-endowed in the bowling department are doing well in the Champions Trophy. A healthy mix of top-class pace and spin bowling options, rather than relying on part-timers, has paid dividends. A batter who can roll his arm over to fill in a few overs does not serve the purpose in ODIs. This Champions Trophy has shown that having five good bowlers in the playing XI is imperative, unlike in T20s, where a couple of part-timers are enough. Teams with good bowling units are doing well, be it India, South Africa, New Zealand, or even Afghanistan. Meanwhile, sides like Pakistan and England have suffered due to their reliance on part-timers.
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India were smart to rope in an extra spinner Varun Chakravarthy in their 15 at the expense of Yashasvi Jaiswal. Having five frontline spinners in addition to four pace bowlers, they had all bases covered, and it has shown in the way they have dominated their first two games against Bangladesh and Pakistan. The three bowlers on the bench, Arshdeep Singh, Varun and Washington Sundar would have made it to playing XI of many other teams in the tournament.
Left-arm spinners Axar Patel and Ravindra Jadeja are frontline bowlers and the advantage is that they are more than handy batters. Hardik Pandya is a top-grade pace-bowling all-rounder, who gives the team the balance. And with Harshit Rana and wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav India have the most rounded bowling unit.
Similarly, New Zealand have also followed India by opting to have as many as five specialist fast bowlers and five spinners who can bat well. That includes captain Mitch Santner, Michael Bracewell, Mark Chapman, Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra.
On the other hand, England have relied on part-timer spinners Joe Root and Liam Livingstone to support Adil Rashid. Same is the case with Pakistan, who roped in batters Khushdil Shah and Salman Agha, who bowl a bit, to help out their only frontline spinner Abrar Ahmed.
This part-time bowling is clearly not adequate given the field restrictions of only four fielders allowed outside the 30-yard circle from the 11th to the 40th over — the phase were most of the matches are decided. This is the reason it did not bring about the desired results for the two teams and they were dumped out in the league stage itself.
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