Looks very counter-intuitive to see these kind of run-rates in this T20 age. I remember Sachin-Sehwag days when 100 in 15 overs used to be the norm.
Yes. This seems to be the era with most useless openers.
Surprised to see India's is so low. But tbh Rohit starts pretty slow (but more than makes up for it if he is still batting after a while).
I am surprised to see that we are doing better than Pakistan. Watching Rohit and Dhawan in the first 10 overs has got to be my biggest nightmare. Let's hope things improve with Rahul.
Its not a black and white situation.
Its a bit more complex.
Sachin and Sehwag played in an era where only 1 ball was used.
Ball used to get soft so scoring used to get HARDER in middle overs. There was reverse too later on.
Par scores were still around 250-320. A score of 270-280 was not a potentially match losing score.
So it made MORE SENSE to attack upfront, get 100 off 15 overs and let others manage it if we lose wickets. Cos if we get 100 off 15 overs and others bat slowly, still 280-300 would be reached and we would win most games.
That formula DOES NOT work now.
2 new balls.
Reverse swing gone.
Flatter pitches.
You need to aim for 350 in most games. In that situation getting 300-330 can be match winning (assuming your bowlers don't screw it up real bad).
Now add to the fact that unlike our past team which had peak Yuvi, Raina, Dhoni in the middle order....now we are a top heavy team where ALL the heavy lifting has to be done by our top order or we will lose majority of the games.
Dhoni has declined...Yuvi is gone...Rahane is useless....Raina is our only reliable death hitter until the last year.
So now, our openers have a huge load on their shoulders. Scoring in middle overs is EASY which means if you start off right, you can cash in later. If you chase too much too soon and lose wickets, your team will end up with 280 odd and lose a lot of games.
That is why our openers bat take a more cautious route these days.
Of course, not saying they are as good as Sachin or Sehwag...but they don't have the liberty to bat like the Eng, NZ, Aus counterparts for the main reason OUR ODI BATTING STRATEGY SUCKS BIG TIME.
We are winning games because of the quality of a few batsmen...otherwise the strategy is absolutely pathetic.
Even in CT 2017, we will be taking Yuvi, Dhoni and Rahane in the team all of whom can give no guarantee of scoring.
In T20s, our strategy is even worse. The less said about it the better.
So that's the situation.
Our LOI mindset is a few years behind other teams.
