The last few years of Indian cricket don’t exactly bring the word consistency to mind. The euphoria of the 2011 World Cup win is long behind us and, as the England debacle has shown us, the presumption that India’s dominance of the business of cricket would spill over to the pitch has been laid bare. Four months ago, India was blowing past opponents on its way to a second-place finish at the World T20 championship. Today the team stares at the ignominy of two innings defeats in a row (and Ravi Shastri as a team director).
But there is one measure by which India has managed to be consistent: runs. If you total the runs India has scored over the last five innings in any of the three formats, you’ll end up with a number in the 700 range. That’s right: the team is putting together the same figures for matches, whether they last three hours or five days.
That alone should tell you everything you need to know about the state of affairs in Indian cricket. Our much-vaunted batsmen are able to maintain a pretty comfortable scoreline when it comes to 20-over cricket, scoring 736 over the last five innings compared to Pakistan’s 780 or England’s 817. Not amazing but not terrible either.
Yet somehow, when they potentially have more time to bat, either 50 overs or five days, they end up scoring about the same quantum of runs. (Note, the Test cricket figures count each innings separately, not each match).
All that grandfatherly talk about T20 managing to ruin our cricketers might actually have a point. Just to add some context, here’s a look at what a more normal distribution of runs scored across the formats looks like.
Having gambled on a five-Test series outside the country after a very long time, the lessons India is likely to draw from this probably won’t feature much introspection about quality across formats. After all, India has only once in its history managed to win two Tests in a five-Test away series, and even that contest they ended up losing (3-2, to Australia in 1977-'78).
But, just to give some more context to India’s batting record in the last few months, it might be worth comparing the cumulative scorelines to our little neighbour to the east.
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But there is one measure by which India has managed to be consistent: runs. If you total the runs India has scored over the last five innings in any of the three formats, you’ll end up with a number in the 700 range. That’s right: the team is putting together the same figures for matches, whether they last three hours or five days.
That alone should tell you everything you need to know about the state of affairs in Indian cricket. Our much-vaunted batsmen are able to maintain a pretty comfortable scoreline when it comes to 20-over cricket, scoring 736 over the last five innings compared to Pakistan’s 780 or England’s 817. Not amazing but not terrible either.
Yet somehow, when they potentially have more time to bat, either 50 overs or five days, they end up scoring about the same quantum of runs. (Note, the Test cricket figures count each innings separately, not each match).
All that grandfatherly talk about T20 managing to ruin our cricketers might actually have a point. Just to add some context, here’s a look at what a more normal distribution of runs scored across the formats looks like.
Having gambled on a five-Test series outside the country after a very long time, the lessons India is likely to draw from this probably won’t feature much introspection about quality across formats. After all, India has only once in its history managed to win two Tests in a five-Test away series, and even that contest they ended up losing (3-2, to Australia in 1977-'78).
But, just to give some more context to India’s batting record in the last few months, it might be worth comparing the cumulative scorelines to our little neighbour to the east.
