India look set to back their talented fast bowling unit to trouble the Australian batsmen by playing a four-man pace attack in the upcoming Test series.
The composition of India’s 18-man squad announced yesterday suggests they intend to bat one of spin all-rounders Ravi Ashwin or Ravi Jadeja in the top seven, pairing them with four frontline quicks.
That much is clear due to the fact India – who like to have all-rounder in their top seven – did not pick batting all-rounder Hardik Panyda, who bowls lively seamers and has acted as India’s fifth bowler in many of their Tests over the past 15 months.
India will almost certainly play a fifth bowler in their top seven given how badly their attacks have struggled for penetration on recent tours of Australia. Ashwin and Jadeja are the only options to fill that role, given India did not pick any other all-rounders.
Ashwin has four Test tons to his name and has batted in the top seven 30 times in his career, while Jadeja is on a hot streak with the bat, having made 461 runs at 66 in his past 11 Tests, including one ton and four fifties.
Although Ashwin has long been favoured as India’s first choice spinner overseas, he faces stiff competition from Jadeja due to his recent run hoarding and his seven-wicket haul in the fifth Test in England last month.
Ashwin and Jadeja both are good enough to bat at seven in Tests which would give India the luxury of exploiting their newfound pace strength by playing four specialist quicks against Australia.
Never before have India boasted such talent and depth in fast bowling. They will pick from five good pace options in Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav. It is also the quickest bowling unit India have ever possessed, with Shami, Sharma, Bumrah and Yadav all capable of bowling at 145kmh.
Shami was comfortably India’s best bowler the last time they toured Australia, taking 15 wickets at 35 as the rest of the visiting attack laboured badly. The 28-year-old is also India’s leading wicket taker in Tests this year, having grabbed 33 wickets at 27.
Shami bowled with impressive speed in India’s Tests against the West Indies this month, clocking up to 147kmh and operating in the low 140s consistently.
So, too, did his pace partner in that series Umesh Yadav, with the skiddy right armer hitting up to 146kmh and regularly topping 140kmh. Yadav was outstanding against Australia at home 18 months ago in what was a hotly-contested series.
Using reverse swing with great skill, Yadav was a menace with the older ball taking 17 wickets at 23 for the series.
That series marked a major form surge for Yadav who, since the start of that series, has averaged 23 with the ball across 13 Tests. While Yadav was very poor across his two previous Test tours of Australia, averaging 44 and going at an astronomical 4.64 runs per over, he is now a far better and more rounded bowler.
The same goes for Ishant, who has finally come of age as a Test bowler over the past 18 months after years of failing to live up to his generous potential. In that time Ishant has averaged 22 with the ball across ten Tests, performing well in both South Africa and England.
Indian paceman Ishant Sharma (L) hits Australia’s batsman Shaun Marsh AFP PHOTO / William WEST
The tallest of India’s bowlers at 193cm, Ishant adds variety to the attack with his steep bounce. He’s also a menace against left handers due to his elite ability to bowl from around the wicket, something which will challenge the likes of Usman Khawaja, Shaun Marsh, Travis Head and Matt Renshaw.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar, meanwhile, would have horrible memories of his sole Test match in Australia when he was thrashed for figures of 1-168 in Sydney. He, too, however has developed greatly as a bowler since the last time he toured Australia, adding a yard of pace to go with greater accuracy.
Kumar may have been pummelled in his one Test in Australia but in his other 20 matches in his Test career he has a fantastic average of 24, underlining his considerable gifts.
The fifth of India’s quicks is probably the most naturally talented of them all. At just 24 years old Bumrah is already the world’s best limited overs fast bowler and has shown great signs in his brief Test career, taking 28 wickets at 25 from his six Tests.
Bumrah has been clocked at up to 150kmh in international cricket and, despite being short at 175cm he gets surprisingly sharp bounce.
His wide of the crease style and unique release point means that he has a sharp angle in to right handers, which can fool them into playing at balls they could safely leave. Like Ishant, he adds variety to this all right-arm pace attack.
India know that this is the first time they will arrive in Australia with a formidable battery of pace bowlers and the makeup of their squad indicates they intend to unleash them.
