As the IPL has drawn to a close focus now shifts back to international cricket. Perhaps the glitter and sheen of the IPL has shadowed how crucial could be the next six months for Indian cricket. With the team for the England tour has been announced, India is all set for the penultimate international lap before heading to Australia and then stepping into World cup. The unsually large squad comprising of 18 players with 6 pacers in it will hopefully try to bring in some reputation for India's performance overseas.
While under Dhoni India has won every coveted trophy, the performance in foreign soil has been hapless. India have been winless in England,South Africa and New Zealand. Only a win in T20 and an ODI was all India could afford in Australia. Any other captain would have been axed, though it was not the case with Dhoni. His captaincy has become defensive in recent times. Well to say it better, he becomes defensive once things started to go awry. To make it worse, our bowlers have remained our biggest concern. With Zaheer being omitted, India now will be forced to look for a new bowling warrior for the next decade. It was kapil in 80s, Srinath in the 90s and Zaheer in 2000s. Thats how we have been producing bowlers, 3 quality bowlers over 3 decades.Is it the lack of talent or does the domestic wickets not conduicive for pace bowling ? Where our bowlers are going wrong ?. Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, etc have had terrific start to their careers. But sadly none of them were able to sustain. Ishant Sharma continues to be so called 'spearhead'. Very few or no one could still be part of a team whose bowling average is close to 40 after playing 50 test matches. The batting concerns have alleviated to an extent after our young batsmen put up a brave fight against the SA bowlers. In fact Steyn remained wicketless after conceding 100 or more runs in an innings. Rahane, Dawan, Pujara have been impressive in the foreign conditions. But thats not going to help us unless we have bowlers to pick 20 wickets.
In the past we used to depend on Kumble if the quicks dont deliver as he was one of the very few spinners who could york or bounce a batsman out.Now we have dont have that luxury too. Ashwin and Jadeja continue to be only home turners. Ojha who had an excellent stint with English county season last time isn't selected because he bats poorer than Ashwin and Jadeja :P . Mohammed Shami 'seams' to be the sole ray of hope. He has shown his mettle with new ball swing and reverse swing too. Only time will tell if he is going to be the next spearhead for India. Ishwar Pandey and Pankaj Singh have impressive domestic careers but will they deliver in the big stage ? Can they do it consistently ? Coaches have come and gone but what does not change is as Indian bowlers spend more time in international cricket, their pace slows down !! We have seen Ishant Sharma clock close to 150 kph in Australia and now the same man says "Line and length are important" . I definitely agree his point but at the cost of slowing your pace to 130 ? Same was the case with Irfan,Munaf and RP Singh ! Still it remains a mystery to me how uninaminously all Indian bowlers reach that mindset ! If India has to survive the forthcoming test series with atleast a drawn series or coming up with a final four finish in World Cup let alone another win, we need atleast 3 quality fast bowlers. The problem from hindsight is the ability to sustain. With each passing year, the schedule is only becoming more cramped. The selectors have to handpick a few bowlers only for tests and some for ODIs alone. India can take a cue from Australia in the way they have managed their bowlers. Johnson,Siddle, Harris have been kept for tests and other young bowlers like Coulter-Nile,Starc,etc have been kept for shorter formats. India might still get away by even winning the world cup without any quality bowler but would find extremely difficult to win a test match overseas because you need bowlers to pick 20 wickets !
While under Dhoni India has won every coveted trophy, the performance in foreign soil has been hapless. India have been winless in England,South Africa and New Zealand. Only a win in T20 and an ODI was all India could afford in Australia. Any other captain would have been axed, though it was not the case with Dhoni. His captaincy has become defensive in recent times. Well to say it better, he becomes defensive once things started to go awry. To make it worse, our bowlers have remained our biggest concern. With Zaheer being omitted, India now will be forced to look for a new bowling warrior for the next decade. It was kapil in 80s, Srinath in the 90s and Zaheer in 2000s. Thats how we have been producing bowlers, 3 quality bowlers over 3 decades.Is it the lack of talent or does the domestic wickets not conduicive for pace bowling ? Where our bowlers are going wrong ?. Irfan Pathan, RP Singh, Ishant Sharma, etc have had terrific start to their careers. But sadly none of them were able to sustain. Ishant Sharma continues to be so called 'spearhead'. Very few or no one could still be part of a team whose bowling average is close to 40 after playing 50 test matches. The batting concerns have alleviated to an extent after our young batsmen put up a brave fight against the SA bowlers. In fact Steyn remained wicketless after conceding 100 or more runs in an innings. Rahane, Dawan, Pujara have been impressive in the foreign conditions. But thats not going to help us unless we have bowlers to pick 20 wickets.
In the past we used to depend on Kumble if the quicks dont deliver as he was one of the very few spinners who could york or bounce a batsman out.Now we have dont have that luxury too. Ashwin and Jadeja continue to be only home turners. Ojha who had an excellent stint with English county season last time isn't selected because he bats poorer than Ashwin and Jadeja :P . Mohammed Shami 'seams' to be the sole ray of hope. He has shown his mettle with new ball swing and reverse swing too. Only time will tell if he is going to be the next spearhead for India. Ishwar Pandey and Pankaj Singh have impressive domestic careers but will they deliver in the big stage ? Can they do it consistently ? Coaches have come and gone but what does not change is as Indian bowlers spend more time in international cricket, their pace slows down !! We have seen Ishant Sharma clock close to 150 kph in Australia and now the same man says "Line and length are important" . I definitely agree his point but at the cost of slowing your pace to 130 ? Same was the case with Irfan,Munaf and RP Singh ! Still it remains a mystery to me how uninaminously all Indian bowlers reach that mindset ! If India has to survive the forthcoming test series with atleast a drawn series or coming up with a final four finish in World Cup let alone another win, we need atleast 3 quality fast bowlers. The problem from hindsight is the ability to sustain. With each passing year, the schedule is only becoming more cramped. The selectors have to handpick a few bowlers only for tests and some for ODIs alone. India can take a cue from Australia in the way they have managed their bowlers. Johnson,Siddle, Harris have been kept for tests and other young bowlers like Coulter-Nile,Starc,etc have been kept for shorter formats. India might still get away by even winning the world cup without any quality bowler but would find extremely difficult to win a test match overseas because you need bowlers to pick 20 wickets !
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