Call it manifest destiny, call it an obvious bit of storytelling. Call it the cricketing gods having their fun. At the start of T20 World Cup 2026, many of those looking on from the outside would have been focused on how to take down India in their home conditions. What possible way could teams come up with to combat the batting Death Star that was set to obliterate allcomers with scores in the region of 250-300?After a slow start, India have now racked up two of the four highest totals in T20 World Cup history in their last three games. The Death Star is fully operational. But luckily the rebels (New Zealand, of course; it had to be New Zealand) have access to the stolen schematics and know there’s a weak spot.Sometimes, the obvious plan is the best plan. Sometimes, you have to fly an X-wing along the surface of the space station and fire a torpedo through an exhaust vent directly into the reactor core. And sometimes, you also need help from the Ewoks.Which brings us to Cole McConchie – and to a slightly lesser extent Glenn Phillips – and why the humble art of offspin could play a decisive role in who gets to party on the forest moon of Endor on Sunday night.
(To be clear at this point, this is just a bit of fun. India are not the evil Empire bent on submitting the rest of the galaxy to their will. No one would dream of suggesting that. And offspinners shouldn’t really be dismissed as furry creatures jabbering away in their cute little language with nothing in the way of weaponry beyond sticks and rocks and bits of twine. Don’t laugh, we’re being serious here.)
The thinking is, of course, pretty basic. Even having replaced Rinku Singh with Sanju Samson (partly because of the issue being discussed), India have a high number of left-handers in their batting order – five of the top eight – and offspinners turn the ball away from left-handers. This is classic match-ups territory, a ready-made plan that the data analyst barely even has to put in the microwave.
No matter that, post-R Ashwin and a few others, specialist offies are a dying breed. Offspin may be defiantly unsexy, but it is a skill that anyone who has ever rolled their arm over can have a go at. It’s just turning the doorknob, innit? One of the first things a child attempting to get into off-bounds parts of the house learns to do.
And if a job’s worth doing, it’s worth getting a batter to do it (however badly). As a way of quantifying this, our stats team looked at all the spells of one and two overs in this T20 World Cup. Among two-over spells bowled by spinners, offspin accounted for nearly half (46.43%), and close to two-thirds (63.89%) of one-over spells. (See table)
All of which has led to a rogues gallery of right-arm fingerspin being launched at India from as early as the opposition captain dares – from have-a-go heroes like Salman Agha and Gerhard Erasmus (whose repertoire of low-slung, long-distance skidders first piqued attentions with a four-for in India’s second game), to the allrounders, Saim Ayub, Sikandar Raza and Will Jacks, classic part-timers like Aiden Markram and Colin Ackermann, and even proper spinners like Usman Tariq (who barely counts) and Aryan Dutt.
What is perhaps more remarkable is that it has worked (or at least worked in the discrete sense: India are still in the final, after all). No team at the tournament has had more dismissals against offspin than India (15), and no team has a worse average (15.87). Among those that reached the Super Eight stage, no team has seen their batters score at a slower rate (120.20).
Most striking has been the struggle of Abhishek Sharma, who was lauded as a batter from the future, all cold steel and high-energy thrusters combined with a zeal for intergalactic domination, but who made three successive ducks at the start of the tournament, twice getting out to offspin in the first over. When England opened from one end with Jacks in the semi-final, they were just reading from a script – and Abhishek duly played his part by strolling down and holing out to deep midwicket.Abhishek is currently averaging 9.67 against offspin, with a strike rate of 107.41, but he is not alone. Ishan Kishan, despite being India’s leading run-scorer, has been dismissed five times in 48 balls for an average of 13.00; Tilak Varma, who has now shunted down to No. 5 after the return of Samson, has fallen twice and scores at less than a run a ball (97.73). This has also had a stifling effect on Suryakumar Yadav, who as a right-hander normally monsters offspin – but has been scoring at 114.71 against it in this World Cup.Another disclaimer here: none of these numbers, from an extremely small sample size, mean that offspin is guaranteed kryptonite for India’s left-handers. Abhishek, for instance, has scored at 158.97 against offspin since making his T20I debut, more than offsetting a lowish average of 26.57. Tilak, like Shivam Dube, is more circumspect, but with a rock-solid average (44.20). Kishan’s record is sketchier but, as mentioned, he has had plenty of success against other bowlers.
(Basically, if it all goes wrong, don’t blame us.)
Enter, Cole McConchie, a 34-year-old middle-order batter for Canterbury. All the best heroes come from humble origins, traversing their narrative arc to emerge centre stage at just the moment when destiny calls – and what could be more humble than playing domestic 50-over cricket in New Zealand, as McConchie was before being called up as an injury replacement for this World Cup?
McConchie knows the drill. He can bowl in the powerplay – as he did in the semi-final against South Africa, when he dismissed two left-handers, Quinton de Kock and Ryan Rickelton, in his only over. Okay, so Canada’s Yuvraj Samra slapped him around to the tune of 29 off 12 balls faced earlier in the competition, but he was only just off the plane then. And besides, our hero needs to have experienced adversity.
The Black Caps/Rebel Alliance have their standout leaders: Mitchell Santner with his Jedi calmness, Matt Henry as the gunslinging Han Solo character. Jimmy Neesham could probably play Jar Jar Binks. But they are going to need everyone to do their bit in Ahmedabad. When David takes on Goliath, he knows to bring his slingshot. And when you’re in a struggle to overthrow India’s planet-killing batting line-up, you’d better have an offie or two at hand.
Come on, New Zealand. They know you’re going to do it. We know you’re going to do it. Put your faith in the Ewoks. And don’t anyone say, “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
With inputs from Shiva Jayaraman
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
