New Delhi: World Cup-winning India skipper Kapil Dev reckoned that the current side is struggling to find a match-winning allrounder. The 62-year-old said the players don’t have the right mindset of bowling more overs due to which the shortage of fast bowling allrounders is still being felt.
One of the best allrounders during his playing days, Dev consistently delivered impactful performances with both bat and ball with the sole aim to win matches for India. He also stated the major reason India’s 1983 World Cup-winning squad had so many allrounders is that there was no workload restriction, while today, the concept of workload management has taken major precedence.
“What I feel is that when you play 10 months of rigorous cricket in a year, you tend to get injured more. And cricket today is very basic batsmen want to bat and bowlers want to bat. The second is that nowadays the way the team management takes into account the workload of the players,” Dev told in a discussion with Sports Yaari’s Youtube channel.
“In our time, we had to do everything. So cricket today has changed. Sometimes it saddens me to see a player getting tired after bowling just four overs and I’ve heard they’re not allowed to bowl more than three or four overs. Due to this, the muscles do not develop according to the requirement,” said the Haryana Hurricane.
Acknowledging how much the game has evolved since the time Dev stopped playing, the former skipper stated in modern-day cricket, it is not possible to hit the ground running all the time.
“I remember in our time, I won’t say whether it’s right or wrong – even the last player who would come out and bat, we would bowl at least 10 overs to them. That mindset should be there and that helps build muscles. Today perhaps those four overs are enough for them so we feel our generation feel a bit strange,” he stated.
The former skipper’s statement came after Virat Kohli’s recent comments on the team’s balance affecting due to the absence of a seam-bowling allrounder. India went in the World Test Championship final against New Zealand with three frontline pacers and two specialist spinners. Hence, their bowling unit seemed to struggle on the field without a fast-bowling allrounder.
