Will India's Death Bowling Come Good Under Pressure?

Among the deluge of positives drawn from India's triumphant Asia Cup campaign Rahul's century against Pakistan on return, Jasprit Bumrah's hassle-free ODI comeback, Kuldeep Yadav's breakthroughs in the middle overs and Mohammed Siraj's six-for in the finalthere's a facet where ideal warm-up for the World Cup wasn't had

- Vivek Krishnan

It may have gone largely unnoticed but in only two of the six games did India bowl in the death overs-against associate member Nepal and Bangladesh in a dead rubber. Even more undesirable for India was allowing Bangladesh to wallop 77 runs in the final ten overs when they were six wickets down, resulting in a six-run defeat.

While rain abandoned India's opening group-stage clash against Pakistan, it was to the credit of the bowlers, of course, that they skittled Pakistan in 32 overs in the Super 4 stage, followed by Sri Lanka in 41.3 overs and the latter again in 15.2 overs in the final. But when exploring strengths and weaknesses ahead of the World Cup was the primary purpose of these matches, skipper Rohit Sharma would have certainly wanted more of a workout for his bowlers in the death overs. It would have also tested Sharma's captaincy smarts more, and given him a fairer idea of how to juggle his bowlers around for that final phase.

Death bowling is demanding even for the best in the business, the slightest error in execution carrying dire consequences. Since the 2019 World Cup, India haven't quite got it right. Among the teams that will be playing the upcoming edition, their economy of 7.72 is the third worst in the slog overs. Only Australia and New Zealand have fared worse in this period.