It is always a joyful sight to watch a pacer steam in and torment batsmen. With the times changing, bigger bats have come into play and more restrictions on bowlers have also played a huge part in the game’s evolution. Being a pacer myself, I found it tough to see the game moving more in support of the batsmen (Open to debate about this).
Week 35 of the #MakeOverMonday challenge talks about the performance of Indian batsmen against the Left-Arm Pacers. Most of the pacers the game has seen are Right-Arm pacers. There are a very few left-arm pacers compared to their counterparts, especially in India. Zaheer Khan and Ashish Nehra are the only prominent left-arm pacers that I have seen play in the last few years. In the buildup to the 2019 Cricket World Cup, the Australian team came up with a strategy to curb the flow of runs by having left-arm pacers bowl at them. Here’s the report of the stats. You can toggle between the Average and Dismissals and hover over each player’s stat.
Openers Rohit Sharma and Shikhar Dhawan fared decently well against Left-Arm pacers since the 2015 World Cup. Though the latter was dismissed 12 times by Left-Arm pacers, his average was pretty decent. Virat Kohli, India’s talisman was brilliant against the quicks with a staggering average of 100.
Shikhar Dhawan scored a brilliant century and was deservedly adjudged the Man of the Match for his heroics. Virat Kohli contributed with 82 and Rohit Sharma made 57 as India finished their 50-over quota with a mammoth 352 runs on the board. A good bowling performance ensured that India won the match by 36 runs.