India’s Test squad to tour Australia: Virat Kohli (C), Ajinkya Rahane (VC), Murali Vijay, KL Rahul, Prithvi Shaw, Cheteshwar Pujara, Hanuma Vihari, Rohit Sharma, Rishabh Pant, Parthiv Patel, Ravi Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Kuldeep Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar
Matt H
Roar Guru
A couple of additional points: - India can pursue this four pace bowler strategy partly because their new keeper is easily a top six player. That allows them to play Jadeja or Ashwin at 7. - I would go Jadeja. Ashwin might be the more dangerous, but Jadeja is the better bat right now and keeps the runs down, which our batsmen struggle with. - a big part of the improvement in the Indian bowling attack is fitness. Under the current captain they just all seem to have got fitter and that helps with accuracy.
Ozibatla
Guest
Past performance is not always a reliable indicator of future performance. You may prove correct, he could struggle. I think he will do well though. Im of the belief that whem gauging how good a player is, one only needs to listen to what his peers and former players say. The majority state hes unquestionably the best in the world. Hes a great technician who can play allround the wicket, if we roll out featherbeds with those soft kookaburra balls he will feature prominently.
JamesH
Roar Guru
While I'd like to see more lively pitches, I think you're vastly overestimating India's batting depth. Ignoring Shaw and Vihari, who have just begun their careers, Kohli is the only player in their top 6 who has had a standout 2018. Here are the other averages for the batsmen in their squad in tests this year: Pant - 43 Pujara - 32 Rahane - 30 Rahul - 25 Vijay - 21 Rohit - 20 (2 tests) Pant has made a good start but he's only played 5 tests, two of which were against WI at home. The rest of that list is hardly setting the world on fire, even factoring in that they have played tests in SA and England this year.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
Oh,when you said "K" i thought you meant me :-D . Just kidding. Kohli is a batsman who smash spinners who don't know how to spin a door knob let alone ball. And like to smash fast bowlers who offers width of Atlantic, i mean no disrespect to mitchell Johnson :-p If the pitches will offer even half of what it is offering in this shied season, Indian batsmen are in for a run of their life. And king kohli will average as usual another 25-30 to be labelled it "just" another poor series. I have nothing personal against him as i barely know that bloke outside tv screen,my judgement of batsman is simple . Control 5+ Condition 2.5 + Bolwer rank 2.5 = total 10. only match i would have given him a 10/10 is that match against pakistan in asia cup final a year ago up against a returning Mohammed Amir who was on a rampage. After 2015 series against south africa where he averaged 33(120 of them in single test) i predicted he will badly struggle against Aussie bowling attack. And he did. Fun didn't end there. After that i predicted he will struggle against Aussies in ODI too. And he did. Top score 92(that is only 50+ score in 5 match series where he batted at every single match and got out every single time,3 times to NCN,strike rate of decent 70-80) Another fun fact is that,Indian batsman never took off against Australian Pace duo NCN-Cummins. They had serious trouble against this duo. Good luck against trio+lyon :-D Sparing a thought for him you said? I will :-D
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
Oh you mean bhuvi? he is of no use in australia, Ishant is shaun marsh of bowling.. If they really want that badly to win,their 3 front line will be bumrah-shami-yadav. This 3 are most susceptible to injury. Rotating that 4th won't matter much. They will miss pandya badly here. Even if he doesn't take wickets,he provides much needed support for fast bowlers with some tidy bowling.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
They have 5 quicks in the squad, which means they need only play 3 Tests each over a six week period. That's hardly a big workload.
Ozibatla
Guest
Mmmm, something tells me they might spare a thought or two for a bloke whos name starts with K????................................ KOHLI!!!
Brian
Guest
The pitches will be better for batting but they'll hardly face De Villiers or Joe Root either, our batting top 7 is inferior to the Kiwis at the moment
Brian
Guest
Its certainly a much more rounded squad then what tourists have bought here recently. England had Broad and Anderson but no decent pace backup, or a decent spinner. India look like they could put out a decent team to actually suit the pitches prepared. They can play 2 spinners, or 4 quicks, or R Sharma at No 6.
Simoc
Guest
The Indian quicks look to be the best they have sent here and our batting away has been woeful. However being at home should make for a good series. The Indian batsman normally fall over away from home (apart from Kohli). It will be interesting to see Shaw in action. Our main guys aren't delivering in the Shield so far while Jake Lehmann and Matthew Wade (as a batter) are performing well in the middle order for their states.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Cheers Brasstax. Putting aside pitch conditions I just though the Indian quicks bowled really well in SA and England, they were accurate and consistent. Clearly they'll find it much harder this summer if the Aussie pitches are as flat as normal but I think they'll be much more threatening than the England attack was last summer.
