T20 World Cup: India's death bowling woes

India's bowling is a cause of concern [PC: Twitter]

The T20I World Cup is right at the doors and the preparations for the mega event are at the final stages. All the teams have tried and tested different combinations to pick their final desired squads. 

India is once again walking into the tournament as one of the strongest contenders for the title. But this time round the team will be more focused to get better results after their group stage elimination last year. 

But, the question arises how prepared and complete is the squad that is going into the tournament. What are the areas of concerns for the team?

Well, when you talk about the problems of the current Indian team, it will not take a whole lot of analysis to point out that the team’s bowling is not performing to its best. The death bowling of India has caused them problems in the recently concluded Asia Cup. But is it only death bowling, or is India’s bowling really worse when compared to their competitors? Let us find out.

Power play bowling comparison of the teams

Economy vs Strike Rate scatter plot of the teams' bowling in Power play in 2022 (T20Is)

In case of bowling the lower the economy and the strike rate the better it is. So from the chart we get a clear picture that if bowling in power play in 2022 is considered India has done fairly well. The best team in this case is Bangladesh, but it might be because they have played less matches than India.

With the amount of game time that India has got in the shortest format this year the stats in the power plays are not that bad. 

Middle Over Comparisons

Middle Over bowling comparison of the teams

As the scatter plot suggests, the best bowling team in the middle overs has been New Zealand. While the worst in this case has been England. 

As far as India is concerned, they have been decent in the middle overs. In fact they are the third best team in this case also. 

Death Over Comparison

Death Over bowling comparison

So the problem is clear for India, when strike rate and economy is considered they are the worst side in 2022. While there are teams who are picking up less wickets than them and have been more expensive than them, when efficiency is considered, India is the worst. 

The fact that Indian bowlers have failed to deliver under pressure is clear from the figure. Going into the World Cup this is one major area the team will have to improve on. This could turn out to be very costly for the team if and when they are asked to defend a total in the tournament. 

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