Are current generation Indian batsmen inferior against swing bowling?
A batsman’s biggest test is negotiating high-quality swing bowling in overseas conditions especially if it happens to be England, where the ball tends to swing all through the day and if there are overcast conditions then it nearly becomes unplayable if a bowler like Anderson gets into his rhythm.
We have gone through some crucial statistics to find out how our current generation batsmen have managed to negotiate swing in English conditions.
While going through the below list of selected 24 batsmen who played tests in England in the last 50 years from 1971 to 2021 we find the Virat Kohli is at the 11th position in terms of averages, KL Rahul at 17th spot, Ajinkya Rahane at 18th spot, Pujara at the 21st spot, Rishabh Pant at the 22nd spot and Rohit Sharma at the 23rd spot ( Though Rohit played only 2 tests in England)
From the below list it is very clear that batsmen of the decade 2000 to 2010 have dominated the top few spots followed by the batsmen of the 1970-80s.
Rahul Dravid with 69 average leads the group followed by Ganguly with 65 average and Tendulkar at 54 average. However, Sachin played more tests (17) in England than anyone with Gavaskar at 2nd spot with16.
Dilip Vengsarkar who has always thrived in English conditions hold the 4th spot followed by Azharuddin, Kiran More ( due to many notouts), Gavaskar & Viswanath.
Therefore a glance at the list very much shows that the current generation of batsmen in the Indian team has had their struggles in English conditions and Kohli, who is the best in the current generation is not even in the first 10 in batting averages. His poor series in England in 2014 has dented his figures though he pulled up his average to 35 with a brilliant series in 2018. All the other main batters in the current squad have averaged below 30 in England, which proves beyond doubt their deficiencies against high-quality swing bowling.
Are current generation Indian batsmen inferior against swing bowling? Too much of T20 cricket and franchisee cricket seems to have harmed the technique of many players. However, it is surprising for Pujara as he does not play IPL or T20 cricket and has had long stints in county cricket, unlike his other colleagues. Known for his good technique, he was expected to have a better record in England.
With another 5 test series to start from August 4, it will be a big opportunity for the current batters in team India to improve upon their earlier records and try to emulate their predecessors.
Averages of selected 24 Indian batsmen in England :
M Runs Avg 100s
R Dravid 13 1376 68.80 6
S Ganguly 9 915 65.35 3
S Tendulkar 17 1575 54.31 4
D Vengsarkar 13 960 48.00 4
Md Azharuddin 9 625 41.66 2
Kiran More 6 247 41.16 0
SM Gavaskar 16 1152 41.14 2
G Viswanath 13 858 39.00 1
MS Dhoni 12 778 37.04 0
S Manjrekar 5 321 35.66 0
Virat Kohli 11 784 35.63 2
Kapil Dev 13 638 35.44 1
VVS Laxman 11 586 34.47 0
RJ Shastri 9 503 33.53 2
M Vijay 7 428 30.57 1
M Amarnath 4 213 30.42 0
KL Rahul 5 299 29.90 1
A Rahane 11 620 29.52 1
D Karthik 5 284 28.40 0
V Sehwag 6 278 27.80 1
C Pujara 10 523 27.52 1
Rishabh Pant 4 207 25.87 1
Rohit Sharma 2 98 24.50 0
Wasim Jaffer 5 244 24.40 0
Also Read- KOHLI ON A CUSP OF A WORLD RECORD AS HE LOOKS TO REVERSE HIS OVERSEAS FORM SLUMP