The significance here being that these guys can snare a wicket or two. See, our bowling isn't adequate. We will always be juggling the extra batsman/ 5 bowler theory. With batsmen who can bowl, you get say a max of 20 overs among them. When we had Sehwag, Raina, Yuvraj, these guys could create additional 20-25 overs to take the pressure off. Indian management has perhaps harped on this a little late. Having Tilak in the side solely on account of the fact that he bowls is, in itself a heads up here.
Markram is the next-in line to SA captaincy. Other teams do not drop their vice-captains on pure whims and fancies, like India/Pakistan do. Australia have always gone that way. Though, Steve Smith can bowl some handy leggies. With us, I do not think that is an option. But, it would have been good to have Rohit or Virat do some bowling.
We haven't really been doing the juggling act since the last WC whenever we've had Hardik fit to bowl and playing. The five bowlers only theory is obsolete, any team following it is massively risking their balance for any ODI. The Indian management hasn't harped on it
at all. Tilak's selection was because he is an extremely dynamic batter who can slot seamlessly into the middle order, not because he can roll his arm around which is proven by him bowling twice in eight internationals. If anything he's the perfect example of someone who isn't favoured by the Indian cricket pathway at senior levels. In twenty-five T20s for the Mumbai Indians across two seasons he's bowled... a grand total of
three overs spread across three games (and all of them were because someone in the attack was extremely expensive). Even with the impact player rule last season... that's barely passable. He's bowled
in less than fifty percent of games for other teams at senior level too. Why? Because his batting is far more valuable than his bowling to those teams. Neither will those teams use him primarily as an all-rounder nor will they push him to do so which also leaves Tilak not really working on it unless he's in the national camp and they specifically get him working on it because it takes time away from his batting training.
All-rounders usually take time to really hit their peak because they're working on two disciplines at the same time and in a hyper-competitive environment like the Indian cricket pathway unless you're an all-rounder being selected/viewed as one it makes little sense for someone to work on their weaker discipline until they're in a secure role. Other examples of this? Jaiswal was supposed to be the lefty who could also bowl leg-spin when he was starring in the U-19 WC. Since then he's never bowled in the IPL as far as I know and has only bowled a bit in List A cricket. Thakur was a tailender until he took the initiative to work on his batting after securing a spot in the Mumbai side and realising he couldn't just make it in the Indian side as a pure bowler to get to the level he is today. This nostalgia for players like Raina and Sehwag (who would be develop in a much different way if they were coming up today) and Yuvraj (who was a genuine batting all-rounder) is obsolete, no team plays with such a strategy of 'making up overs from the top order' these days and for good reason, the two new balls and four fielders outside the circle rules have put an end to it.
Markram was dropped multiple times from the team across formats. It wasn't on whims and fantasies either, he was genuinely shite. It was only upon the realisation that he could fill the Duminy shaped hole in the Proteas team that he was reintegrated back into the side and he was backed despite his returns with the bat in white ball cricket because they knew he wouldn't be up to the mark there for a while (and to his credit I don't think he was bad in T20Is).
Steve Smith hasn't bowled in an ODI since 2020. He's bowled a grand total of...
nine overs since the 2015 World Cup. At the same World Cup he bowled... twice. He last bowled in a T20I in 2014 (which was a solitary over, take that out and it goes to 2011 when he was a completely different player). Even in test cricket where it would make sense that he would bowl some odd overs he's done that for close to only seventeen overs in total since the last ODI WC (and a lot of those overs were a solo over spell). Even in test cricket where you can get by with a team like you suggested made up of part-timers... Australia have always tried to include a proper all-rounder when possible
despite having players like Head and Labuschagne who are batting all-rounders if at least for the fact that they can bowl rather than their record. Smith can't bowl handy leggies at all, if he did try to bowl you'd be lucky to get away with a six or eight run over. If you're unlucky he ends up giving away twenty-one runs like he did in the 2019 semis.
