In the Gambhir era, it’s all about middle-overs mastery for India

During the last ODI of a dismal tour for England, commentators Ravi Shastri and Kevin Pietersen made stinging criticism of their attitude based on non-facts. With another team, there would have been outrage from fans, and possibly cricketers themselves. There wasn’t any here possibly because England’s performance through the series has suggested a team that has not been in the nets at all.

So any achievement against such a team has to be taken with caution, but India have displayed here a new brand of ODI cricket they want to play. Every change in leadership brings new ideas, and this transition from Rahul Dravid to Gautam Gambhir suggests India want to make middle overs the point of difference.

If you break this series down, the two sides have been quite close to each other during the powerplay. India scored 200 runs and lost three wickets in the three powerplays, England scored 236 and lost two extra wickets. The death overs were not even relevant because India killed all the three games off in the middle overs. India took more wickets in fewer balls while being more economical in the middle overs.

Even as a captain, Gambhir had a liking for spin. In one series that he captained India, Gambhir used R Ashwin for the batting powerplay overs back when teams used to choose a set of five overs at any time from overs 11 to 40 as a powerplay. At Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR), he used spin liberally. His stamp is all over India’s move from a 4-2 attack to 3-3 attack. And, at least one of those spinners has to be a point-of-difference spinner in either Kuldeep Yadav or Varun Chakravarthy.

This plan is fit for purpose till at least the Champions Trophy 2025 after which there might be a reset in order as the ODI World Cup 2027 will be played in different conditions in South Africa. It has also resulted in a last-minute change to the squad for the Champions Trophy with India foregoing a reserve batter for the mystery spin of Varun.

“The only reason was, we wanted another wicket-taking option in the middle,” Gambhir said of the late change. “And we know what Varun brings to the table. We know that Varun can be a massive threat with a lot of teams who haven’t played him. He could be an x-factor as well. I’m not going to say that he’s going to start, and all that stuff, but it’s always good to have a strong bowl line-up because we know that if we can actually get those wickets in the middle, it’s always going to be an advantage. Otherwise, we know that Yashasvi Jaiswal has got a fabulous future ahead. It’s just that we could only pick 15.”

Even with the specialist fast bowlers, in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, India have trusted someone who is best suited for the middle overs. Harshit Rana is tall, bowls hard lengths and thus extracts unevenness from surfaces. He has replaced in India’s plans Prasidh Krishna, who unfortunately was often unfit when he would have got his chances. Rana is also a better batter.

“If you try to manage and squeeze in wickets in those middle overs, it gives you a chance to not worry so much about the death overs,” Rohit Sharma said after the second match. “When you look at this format, people talk about up front and the death, but the middle overs are very very crucial. That is where we squeezed in, took wickets in the middle. That’s how you stop the run-scoring.”

With the bat too, especially in chases, the onus seems to be on finishing games early as opposed to taking them deep. That translates to continued impetus during the middle overs. Shreyas Iyer responded to crisis with a counterattack in the first match, Rohit killed the second one off, and Virat Kohli, who usually drops anchor, showed intent to sweep and hit sixes offspin when batting first in the third ODI.

Again, as a batter, Gambhir never wanted chases to go into the final few overs, which can be a bit of a lottery. That and MS Dhoni’s were the two different schools of chasing that co-existed in India’s limited-overs sides for a while. Gambhir once even said in a press conference that a match that Dhoni tied should never have gone to the last over.

Of course, it will not always be this easy. You can’t have your way with every team. England were especially ordinary against spin, failing to score at five an over without taking risks. The versatility of India’s personnel and their strategies will be tested when they come up against stronger opposition, but you can see what India are thinking: use resources other teams don’t usually come up against and you have plenty of.