Should India follow into the footsteps of England and Australian cricket teams and start building separate sides for white-ball and red-ball formats? The legendary Anil Kumble thinks so and he also wants Indian team management to start investing in allrounders.
Suggestions continue to pour in from all quarters that will seemingly help India transition from the old phase of conservative cricket and embrace the changing landscape of white-ball cricket which they’ve failed to do so. And it has resulted in them returning trophy-less from ICC events for nine years straight now.
Also Read: Don’t Think The Deliveries Shaheen Afridi Didn’t Bowl Would’ve Made That Much Difference’
“Definitely, you need separate teams. You need, certainly, T20 specialists. I think what this English team has shown and even the last (T20) World Cup champions Australia have shown is that you need to invest in a lot of allrounders. Look at the batting order," Kumble told ESPNcricinfo.
Kumble cited how England have developed an enviable depth in their eleven that sees someone of the like of Liam Livingstone coming down to bat as low as no 7.
“Today Liam Livingstone is batting at No. 7. No other team has a No. 7 of the quality of Livingstone. (Marcus) Stoinis walks in at No. 6 (for Australia). That’s the kind of team you have to build. That’s something that you need to invest in," he said.
Also Read: Sachin Tendulkar Congratulates Champion England
There have also been suggestions to appoint different captains and coaches for the formats but Kumble isn’t sure whether that would be helpful.
“I’m not really sure whether you need a different captain or a different coach. It all depends on what team you are going to pick and then choose how you want to build the support and the leadership around it," he said.
However, former Australia cricketer Tom Moody wants India to consider the split coach approach. England have Brendon McCullum as the coach of their Test team while Matthew Mott has been given the charge of their limited-overs squads.
“I think there is no doubt that moving forward, whether it be player or support management, there needs to be a serious look into that separation. It seems England have quite a considerable difference between their red-ball squad and their white-ball squad. They’ve created a depth of quality," Moody said.
With England now holding both the ODI and T20 world cups simultaneously, should they be considered the best white-ball team in history?
“With regards to England being the best white-ball team (of all time), I don’t think they’re there yet. If they had won in the UAE at the last T20 World Cup, you could base an argument, but they weren’t there in that one. So they’ve missed a World Cup there. They’ve missed that sort of dominance of a cycle," Moody said.
Get the latest Cricket News, Schedule and Cricket Live Scores here
Comments
0 comment