Cricket needs specialists

Two guys started a company, one had a problem which he wanted to solve and other knew how to solve it. Soon they started converting their idea into a more tangible thing and they called it a product. Now they need to sell their product to make money out of it, but nobody knows what their product is and what it offers. So they decide to promote and market their product so that people are aware of their products so they call this guy Product Marketer, his role is to increase or create awareness about the product. Once the product is popular they want someone to sell their product and actually generate customer and revenue and they call him Salesman. More revenue accumulates and now they need some one to manage it and make sure profits increase, unwanted expenses reduces and they call him Finance head. So what we observe it that as time advances a company gets more specialized people to do specialized jobs and this leads to building a successful company.

One-Day cricket is evolving and with lot of amendments in the rules each,  time has come that teams make the necessary adjustments needed not just to survive to thrive. Well if they don't prepare well in advance they will have to learn the hard way.

The new rule of 4 fielders outside the 30 yards circle during the non-power play overs along 2 new balls from each end have prompted teams to get away with part-times and invest more in the specialists. Of-course all these rules are more in the favor of the batsman piling more runs, two bouncers per over is the only solace pacers have. This leaves part-timers hanging in the mid air. In the hindsight it encourages spinners to be more attacking with their field placements with one more fielder either around the bat or close in catching. Imagine this off-spinner blowing with mid-off or leg spinner with mid-in, no easy single available for couple of balls and batsman gets bogged down and a big shot on the way. This translate to fun; either wicket or a boundary or big shot.

This also tests the captains ability to manipulate his fielders and this brings more excitement and new dimension to the game. Now we just can't have a part-timer bowling with having both long off and long on back, or having both deep point and deep backward square leg or having both fine leg and third-man back. So we now have only 4 players patrolling 6 field positions instead of 5. And with 5 inside the ring means no easy singles available at the batsman's disposal, so the game gets more cerebral more like a chess board.

Possible approaches captains could use is a genuine specialists to each of the 3 roles that opened up. 

a. swing bowlers to make use of the 2 new balls while its hard & shinny, 

b. quality spinners to build pressure on the batman and bog them down,

c. finally have death bowlers who would focus on hitting the block hole more frequently.

Sri Lanka have already start of pretty well using Kulasekara and Mathews to open as swing bowlers, spinners/medium pacers for the mid-overs and Malinga for the death. I only can hope that INDIA can go with this formula and succeed one day because with the current bowling line up depending too much on part-timers to get them out of the hole seems like a recipe for disaster.