Cheteshwar Pujara credited the Indian Premier League as being one of the reasons why the current pace attack is one of the best ever that has played for India, ahead of the four-Test series in Australia.
The Indian batsman hailed the bench strength as well saying that the experience of playing the 2015 series will also help the confident bowling unit.
India has five pacers in the squad for the Border Gavaskar Trophy – Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, Mohammed Shami and Umesh Yadav – and Virat Kohli and Co will depend on them on the bouncy Australia tracks.
“In last few years we have produced some quality fast bowlers and even bench strength is good, if someone is injured we have back up. This is one of the best fast bowling attacks we have had in many years,” Pujara told reporters on Monday.
“I am not saying we didn’t have a good attack in the past, I don’t know maybe the reason is the IPL which has helped produce good fast bowlers and is benefiting the Indian Test team,” he added.
India are missing all-rounder Hardik Pandya due to injury, but still have a potent pace unit. The teams are likely to be greeted by a green pitch at the Adelaide Oval for the first Test of the four-match series starting Thursday, and it remains to be what India’s bowling combination is likely to be.
However, one area of concern is the runs conceded in the warm-up game against Cricket Australia XI. The bowlers went for 544 runs with captain Virat Kohli using 10 bowlers including himself.
But Pujara brushed aside these concerns, saying that the bowling unit has a set game plan in place irrespective of the warm-up game.
“Conceding 500 runs in a warm-up game doesn’t mean anything … we are not very much worried about it. Our bowlers know what they have to do … I can’t say what their game plan is, but they know what line and lengths to bowl in Australia.
“Most of our bowlers have played a Tests series here in 2015 so even as a bowling unit we are very confident,” he said.
Talking about whether the chance to win a first ever Test series in Australia is added motivation, Pujara said that the top-ranked Test team try to win every match they play.
“Being the No.1 Test team, we always look to win each and every series and this is no different. We definitely want to win the series, but [we are taking it] one Test match at a time…
“Whenever we travel outside India we want to win, in India we have been doing really well but whenever we travel overseas there is always an extra motivation to do well. We have been playing very good cricket outside India now and this is a very good opportunity for the team to perform well and we are looking forward to this series and hopefully we will be able to put up a good show,” the batsman said.