How long can India persist with the 6-5 strategy?

How long can India persist with the 6-5 strategy?: What is the most important facet for winning a Test match, especially in batsman-friendly sub-continent conditions that offer nothing for the bowlers?

I would say the art of taking 20 wickets is one difficult aspect, and it’s the only way you can win test matches on a flat-track.

Here is How long can India persist with the 6-5 strategy?:

The 6-5 strategy:

The 6-5 strategy – meaning the strategy of playing 6 recognized batsmen (which includes the keeper) and 5 regular bowlers. Lately, as you would be aware, team India has been following this game plan under the leadership of Virat Kohli.

Now, since the appointment of Kohli as the Indian skipper in the Test matches and of course with Ravi Shastri at the helm, the onus has been on playing an attacking and attractive brand of cricket. The idea of taking risks, being positive, playing natural strokes, etc. have been endorsed as a way to win Test matches consistently.

The change has been commendable. If the recently concluded Lankan series is anything to go by, the plan is certainly working. The 6-5 strategy with Wriddhiman Saha playing as a recognised batsman and the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Amit Mishra as bowling all-rounders; the Indian Team, admittedly, has looked pretty good and comfortable.

The fact that we managed to take 60 wickets in the 6 innings says a lot about this game-plan. The difficulty on the flat pitches has always been to manage 20 wickets and the 6-5 strategy certainly seems to be working in that aspect. Come the South African series in November, I believe we will continue to play the same way after Saha impressed with the bat in Lanka. And rightly so! Why not continue with something that seems to be working just fine!

But on bowler friendly pitches overseas, is this the right way to go?

The plans certainly works here because the batsmen are equipped enough to score runs in these conditions, but under the swinging, seaming conditions of England or the bouncy tracks of Australia and New Zealand, would the 6 batsmen 5 bowlers combo work?

I am afraid not! Until and unless we find a seam bowling all-rounder, I don’t think we would succeed playing this way outside the sub-continent.

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Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Stuart Binny seem to be the only options available to us in the name of seam bowling all-rounder’s, but none of them is good enough to stake the claim of a proper all rounder. Playing 6-5, we need a proper all rounder ala Watson, Stokes or someone, who can do the job with the ball and fill in with the bat at no.6 or 7 spot as a capable batsman. Do we have anyone of that calibre? From here, I don’t think so!

That’s the reason I think the strategy would be more of like “horses for courses” till then, with Kohli & co. going back to the 7-4 when the conditions suits seem bowling. It might not be the ideal way to go forward, given Indian team’s problem in managing 20 wickets overseas, but as of now, this seems to be the only way until we can clone a Jacques Kallis or an Andrew Flintoff on the streets of our Country.