You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone, is one of life’s most meaningful advices. Ace bowler Ishant Sharma clearly embodies this life lesson for the Indian cricket team. His absence has coincided with India’s dream of becoming a Test great turning into anguish as the team faltered at crucial moments to miss out on winning series in South Africa and England.
The losses first came in Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa and then recently in England’s Edgbaston. There was a common theme in each Test loss — India getting into strong positions courtesy of the likes of Rishabh Pant, and then giving it away, courtesy its inability to pick ten wickets in the fourth innings.
The loss at Edgbaston was more heartbreaking because India had nearly 400 runs to play with. And only twice before before had a team chased over 200 runs to win a Test at Edgbaston. But India’s imbalanced, inconsistent bowling attack allowed England to etch themselves in record books.
Also Read: Nuclear-physicist R Chidambaram, cricketer Sunil Gavaskar to receive honorary doctorate
What India is missing
This is not to say India’s bowling attack is poor. Far from it. In fact, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur are terrific bowlers in their own right. However, there is a lot to be desired regarding this quartet as a bowling unit, given that Bumrah and Shami bowled 60 per cent of the overs sent down by India’s seamers in their last four away Tests.
In the 14 Tests Ishant played alongside Bumrah and Shami, he had the best bowling average (20.46) and economy rate (2.56) out of the three. With him in the lineup, the opposition was always faced with the difficult task of trying to find the right bowler to attack. Now, teams can focus on seeing off Bumrah and Shami, and then take on the rest.
If India won’t pick Ishant, they need to find someone who can play the role he can. Otherwise, India will often be reliant on one or two bowlers to deliver victory overseas. Right-arm fast bowler Prasidh Krishna, who has taken 49 wickets in 11 First-Class matches at a magnificent average of 17.61, could be the man to hit a good, hard length on a regular basis.
Also Read: ENG vs IND: Shikhar Dhawan likely to play his 150th ODI match
Lack of patience hurt India
Speaking of good, hard lengths, India was off the mark in Edgbaston in particular. If you cast your mind back to their victory at London’s Kennington Oval Stadium in the fourth Test last year, England’s openers — then Rory Burns and Haseeb Hameed — also put on a century stand in pursuit of 368 runs. These 100 runs came in 40.4 overs, compared to the mere 21.4 that Alex Lees and Zak Crawley used up for their 107-run partnership that set the tone in Edgbaston.
The difference in India’s lengths between these two Tests was startling. According to ESPNCricinfo, Indian pacers bowled just 39 per cent of their deliveries on a good length in the first 30 overs of the fourth innings at Edgbaston. This is in contrast to 63 per cent in The Oval Test last year.
Also, 26 per cent of deliveries were full at Edgbaston, up from 18 per cent at The Oval. Many were pressure-releasing half-volleys, allowing England’s attacking batters the opportunity to drive at will.
England’s backfoot prowess was also on show, given India bowled 28 per cent of their deliveries short of a good length compared to 19 per cent at The Oval. It was all too easy.
With England hell-bent on attacking cricket under Brendon McCullum and Ben Stokes, India simply didn’t ask enough questions.
Also Read: On this day in 2014, England’s Joe Root, James Anderson stitched highest tenth-wicket stand in Tests
Spotlight on coaching staff
We witnessed similar mistakes from India in South Africa, which begs the question— Are new coaching staff, headed by the great Rahul Dravid, pushing for variations in lengths?
In the fourth innings of their three away Tests in 2022, India conceded a remarkable 833 runs for nine wickets. Worse, they conceded these runs at an eye-watering 4.02 runs per over. The four key architects—Dean Elgar, Keegan Petersen (for South Africa) and Joe Root, Jonny Bairstow (for England)—were largely untroubled as India took less than a third of the wickets they needed in these Tests.
While India’s batting in the third-innings is a concern, there simply isn’t enough penetration in the bowling attack. Whether it is a newcomer like Krishna or an improved Siraj, support for Bumrah and Shami needs to be high on the agenda when India tour South Africa, England, New Zealand and Australia going forward.
Charbel Coorey is an avid cricket fan and writer based in Sydney, Australia. He tweets @cric_blog. Views are personal.
(Edited by Zoya Bhatti)