India batters don't come down the track consistently.
A noticeable pattern from the Namibia game in the T20 World Cup 2026 last night was how India couldn’t hit pacers in slog overs. Despite two set batters – Hardik Pandya and Shivam Dube – at the crease, with more big-hitters to follow, the two left-arm pacers bowled economical overs to complement Gerhard Erasmus.
Ruben Trumpelmann and JJ Smit adopted a yorker-heavy strategy, executing it with tremendous success, with most landing either in the blockhole or ending as low full-tosses that were hard to hit. As a result, India could only score 25 runs off the final four overs, where pacers bowled three of them and conceded 18 runs while picking a solitary wicket.
Following the game, Ishan Kishan explained how batters could have used their crease more to take on yorkers and slower ones by pace in slog overs.
“I think we need to also give credit to Namibia bowlers because they were bang on with their yorkers, they were bang on with their slower ones. So yeah, it was a good learning. Maybe if some other team is doing the same thing, maybe we can use the crease more, or we can do something different, which can irritate the bowler.”
As Ishan Kishan pointed out, Indian batters didn’t use their crease and stepped out to convert those yorkers into hittable height full-tosses. The wider lines, which accounted for around 50% of total deliveries, and the natural angle away from the LHB added to their issues, but their inability to step down the track came to the fore again.
In three death overs by pacers, Indian batters stepped down or moved in front only twice, with their focus mostly on hitting from the front foot. That didn’t work, as they could only drill it down the ground and missed out on numerous low full-tosses that could have been dispatched had they stood slightly outside or been more proactive with their feet movement.
The Namibian pacers weren’t express pacers either: their speeds were around mid-135s for most of the time, and Indian batters were still hesitant to use medium pace to their advantage. This is also a skill issue, for most of them rely on a stable base for range hitting and hardly come down the track.
Since Australia T20Is, India have faced all the elite bowling attacks, and a pattern among the finishers is a lack of stepping down the crease. Among all four middle and lower middle-order batters – Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Rinku Singh, and Axar Patel – this has been a major issue.
Hardik comes down the track or steps in front on 12.5% of deliveries, followed by Rinku (11.36%). Axar has done it only twice in 68 balls, while Dube has not stepped out even once in 73 balls.
That’s why they have had issues with wide lines against Namibia, especially the LHBs, who faced an away angle, which has troubled them lately. Axar and Rinku, especially, haven’t consistently been able to dispatch fuller ones.
On such balls, batters are expected to be more explosive than on other lengths, but that hasn’t exactly been the case lately. A yorker-heavy strategy hardly works in slog overs, but this Indian team might be more vulnerable than some other sides, and the opponent can get away with a few, as Namibian bowlers did last night.
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