In a recent interview with ESPNcricinfo, Anil Kumble stressed the urgent requirement for a greater presence of all-rounders within India’s ODI World Cup squad. He underlined the significance of having bowlers who can also make valuable contributions with the bat, emphasizing that it’s equally crucial to include batsmen capable of providing bowling options. This approach, according to Kumble, would enhance the team’s overall depth and versatility.
Kumble went on to mention that India had a four-year window between World Cups to nurture and cultivate players with these essential all-round abilities. However, he pointed out that the team missed this opportunity to groom such talent.
“The one problem that perhaps needed to be addressed from the last World Cup to this World Cup (I’m talking about the ODI World Cup) was that we needed more all-rounders, which has never been addressed. You don’t have batters who come and give you those options, and bowlers giving you some batting is secondary. But I think batters giving you bowling options certainly increases the depth,” Kumble said.
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“We had four years and had to develop those players. Instructions had to be given to identified players, and they should have identified and said okay, you are the guys who are going to give me options. You know for example Yashasvi Jaiswal, I know he bowls a bit of leg break. But I have hardly seen him bowl in any match in the last one year,” he continued.
“Shreyas Iyer gives a bit of bowling. Now I don’t know with his back issue whether he’ll come in and bowl. Rohit used to bowl with the shoulder dislocation, and I know that he has that problem so he is not gonna bowl. So who’s it gonna be? You need options in the top. If you had that ideally you know in this line-up for an ideal sort of real batting depth, Jadeja at number eight would have been the best option but today he is at number 7,” concluded the 52-year-old Indian legend.