IPL may aggravate Team India’s footwork flaws

Two Indian captains clashed in the first IPL match between Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers Bangalore in MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Thousands of CSK fans in bright yellow uniform enjoyed every moment of their Kings’ march to victory.

The event which was hyped as a titanic clash ended in a low-scoring match. Captain M S Dhoni was not in his usual coolness as he looked a bit serious in the field to nip the Royal Challengers in the bud.

The absence of speedster Lungi Ngidi was not felt as Dhoni used the spin combination to trap the two top batsmen of the world: Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers. Both tried to hit Harbhajan Singh over deep midwicket fence and were caught by Ravindra Jadeja. It seemed as if Dhoni knew where they would hit Harbhajan Singh’s off spin. Deep Midwicket! He put his best fielder, Jadeja there who took two brilliant catches to turn the game in CSK’s favour.

After that the spinners feasted on the batting line up of Royal Challengers who were all out for 70 off 17.1 overs. It was a difficult spin track and both the team exposed their footwork flaws. Chennai Super Kings also took a long gruelling 17.4 overs to score the winning run.

The slow turning pitch of Chennai exposed the deteriorating footwork skill of the batting order of both the team. Often they failed to read the spin, flight and line of the bowlers on this track. CSK's spinners Harbhajan Singh, Imran Tahir and Suresh Raina together bowled nine overs to to bag six wickets for 35 runs.

Similarly, the RCB's Chahal and Moeen Ali bowed eight overs to grab two wicket for 25 runs. This incredible spinners' performance in 20 over IPL format. Chennai ground was not an underprepared pitch to give the batsmen so much nervous time. This does not augur well for Team India in the coming World Cup. England pitch will have moist grass which will support both swing and spin.

Footwork flaws could have been one of the main reasons why India lost to Australia in the recent ODI and T-20 series.

A batsman should read the spin well and make room for the strokes. Footwork skill gives the batsman enough room to play his strokes well. Without sound footwork, it is impossible to score against quality spin bowling, backed by good fielding.

Team India has to master the skill of playing quality spin bowling on a turning track as they have to face very good spin attack in the World Cup matches in England. The best weapon against quality spin is the lofted shot and reverse sweep.

It is risky and it needs immense confidence, power and concentration to play those shots. Team India has to work on their footwork under the guidance of the masters: Tendulkar and Rahul Dravid.

The short IPL format may add to footwork problems for the Indian batting order. The batsmen cannot afford to settle down in 20-over game and will be in a hurry to score. In the process, they can't hone the much-needed footwork skill which is required for the long 50 over format in the World Cup 2019.

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