Not very surprisingly, much of the attention around India’s bowling attack has centred around the spinners, after India’s crushing loss in Pune.
There has been much analysis about why exactly Steve O’Keefe (and to a lesser extent, Nathan Lyon) managed to get far more wickets than the duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. Not that the Ashwin-Jadeja duo bowled badly, but they could not decimate Australia’s batsmen much like O’Keefe did.
There is another angle to that as well: the backup that the spinners in both the teams enjoyed. Or, in this case, the role of the pacers. Australia’s pace duo of Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood bowled only 20 overs combined in the entire Test; India’s Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav bowled 39 overs. But Umesh Yadav bowled the bulk of those 39 overs: 12 in the first innings and 13 in the second. Ishant Sharma was wicketless in the first innings in his 11 overs and was only given the ball for three overs in the second.
Umesh Yadav steps up
First, to give credit where it is due, Umesh Yadav was brilliant. Just like Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood did for Australia, Yadav created sustained pressure with his fiery lines and lengths and finally benefitted. He broke Australia’s first-wicket partnership and then broke through Australia’s tail to finish with a four-for.
Somewhat unfairly perhaps, Ishant Sharma could not replicate Yadav’s success. He bowled a good line and length at the beginning but never really threatened and at the end, was hammered by Mitchell Starc for two fours in one over at the end of Australia’s innings.
Of course, just like how India’s performance in the Test was described, it could have just been a one-off, an aberration. This was only Ishant Sharma’s third Test in this long home season. After sitting out the New Zealand series due to illness and almost the entire England series, he played in the last Test against England in Chennai before turning up the screws in a spell of pacy reverse-swing against Bangladesh.
What are India’s options when it comes to pacers?
The other question is, while Virat Kohli has taken pride in switching around his combination in almost all the matches he has played so far in order to ensure all players in his squad remain match-fit, has it paid off specifically when it comes to the pace options he has at his disposal?
Right now, India’s top two fast bowlers are Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav. Shami, on fire, is a sight to behold, but unfortunately he is also injury prone. Umesh Yadav, as the season has gone on, has been a revelation. He has worked on his tendency to bowl loose balls and now is a complete bowler, never letting the batsmen have it easy against him
The third seamer seems to be a toss-up between Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Both have played the same number of matches this home season, exactly three. Kumar has had one standout performance though: on a helpful pitch in the second Test against New Zealand at Kolkata, he took 5/48 to bowl the opposition out for 205.
Couple with the fact that Kumar also a five wicket haul in West Indies when India toured there last summer and it would indicate that Kumar might be marginally the better bowler at the moment. Of course, if the pitch provides any signs of movement, he automatically comes into contention. But the more important question is that, if in a worse-case scenario where India lose both Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav due to injury, do they have good back-up?
And unfortunately, neither Ishant Sharma, nor Bhuvneshwar Kumar looks capable of stepping up to take that frontline spot.
For a team which has taken pride in its reserves, this is one problem which Kohli continues to have and it has been exacerbated with the fact that new Indian pacers have not been tried through this series. Shardul Thakur was picked for the New Zealand series, but did not get a game. All-rounder Hardik Pandya received a call-up for the England squad, but did not play and got injured. He received call-ups for the one-off Test against Bangladesh which he did not play. Now, he is in the squad for the first two Tests against Australia but has sustained a niggle which rules him out of the second Test as well.
Kohli mentioned on Friday that he had two or three combinations in mind for the second Test which he did not want to reveal, but it is likely that Bhuvneshwar Kumar could replace Ishant Sharma. The lack of depth in pace-bowling, however, remains a problem for India and something that still remains to be fixed.