India may have been drubbed 0-3 by New Zealand at home but it’s not all gloom & doom as the team braces for the 5-Test series in Australia. The faster bowlers, led by the inimitable Jasprit Bumrah, could prove a handful for Oz batters on helpful surfaces…
Conflicted about waking up early on Friday for the start of the Border Gavaskar Trophy? You clearly have a reason after what happened over the last one month in India, when Rohit Sharma’s boys were handed a 0-3 humiliation by New Zealand at home.
The World Test Championship Final berth, which looked likely before the start of the season, now looks a distant dream as Australian pacers lick their lips on a spicy Perth surface, known for its tennis-ball bounce.
Border-Gavaskar Trophy
But if you can look through the mist of disappointment, you may figure a hint of silver lining as the Indian side prepares for a response. What exactly should give the Indian cricket fan some hope ahead of this massive challenge?
It’s the Indian pace attack, which is one of the best in the business. In Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna and Harshit Rana, the fast bowlers have all the ingredients to do well in Australia. This lot hardly had a role to play in the New Zealand debacle as the spinners called the shots on surfaces which were a little too spin-friendly for everybody’s liking.
The pitches in Australia will be completely different. The crucial thing about bowling in Australia is to understand the lengths to hit. While Bumrah, arguably the best paceman in the world across formats, has all the experience, Siraj, too, is a perfect fit for the fast and bouncy tracks. If Mohammed Shami can return sometime later on in the series, it will be the icing on the cake.
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Bumrah had 21 wickets in the 2018-19 series win. In Brisbane in January 2021, Siraj got 5-73 in the second innings that kept India’s target to manageable proportions and allowed Rishabh Pant to go for that almighty chase.
“Akash Deep has shown that he can be equally effective both against right-handers and lefthanders. He should be the third pacer and if there is a little bit of help for the seamers, all three can be as good as their Aussie counterparts,” former India paceman L Balaji, who has experience of touring Down Under, told TOI.
Balaji, who was edged out by Morne Morkel for the bowling coach’s job a couple of months ago, wants India to play with only four bowlers in the first Test, the fourth being Ravindra Jadeja.
“You don’t need more than four bowlers on a spicy surface in Australia. The batters have to give a minimum of 250 to allow the bowlers to stay in the fight and for that, a proper batter at No. 7 is necessary,” Balaji said.
That brings us to the most crucial issue, the batting frailties of India in recent times. On a pitch which had a bit of help for pacers in Bengaluru in the first Test against New Zealand, India were bowled out for 46 by the Kiwi pacers, and the Aussie team management must have taken note of that.
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Aussie top order not in best form
Having said that, the Australian top-order isn’t in the best of form. While Usman Khawaja, in all probability, is playing his last home series, the hosts have a new makeshift opener in Nathan McSweeney, who will be making his debut in Perth. Marnus Labuschagne and Steve Smith haven’t been in great form either, while Mitchell Marsh hasn’t been too much of a headache for Indian bowlers ever. That leaves the top-order with Travis Head, a real thorn in the flesh for India in recent times, and a dependable wicketkeeper-batter Alex Carey.
But if we have to do a man-to-man analysis, is Carey a better bet than Pant? You can make your own calculations. Add to that the fact that this Australian team, not too long ago, lost a Test against lowly West Indies at home, that exposed all the frailties in their batting.
“The Indian bowling attack is perfectly capable of keeping this Australian batting line-up to a score of below 250, especially when there is a bit of help. From there on, it can become a batters’ game and the likes of Kohli, Pant, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Shubman Gill (though out of first Test with finger injury), have the capability to score big in Australia,” Balaji said.
It’s not going to be easy, but then, historically, when has a tour of Australia been smooth sailing? Be it Melbourne in 1980-81, Perth in 2007-08 or Brisbane in 2020-21, India hit back really hard when the chips were truly down. The Aussies too know that this Indian lot is made of some stern mettle and they experienced that first-hand twice at home not too long ago. Will the trend continue?
