Indian Bowling: A Doosra View
The Indian bowling attack may have its fault, but they haven't double faulted yet. Don't put it past them to beat most other teams this World Cup.
- Nikhil Naz
- Updated: February 17, 2015 09:22 PM IST
Roger Federer is undoubtedly the greatest tennis player of his generation. 17 grand slams, the most in the history of the sport. But, pit him against Rafael Nadal and the Swiss maestro comes out second best. Their decade long rivalry has Nadal leading 23-10.
Indian bowling finds itself in a similar position. Labelled as substandard, R Ashwin and Co. aren't as ineffective as the Australian batting has made them look this summer.
But then, which bowling team has had it good against the current Australian ODI team?
South Africa, which is people's choice for the best bowling unit this World Cup toured Australia three months ago, only to lose 4-1. In two of the four games that Australia won they scored 300 plus. In the remaining two games too, Australia would've gone past 300 if only they'd batted first; chasing down targets of 268 and 275 with ease. Messrs Steyn & Morkel notwithstanding.
The recently concluded India-England-Australia tri-series saw England struggle to contain the Kangaroos. In the three games played between the two sides, Australia scored at an impressive run-rate of 5.95, 6.14 & 5.56. India in fact fared a shade better, giving away 5.49 runs an over in the lone game Australia batted against them.
The Pakistan game saw India score 300 - a below par score on the Adelaide pitch. The Indian bowlers dismissed Pakistan for 224 on the same track. Yet, match analysts concluded - India batted well; Pakistan bowled well, but batted poorly. Go figure!
Much of India's perceived weakness in bowling is thanks largely to their recent record in test cricket - A format they've been found wanting in, failing to dismiss a team twice in the same match with annoying consistency. ODI cricket though has been a completely different story.
When India won the 2013 Champions Trophy it featured the same Ashwin, same Bhuvneshwar, same Umesh and same Jadeja. The crux of India's bowling attack in One Day cricket has in fact remained the same ever since. The Men in Blue are also ranked as the second best One Day team on the planet. Behind? surprise, surprise - Australia.
You can't win big international tournaments and fare well on the rankings with an average bowling attack.
India may struggle to keep opposition batsmen quiet during the World Cup. But if the One Day games played in Australia and New Zealand this summer are anything to go by, so will most other teams. In the current scenario profligate bowling isn't exclusive to India.
True, Indian bowling is no Federer. A Federer whose forgotten how to serve his trademark booming serves maybe a fair comparison. But then you wouldn't put it past Federer to beat most others on the ATP tour with just a good second serve. But maybe not Nadal.
The Indian bowling attack too may have its fault, but they haven't double faulted yet. Don't put it past them to beat most other teams this World Cup. But maybe not Australia.