Playing 5 Bowlers in ODIs

One Day International's have changed the face of modern International cricket by making it so competitive and full of action. Batsman making big-shots during the powerplays and slog overs. Bowlers with an economy under 5 are considered 'brilliant' and if they can pick up about 2 wickets each game, could even be called 'match winners'. Realistically speaking this combination is extremely rare to find these days. No matter how intelligent a bowler one is in 'Test' matches, he is not given any respect during the ODIs, mainly because the batsmen are under so much pressure to score runs.

Under fire from batsmen, right from the first ball of the game, bowlers have very little margin for error or experimentation. It is very likely that one of your front line bowlers will go for quick runs or has a bad day. When this happens a captain would love to have a back-up option of a 5th genuine bowler in the side so that at least 40 overs are bowled by specialist bowlers. This scenario is so much better than having 4 specialist bowler and one of them failing to click, leaving the captain almost 15 overs of part time bowling. Opposition tend to target these overs to get at least 6-7 runs per over from these.

Playing a 5th bowler can turn into a bad decision when your side is trying to chase a huge total though. This means that you go into the game with only 5 specialist batsman and a wicket-keeper. When you are chasing a big total you need to have depth in batting line-up so that the fire power keeps pumping even when the top-order crumbles. However, when playing 5 speciality bowlers in the team, a captain expects not to chase big totals. The reason 5 bowlers are playing is to not let the opposition get away with more than a run-a-ball, and also pick-up regular wickets (best way to put a check on scoring rate).

So having seen both sides of the coin the question still remains: should a team play 5 speciality bowlers in the team? My vote is a firm NO. Clearly, ODIs format of the game is not made for bowlers. With 5th specialist bowler you tend to expect 10 overs to go for 45 odd as apposed to a part timer who may go for 60-65 runs in those many overs.

I think having a good fielding side can save at least 10-15 runs in a One day game. So my policy would be to go in with 4 speciality bowlers who can keep a good check on scoring and have the ability to pick up wickets (think the batsman out) and 2 batsman roll their arm over with 5 overs each. Ideally 5 overs of medium pace and 5 overs of spin. Play 6 batsman and 1 wicket-keeper and one of the batsman should be a quality hitter (attacking player who loves to play his shots and use the mind at same time). Put this hitter at #3 and let him have some fun during the powerplays. This way a team has more odds of chasing or setting competitive totals as opposed to playing 5 specialist bowlers.

Downside, as I pointed out earlier is if one of your 4 bowlers has a bad day, then you tend to give away more overs to part-timers. This I feel is a risk worth taking and at times bowlers can have bad first spells but may comeback with an older ball and do a good containing job. I can live with this, hopefully some of the captains out there agree with me.

Hope you enjoyed reading my views today. Stay tuned for more interesting posts.