Indian bowling squad are at their peak just in time for the World Cup
Due to the return of the pace spearhead and the resuscitation of the wrist-spinner on two consecutive nights, the assault resembled a hungry pack.
India is starting to put up the heat with the ball. Displays like the one against Sri Lanka on Tuesday can be a catalyst for lifting the morale, with the team seizing every small window that the opposition provides. For a team that appeared to be nowhere near their best a week ago, they are suddenly beginning to resemble a hungry pack focused on breaking the ICC title drought as optimism grows ahead of the World Cup next month.
Despite their batting prowess, this is a squad that has ascended thanks to a great bowling unit that takes the circumstances out of the equation. In an era when most teams have been structured around batsmen, India has gone the opposite way, believing that bowlers can win matches in a format that favors the bat. It is the foundation around which they developed their Test team, and India appears to be duplicating the same in the 50-over format just in time for the World Cup.
There were questions over whether India will field a full-strength XI against Sri Lanka in their second Asia Cup Super 4 match on Tuesday. With Pakistan only having played on Monday and barely a 15-hour turnaround, resting Jasprit Bumrah and putting in Mohammed Shami would have been a safe bet given the former’s injury concerns.
However, India were not in the mood to do so, instead opting to send a message or two by keeping their new ball combo of Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj — who had bowled only five overs each against Pakistan — intact and substituting Axar Patel for Shardul Thakur. They were in the mood for a kill.
If they had 356 runs to defend against Pakistan, whom they blew over for 128, they only had 213 runs to work with against Sri Lanka. The slow conditions on Tuesday, in which the ball twisted and gripped, causing all sorts of issues for India’s batsmen, had vanished when they bowled. Those circumstances were ideal for Ravindra Jadeja and Axar Patel. Instead, torrential rains immediately before India’s innings concluded meant they had to contend with damp outfield conditions and a pitch that had previously been two-paced but had become much more batting-friendly.
India may encounter such conditions in the World Cup at home, as dew tends to play a large role in the nights and the nature of the pitch varies from the first to the second innings. In such cases, matches are won with the new ball, when the fielding team must break the opposition’s back before the ball softens and spinners find it difficult to hold a wet one. And with the fresh ball, India went all out.
On days like this, India needs their spearhead Bumrah to be at his best, providing early breakthroughs. India had grown accustomed to life without a pacer who had been out injured for a year. And on repeated nights, he demonstrated what it’s like to be in a team with him in the ranks.
Against Pakistan, he caused havoc by welcoming Babar Azam with a one that shaped away and missed the edge by a whisker. Their two left-handers at the top simply hung the bat, hoping that it wouldn’t take the edge because there was no way they could leave any of the offerings that pitched on leg and went with the angle.
A distinct challenge
Bumrah had an even bigger role to play against Sri Lanka. He needed to assist the spinners as much as possible before they came on. He knew skipper Rohit Sharma would not keep the tweakers waiting, and he only had a few minutes to prepare. There are still questions about seeing the same old Bumrah. But not in the thinking of Bumrah.
Those deliveries that were angled away from left-handers are still intact. Pathum Nissanka discovered his out-swinger, which he added to his arsenal after putting in a lot of effort. Even the mean slower one, whose action is difficult to detect, was on display when he foxed Kusal Mendis.
There were worries that Bumrah could bend his back and get the ball to snort or produce such toe-crushers after undergoing career-threatening back surgery. But on subsequent nights, he used them whenever he wanted, indicating that Bumrah had returned to where he left off. India’s new ball bowlers had done their job, having given two openings and Siraj taking care of another, and it was now up to Kuldeep Yadav, Jadeja, and Axar.
Kuldeep’s wristspin, as in the game against Pakistan, broke the middle order. New batsmen can be difficult to select, and having a potent new-ball bowler allows Kuldeep to attack more. He appears to be a different bowler these days, one that runs in more straighter and lands in the same position regularly, uses his variations according to the circumstances, and does not over-bowl his googlies.
He is also more patient than he has ever been. With him as India’s lone striking option in the middle overs, it is critical that he enters the World Cup with confidence, and he followed up a five-wicket haul against Pakistan with a four-fer on Tuesday. However, unless the new ball bowlers step up, Kuldeep may be rendered obsolete.
These two are the focal points of India’s offensive. Apart from another strike bowler in Siraj, Jadeja and Axar to give the control they need, and Pandya capable of finding seam movement, the six bowling options (Shardul/Axar) appear well-rounded. And even before the ball became soft, they had done so much damage that even when Dhananjaya de Silva and Dunith Wellalage formed a partnership and momentarily threatened India, they never seemed to doubt themselves.