Brasstax
Guest
Also Rohit Sharma has been picked for the umpteenth time based on ODI form. He surely has to be one of the most talented players not to have realized his potential at test level. I think he could be a dark horse here if played at number 5 or 6. On our flat pitches with his excellent back foot play, he could be dangerous and bat in ODI mode.
Brasstax
Guest
Good write up as usual Ronan. You pointed out how the Indian pace attack fared recently on their tours of SA and England. But I am not so sure how much we can read into that. SA deliberately prepared some of the most seaming friendly pitches to neutralize the Indian batting and avenge their 4-0 loss on spinning wickets and it was a very exciting but a very low scoring series. Even in England all the pitches were conducive to seam and swing which can hardly be said about our roads. With our batting on the ropes in the absence of our two best batsmen I can hardly see us changing tack. This is a series where we really need to prepare national highways for our batsmen to compete. And this is wherein lies the crucial difference. Our typical flat fast pitch with even bounce where the ball follows an absolutely straight trajectory from the bowler's hand to the batting crease is not suited to any of the Indian quicks. Also India's batsmen are woefully out of form and is over reliant on Kohli. Vijay is out of form and is unlikely to be first choice opener with 18 year old Shaw likely to be favored first to partner Rahul. Rahul is very talented but in terms of inconsistency rivals Shaun Marsh. Rahane cannot buy a run at the moment. Pujara will hang around the crease for a bit but hardly scores at a pace to cause damage. Pant is inexperienced and is a sucker to the pull shot. Watch him get out multiple times to the short ball. Ashwin and Jadeja are capable with the bat, but a batting linee up with either of them at seven and Bhuvaneshwar Kumar at eight is pretty thin. Its not all doom and gloom for us.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
Well before even I wrote this, I assumed that would be your answer, I am very well aware of the statistic Ronan. My question is simple, do you think Indian selectors will risk all of their fast bowlers on those roads considering what is coming after that series. Bumrah is their trump card, do you think they are willing to risk that much knowing they do not have single replacement in case one of them is injured? Because I am pretty sure at least 2 of them will scumb to injury after 2 test and one of them surely will be bumrah. Playing 4 pacers is logical, but that comes after you know how healthy your bench is. This is a gamble Indian selectors have to play, failing in that will have a catastrophic result because their public will come out all gun blazing, if you know what I mean :-D If I was selector, I would have picked a pace bowling all rounder if I have enough fire power in top 4.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Two things have changed since India last toured Paul: 1) Those same Indian bowlers that struggled here previously have got much better. I watched a lot of India's Test series against England and SA this year and Ishant, Shami, Umesh, Bhuvi and Bumrah each were impressive. 2) Australia's batting is massively weaker than it was four years ago. So I'll be surprised if India's attack isn't much more successful than they were four years ago. That doesn't mean I think they'll have the better of the Aussie batsmen rather that I think it will be a far more even contest than it was last time.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Australia definitely have the better in home conditions, no doubt, but this is also clearly the best Indian attack I've ever seen come to Australia.
Ronan O'Connell
Expert
Kopa you think India should play 2 spinners and that playing four quicks would be "stupid"? Here's a stat for you - over the past four Australian seasons, visiting Test spinners have averaged 65. That's right, visiting Test spinners have taken 52 wickets at an average of 65.
Kopa Shamsu
Guest
"capable" of bowling 145+?... in that case you can say same about hazz,his fastest delivery( from the matches i saw) was 148k... india will be stupid to field 4 fast bowlers,unless they want to play their last couple of test with half of what have you mentioned. Bumrah will not survive playing 4 test in those road. Same goes for shami. Other 2 struggle with line length. Indian strength is in their spin,they have to stick with it even if the condition does not favor them. Australian bolwers meanwhile should worry about 2 particular batsman. Cheteshwar pujara and Lokesh Rahul. These 2 are technically very sound. Another 1 is Rahane who generally do well outside home.Rest i would not worry much if australian pace trio is fit. It was a mistake for India not to pick Subham gill for WI tests.
Nuwan Ranasinghe
Roar Pro
Definitely one of the more potent Indian teams to arrive on Aussie shores in recent years. Will be interesting to see how they fare though. They may appear strong on paper but I think Australia's bowling attack is just a touch better and will obviously be more acquainted with home conditions. Having said that, India's batting is just supreme at the moment. Kohli is unstoppable. Indian batting vs Aussie bowling will be the main contest this summer.
Muttley
Roar Rookie
Aaron Finch as Captain and Jake Lehmann MUST come in to the Test side.