India count embarrassment of pace riches from Australia tour

Mohammed Siraj led the pace attack in Brisbane, which included Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini. — AFP

New Delhi - India had their entire frontline attack wiped out before the Brisbane decider

By Reuters

Published: Sat 23 Jan 2021, 1:35 PM

India have finally created a pace pool that will allow them to rotate the quicks and sustain the kind of performance they pulled off in Australia, bowling coach Bharat Arun has said.

India had their entire frontline attack wiped out before the Brisbane decider, but the injury-ravaged tourists still pulled off an epic 2-1 series victory in Australia after a lion-hearted effort by their replacement bowlers.

Playing only his third Test, Mohammed Siraj led their pace attack, which included Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini, both had played one test each, as well as debutant T. Natarajan.

“We have been planning this over the last three years,” former test player Arun told a video conference on Friday.

“If you need India to be sustainably doing well at the international level, you need a pool of bowlers who would be rotated time and again so that they stay fresh.

“Now we are blessed with a great bench strength. So it’s very heartening how these guys have come to the party.”

Pacers Ishant Sharma and Bhuvneshwar Kumar missed the tour with injuries, which continued to bedevil India’s bid to retain the Border-Gavaskar trophy.

Net bowlers Washington Sundar and Natarajan were handed Test debuts in Brisbane after Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah had their tour cut short by injuries.

Arun said the emergence of the new crop of bowlers augured well, considering the workload ahead which includes a combined nine test matches, home and away, against England.

“I think it’s a very healthy trend. It’s an embarrassment of riches,” the 58-year-old said.

“Now we have seven fast bowlers willing to play for the country,” he said. “If we need to give our best performance, it will be extremely handy.”

Arun praised the young quicks but felt the likes of Shami and Ishant still had plenty to offer.

“I think they have enough cricket left in them. Their experience is outstanding, and they are still good enough to perform for India.

“They’ll all be rotated and we’ll make sure we put the best team on the park.”