'You can line him up': Kumble, Du Plessis raise concerns over India’s sixth bowling option

Despite India's comfortable 72-run win over Zimbabwe in Chennai to stay in the race for the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup 2026, Faf du Plessis and Anil Kumble believe the team is still uncertain about certain player roles. They also feel India need a more reliable sixth bowling option. The team have five frontline bowlers, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy, Hardik Pandya and Axar Patel. Shivam Dube has been used as the sixth bowler, with Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma and Rinku Singh contributing occasionally. However, in this tournament, Dube has conceded 124 runs in 9.2 overs at a high economy rate of 13.28. Although he has taken five wickets, but he has not delivered any key performances.

Anil Kumble said that over the last 18 months, India have tried to develop more bowling options in T20 cricket. Players like Tilak, Abhishek, Dube, Rinku Singh and even Suryakumar Yadav have bowled. While having many options is helpful, Kumble pointed out that on flat batting pitches, India may prefer playing eight batters instead of seven batters and five specialist bowlers.

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"They certainly did all the right things to get the batters to bowl a bit through the previous World Cup to now," Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show.

"If you look at the last 18 months, where India played T20 cricket where they've won every single game, that Tilak Varma got to bowl, Abhishek Sharma got to bowl, Dube got to bowl. Then even Rinku Singh bowled, even Suryakumar Yadav bowled. So in that sense, you have options and that's great. But on a flat pitch, there will be challenges. India would ideally want the comfort of playing eight batters, rather than going in with seven batters and five specialist bowlers," he added.

While, South Africa great Faf Du Plessis agreed that other teams would likely target India’s sixth bowling option. He explained that opponents would try to handle India’s main bowlers, especially Bumrah and Varun and then attack the weaker bowling option, particularly on good batting tracks. If Dube is forced to bowl defensive deliveries, batters may look to score heavily off him.

"100%. You look at it and ask: who are the danger bowlers? Most of the time, it's Bumrah. On the day, you make that call - if you can get on top of someone else early, then the sixth bowling option is going to have to come in.

"If that happens, and he (Dube) is bowling wide yorkers or defensive lines, you can line him up."

In the ongoing T20 World Cup 2026, India have also made several changes to their playing XI. Against South Africa, they brought in Washington Sundar for Axar Patel to add an off-spinner and reduce the number of left-hand batters.

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Against Zimbabwe, Sanju Samson was included to balance the top order and Kishan was moved to number three, and Tilak Varma was pushed down to number six. Due to these changes, Du Plessis said India’s batting roles seem unsettled compared to other successful teams that stick to a fixed line-up.

"The team they would have planned before the World Cup and where they find themselves now feels very different from a role perspective," Du Plessis said prior to the start of the game against Zimbabwe.

“Initially, the top three was going to be left-handed, and now you've got Sanju coming from five. Possibly to the top. You've got Tilak possibly going to five. It's a lot of movement in terms of role play and if you look at the teams that are doing well, it's a very set batting line-up,” he added.