Indian bowling's big challenge: West Indies' high risk-high reward game

Kolkata, Feb 28 (PTI) One of the hallmarks of this edition of T20 World Cup has been the depth of the various batting units and the increasing propensity of the batters to take the high risk-high reward route.

The success has been of varying degrees for all teams but no one has actually taken a step back, a case in point is the West Indies team, which despite its heavy defeat against the Proteas showed what batting depth really means.

Despite being seven down for less than 90, West Indies managed 176, thanks to all-rounder Romario Shepherd scoring 37-ball-52 at No. 9.

"I don't think there's many line-ups that can boast of Romario Shepherd walking in at number nine," India's assistant coach Ryan Ten Doeschate conceded during the pre-match press conference.

"I think that's also a feature of all the teams in the tournament now. Certainly the teams that have done well. England bat really deep. New Zealand bats really deep. India bats really deep. We have the luxury of someone like Axar, if he doesn't come in early, coming in at eight." When the teams are playing the proverbial attack at all cost game, then the strategy of containment doesn't necessarily work.

And if one looks at a batting line-up that comprises Shai Hope, Brandon King, Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell, Sherfane Rutherford, Jason Holder, Romario Shepherd, then taking wickets is the only solution.

"So you have to focus on taking wickets. I think that old-school way of just containing for 20 overs has gone out of fashion. We feel West Indies play a risk-reward game of high proportion in both aspects of that." But Ten Doeschate feels that the bowling unit can find chinks in the Caribbean armoury and follow the Proteas template.

"As a bowling unit, we're really looking forward to that challenge. We know there's chinks. There's where we can get wickets. Our plan tomorrow will be to attack for the whole 20 overs and take them back in that very much like South Africa did." But on a hard Eden Gardens black soil surface, which promises to be full of runs, taking wickets will be a bigger challenge as compared to Ahmedabad.

"It's certainly going to be a challenge. The surface looks pretty good, so it could be a hard-scoring game. As well as throwing punches with the ball, we have to make sure that we're brave with the bat as well and maintain a high strike rate and high intent throughout the inning as well." Practising against pace-off deliveries ======================= If one wants to keenly watch a training session, the most inconvenient ground in India is certainly Eden Gardens. Since there aren't any external nets, it is difficult to gauge if the net bowlers were asked to take pace off deliveries against the Indian batters.

A piece of disturbing statistic is that Indian batters have got out 16 times in the whole tournament to slower deliveries or those which gripped off the surface.

But according to Ten Doeschate, it is not a great trait to over-analyse a certain trend. "Like any challenge you face, you don't want to over-focus it and make it too much of a big deal. It'll be maybe half or 40% of the balls where pace is taken off.

"So it certainly is a challenge and something we have spoken about and something the guys will go out and practice now." But Ten Doeschate believes that one can rely on one's intuition. See the ball and hit the ball should be the mantra.

"We also need to rely on intuition and your gut feel. Like I say, if you focus too much on one thing, your mind gets clogged up. So we want the players just to play what they see in front of them." PTI KHS PDS KHS PDS PDS