Duleep Trophy: India's red-ball pace bowling bench strength to come under focus

 New Delhi: After three Tests against England, India’s fast-bowling resources had come under strain ahead of the game at Old Trafford, Manchester. Akash Deep was ruled out due to a groin niggle picked at Lord’s, while seam-bowling all-rounder Nitish Kumar Reddy’s left knee ligament injury sent him back home.

Left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who was in contention for a Test debut in Manchester, suffered a hand injury during a net session in Beckenham and wasn’t ready in time to play at The Oval, while Anshul Kamboj had an underwhelming debut in Manchester.

With the Duleep Trophy kicking off the Indian domestic cricket season on Thursday, the search for India’s next set of reliable red-ball fast bowlers will be a key narrative this year.

Though Jasprit Bumrah (his availability is strategically managed) and Mohammed Siraj are there, who beyond them can give sustained support is a big question. Akash Deep has shown promise, so as Prasidh Krishna, as seen from their exploits in England.

But beyond that, the red-ball fast-bowling supply line looks thin at the moment. Salil Ankola, former India pacer and selector, feels proper nurturing of the pacers, especially from fitness perspective, is the need of the hour.

“See, the problem over here is, everybody gets down with injuries. It’s not that we don’t have options. We have a lot of options. But then somewhere they are going wrong over the fitness point of view.”

“But we’ve got to nurture and take care of them, and teach them proper fitness and diet. Fast bowling is one thing, where they work harder twice than the normal players. There’s no option for that, as being fit is the most important thing.”

“Now, Bumrah for that matter also, is bowling within himself. So, the major workload is going to be on the three guys now – Siraj, Prasidh and Akash Deep. But we still need a couple of other guys who can take over the workload,” said Ankola to IANS.

Ankola, who also served three seasons as Mumbai’s chief selector and has dabbled into commentating in domestic cricket competitions, also expressed surprise over someone like Mukesh Kumar not getting a look into the Test team despite faring well on A tours of Australia and England.

“He’s picked up wickets, but then he doesn’t find a place in the Test side, which is a little surprising to me. He’s one of those fast medium pacers who can keep on bowling from one end and can be number three bowler for India. We’ve got to plan out the fast bowling situations very well for our country.”

“You cannot just go on randomly picking people or couple of guys who are there in the season. Seniors are there, then you pick up two youngsters and of course, you need to chalk out who’s going to be the third and fourth bowlers.” (IANS)

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