Dean Elgar has an admitted chink in his armour against the short ball, and India failed to exploit it, writes Naman Agarwal.
“There’s so much footage available these days, you can definitely make plans and strategies on where to bowl to whom. Or even if you just look at their dismissals in the last 5-6 Tests, you get some sort of a trend and idea on where you have to bowl to which batter,” said Sanjay Bangar, India’s former batting coach on air towards the end of South Africa’s first innings in Centurion.
He was of course referring to Dean Elgar and India’s bowling plan against him in the first innings. Last International Playing in his Series Elgar saved one of his best performances for last and looked like a decent team result in the test on the opening day of the tournament on the track surface. I got a big score of 185 in the morning. p>
Elgar is not known for being a traditionally handsome left-hander (though certainly such a group exists), but he drove and batted with dignity and
Strong> sent out inaccurate Indian bowlers looking for leather. KL Rahul sent the ball to the South African bowlers in the first inningsbut it only went long.
Elgar continued to be a thorn in the side of the Indian team in their last tour to South Africa, leading them to a series victory with the bat. India’s bowling tactics against him were also questioned at the time as he held back and waited for the bowlers to play to his strengths, which they did immediately. However, unlike last time, this series saw a clear pattern of attrition at Elgar.
In the 2022-23 tour to Australia, the southpaw conceded just 56 runs in six innings, four of which were short balls between waist and head height and from leg-side angles.
Four times in six innings – Dean Elgar’s near identical dismissals this series #AUSvSA pic.twitter.com/uUaJjg4V4K
– 7Cricket (@7Cricket) 8. 2023 年 1 月
Elgar admitted after the series ended that this was a “new” flaw in his armor and that he was frustrated by the way he was fired. “I’ll probably accept it once or twice, but the third time I get really frustrated,” Elgar said at the time. “Generally there’s a way to get out and bowlers go for it. But this is obviously new and it’s been 10 years since he started his Test career, but this for me This is clearly new territory.”
Since that series, Elgar has played two Tests against the West Indies, scoring a fifty once and scoring single figures twice. His two of his dismissals in this series were also due to short balls.
This is the layoff trend that Bangor mentioned in his comments. This trend was so obvious that it is hard to imagine that Indian think tanks missed it in their pre-match analysis. But somehow, the fact that the Indian bowlers did not emphasize this area of Elgar’s body in the first innings suggests that this may be the case.
The first real attempt to overwhelm Elgar came in the 15th over of South Africa’s innings. The new ball was enough for Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj to throw up and trigger the cordon. And when the time came, Elgar moved out in front of the square.
The problem with short balls does not mean that the batsman hands his wicket to the plate every time the bowler hits the ball in the middle of the pitch. Margins are good internationally, but the cost of mistakes is high. Last year, Elgar struggled with short balls aimed at his body rather than balls aimed at him, like Prasidh Krishna’s attempt to rebound in the 15th over, and balls that slid straight down to the sides of his legs. This allowed Elgar to free his arm and contemptuously let his arm fly out in front of him.
India’s failure to adopt short-ball tactics may be due to Elgar’s authority in this move. Krishna, the tallest member of the fast bowling attack and with a naturally short bowling length, occasionally attempted bumpers but was unable to lift Elgar. Each time he did so, Elgar showed visible signs of trouble.
Another Indian fast player who attempted the most short balls at Elgar was Shardul Thakur. But Elgar was also inconsistent with his body position and, like Krishna, seemed unconvinced every time he found the right line. Finally, his marathon drive came to an end when he took a pull from Thakur to his KL Rahul behind the stumps, but he attempted a leg-side rebound.
Jasprit Bumrah, India’s sharpest fast bowler, surprisingly refrained from aiming at Dean Elgar’s body during the latter’s marathon knock in Centurion.
When Elgar was sent off, he scored a valuable 185, significantly increasing South Africa’s lead to 115. The only South African players to have scored more runs in a Test innings against India at home were Jacques Kallis (201* for Centurions in 2010) and Herschelle Gibbs (he scored 196 for Gkebela in 2001). Only people.
The question then arises as to why India did not use the short ball more often and correctly. In fact, this was a recurring question among Indian fans throughout the year. Unfortunately we don’t have an answer yet, but the consequences were devastating.
Travis Head won the World Test Championship 2023 final against Australia in the away game against India by scoring 163 off 174 balls in the first innings. It was (and still is) well established that heads have a weakness against short bowling. However, India strangely refrained from bowling to his body and thus proved wanting. By this time Head had scored over 100 points and the fatal blow had been dealt. The situation was not much different in the World Cup final. The same batsman again ripped off his ICC Tournament final as India did not score where it should theoretically hurt them the most.
Perhaps it is because of the human resources that India has. Indian sailors may not be able to dig consistently at close range because they lack height and speed. It may seem unlikely, but it may just be a lack of information. Or maybe it’s something completely different. Whatever it is, at this level the margins are good and the cost of mistakes is high. And India’s inexplicable reluctance to miss out on another left-handed batsman meant they once again lost another important cricket match in 2023.
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