Bowling in the death is one of the toughest jobs in T20 cricket, so tough that it is often so easy to get down on yourself. Because one little edge can turn your pinpoint yorker into a boundary ball. And what about the days when you keep missing the yorker.
But in spite of all this, the left-arm seamer keeps coming back for more. He is a quick learner and a calm operator, much like his senior Jasprit Bumrah, which is why India keep trusting Arshdeep to bowl the tough overs. They are even willing to sacrifice the 150kph pace of Umran Malik for his variety.
Arshdeep had only been brought into the attack for the 18th over and he took out Ish Sodhi and Lockie Ferguson with shoulder-high bouncers. Both deliveries clocked speeds in the lower 130s (kph), but even on a slow pitch they skidded onto the batters. Sure, Sodhi and Ferguson are lower-order batters, but Arshdeep’s bouncers have deceived top batters too. Ask the likes of Asif Ali, Mohammad Rizwan and Kyle Mayers. One-third of his 39 wickets in T20Is are the result of short or short-of-a-good-length deliveries, according to ESPNcricinfo’s logs.
The nature of a death bowler’s job is such that he will have more bad days than good. And in T20 cricket, where most games are decided by small margins, people tend to point fingers at the guy who leaked a few too many runs in the final overs without always appreciating the difficulty of his task. Arshdeep, for example, was bowling with a wet ball when he gave up those 27 runs in the first T20I.
“I was really impressed with Arshdeep, how he’s come through,” Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo’s Open Mic in October. “I worked with him for three years and I could see the kind of development that he has had in the T20 format, and last year’s IPL was a classic example of how he handled the pressure.
“He perhaps bowled the tough overs for the team and yeah, you don’t always look at the wickets column in the T20 game, you look at what moments the bowler comes up with. And the temperament that he’s shown, it’s wonderful. We saw that again in the India-Pakistan game. When you have 90,000 people at the MCG, it’s always challenging.”
Such comparisons, and the injury-enforced absence of Bumrah, might also invite pressure, but Arshdeep has the skills and self-belief to cope.
After having helped India square the T20I series, Arshdeep has another chance to excel in Ahmedabad. But, even if he doesn’t, even if he gives up plenty in the end overs, India know he can bounce back; that he always bounces back.
