Will India’s weak lower-order cost them World Cup 2023?

World Cup 2023: Team India & the lack of depth in tail-end batting; will the lower-order cost India World Cup? India batters from 7-11 position averages 15.10 which is at 7th place among the top cricket nations.

India's weak lower-order can cost India world cup 2023? (Images: ©BCCI/Twitter)

The road to the ICC World Cup 2023 has heated up with all the top contenders being in action in recent days. Nine of the 10 participating teams have played ODI cricket in the last few weeks - with New Zealand touring England and Australia visiting South Africa.

Also Asia Cup 2023 is in the concluding stage, where India is set to take on the defending champions Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday. So with less than 20 days left for the World Cup, ODI cricket is just about peaking at the right time.

There will be talking points for each team on how they can improve going into the quadrennial event. For India, one thing they need to address is the contribution of lower-order when it comes to batting and also the lack of batters who can bowl a few overs.

For now, we will concentrate on the former and see how the Indian lower-order has fared in this calendar year, when it comes to ODIs, and how they stand in comparison with the other World Cup participants.

The table shows the contributions of batters from 7-11 for all the 10 teams that will be vying for World Cup glory in the coming month.

Team	Mat	Innigs	Runs	Outs	Avg	SR	HS
England	10	10	530	22	24.09	102.12	150
New Zealand	13	13	847	42	20.17	99.06	218
Australia	6	6	393	20	19.65	85.61	166
Netherlands	12	12	477	27	17.67	84.28	167
Pakistan	10	10	344	22	15.64	98.01	93
South Africa	9	9	321	21	15.29	88.43	60
India	14	14	453	30	15.1	70.12	71
Afghanistan	9	9	409	31	13.19	81.8	112
Sri Lanka	17	17	695	54	12.87	76.04	89
Bangladesh	15	15	551	44	12.52	73.66	91

Key insights from the above statistics

This is the batting performance of the batters from 7-11 position in ODI cricket in the calendar year 2023.

When we see that stat, our focus readily shifts to India and their batters below par returns when compared to the other teams.

Indian batters (7-11) average just 15.1 in this period and the strike rate also isn’t too promising. Batters in the tail have scored just 453 runs in 14 matches with the combined aggregate highest being 71.

Read More: The 5 games which changed India’s trajectory in World Cups

Axar is the highest run-getter for India in lower-order (Source: ©BCCI/Twitter)

Where does India stand among the other teams in comparison?

The Indian batters’ average is pretty mediocre when they are pitted against other heavyweights like Australia, New Zealand and England. They stand at the sixth place among 10 teams in this regard - just above Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.

England sit at the top with a stunning average of over 24, and they have easily the best & most destructive lower-order in the current era. The reason is that their bowlers have the capacity to hit the ball long, something that India’s tail-enders lack. New Zealand too have great batting depth this year and Michael Bracewell’s 140 coming at No.7 against India made sure their 7-11 contribution accumulated a massive 218 runs that game.

It is also evident from the table that the strike rate of Indian batters is lowest among all the other teams. Even associate teams, like Netherlands, have a superior return with respect to both average and strike rate. This is a cause of concern for the India team going into the World Cup.

Read More: CWC 2023: Who would be part of India's pace bowling unit

Case in example from the recent India-Bangladesh game

Runs from lower-order are very crucial when it comes to crunch matches and it can sometimes decide the fate of the game. Even in the recent Asia Cup Super 4 game between India and Bangladesh, the latter’s lower-order (7-11) gave their best performance of the year, scoring 91 runs between them.

This proved to be highly useful as Bangladesh’s margin of win was by 6 runs over India and the Indian lower order, barring Axar Patel (42), couldn’t score runs.

Jadeja yet to find form in 2023; averages 20 from 8 games (Images: ©BCCI/Twitter)

Who are India’s best lower-order batters this year?

Player	Innings	Runs	Highest	Avg	SR	Wickets
Axar Patel	6	129	42	32.25	98.47	4
Ravindra Jadeja	8	122	45*	20.22	54.95	11
Shardul Thakur	5	58	25	11.60	100.00	19
Kuldeep Yadav	8	40	10*	8.00	45.45	31

From the table it is evident that Patel has been India’s best lower-order batter, even better than Ravindra Jadeja who is considered a great all-rounder. Unfortunately, Jadeja’s batting prowess has not come to the fore for India as far as ODIs are concerned - but he has bowled decently in the middle-overs, especially in the Asia Cup. Shardul can score important runs, but most of the time he is a real hit & miss.

Read More: The rivalries which will define future India vs Pakistan clashes

Top-5 lower order batters from World Cup teams

Player	Innings	Runs	Highest	Avg	SR	Wickets
Michael Bracewell	5	239	140	47.80	128.49	5
Marco Jansen	8	202	43	33.66	109.18	11
Mitchell Santner	7	195	57	27.85	99.48	4
Rachin Ravindra	6	179	61	29.81	116.99	11
Wanindu Hasaranga	10	159	29*	19.87	138.26	28

Patel, India’s top-scorer from the lower order, is the 11th highest run-getter among his counterparts from other nations, and this shows how average the team’s lower-order outings have been. It is nothing new for Indian cricket that the tail is long, especially in the white-ball formats, and their performance with the willow really needs to improve as lower-order contributions do make a lot of difference.

Read More: Asia Cup 2023: Kohli-Rahul record stand against Pak silences critics