Bowling worries for India ahead of the first test

India is about to begin their test series against Australia in few days and as it was in England earlier this year; the team is struggling with injuries. India had lost Varun Aaron and Praveen Kumar already before leaving the Indian shores and now it seems like Ishant Sharma would also struggle to make to the test team. If Ishant misses out India might field a very inexperience attack unless the replacement/cover is Irfan Pathan.

This scenario makes the presence of Zaheer very important for India throughout the series. The inexperience in the bowling might be a huge trouble for India as none of the bowlers except for Zaheer have bowled in Australia. Zaheer himself hasn’t played too much in Australia as he had broken down in both of his previous couple of tours. Before the series began India would have hoped to have gone in with Praveen, Ishant and Zaheer for the first test with Umesh and Aaron in the sidelines but injury to Praveen was a huge blow to that plan.

Zaheer’s injury in England cost India a lot and so did selecting a half fit bowler, it seems like India have again taken a gamble with Ishant too. Ishant’s ankle was a trouble even before the team was chosen, so it was a huge risk to select a bowler battling injury. The Indian selectors have once again made the mistake of taking an injured bowler on an important tour. If Ishant does not make it India might have to play either Mithun or Vinay in the first test. Both of them have played in the warm up games and have not done anything spectacular. This will make the Indian bowling attack a very inexperienced one.

Zaheer is just making a return to competitive cricket and it showed in his spell of 10 overs in the second warm up game. He finished with no wickets giving away 41 runs. Umesh Yadav has been impressive among the pace bowlers and Ravichandran Ashwin did a great job by taking 4 wickets in the second game. It will be interesting to see who India would play in case Ishant isn’t available. Vinay Kumar has received a lots of support from the team management and Sunil Gavaskar has said that he might be a good “into the wind” bowler. Abhimanyu Mithun has more experience as he has played couple of test before.

India needs to look for a replacement too, if Ishant needs to be sent back. Irfan Pathan comes to mind immediately and I hope that the selectors make the right decision. Sourav Ganguly told the media that Dinda will be the replacement according to his sources, which if true will be shocking. The selectors have made another blunder on this tour and it seems like they haven’t learnt from the disastrous English tour. I hope that they play Ishant only if they feel that he will last the entire test. We don’t want a scenario where he breaks down after few overs and India end up one bowler short. Ideally I would prefer Irfan to fly down and play the first test but it seems like it might be either Mithun or Vinay in the starting X1. The Indian bowling will depend largely on Zaheer and Ashwin and hopefully Umesh and whoever plays as the third seamer can stand up to be counted.

Article by: Giridharan Subramanian