Posted by Well it isn’t a bowling attack, is it? India have got a medium-pacer called Abhimanyu Mithun opening the bowling against Sri Lanka. We hadn’t even heard of him until this morning.
Muralitharan said this week that Harbhajan Singh was the only person who could challenge his Test wickets record. At the time this seemed ludicrous, being as Harbhajan’s over 400 wickets adrift, but judging by India’s bowlers in this Test, Harbhajan’s going to need a bigger belt if he’s going to get all the overs he’s going to have to bowl under it.
Three years ago, we wrote about how India were blessed with young fast bowlers. Through inconsistent selection, fitness problems, complacency and a build ’em up-knock ’em down media, they’ve all fallen away.
The one bowler who does look determined and who has been given selectorial support is Ishant Sharma who’s currently wicketless and going at nearly six an over in a Test where the medium-pace debutant is conceding three an over.
Have a heart.
Everyone expects Ishant to bowl like he did in Perth to Ponting on every wicket except the Perth one.
Someone like him needs a Zaheer Khan or Nehra explaining the vagaries of swing, line, length, control and fitness in the subcontinent. Also preferable if Zaheer or Nehra were at the other end keeping things tight/taking wickets to support Ishant.
Instead he’s opening the bowling against Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka with a debutant for pace support.
That wasn’t meant to come out as criticism of Ishant Sharma, more a statement of fact.
Ishant Sharma is only 21 and while supporters should hope for great things from him, they shouldn’t expect them.
The selectors should continue to support him, but they should think about how they do so. It isn’t really ideal having him leading the bowling attack when he’s at a low ebb. It might do more harm than good.
Dileep Premachandran suggested he should have gone on the A-tour to England and we’re inclined to agree with that. He’s in the firing line while he’s in the Test team, but what option do India have at the moment?
How much of it is about the wickets that are produced though? If they are going to produce flat wickets then what incentive do they have to produce genuine pacemen?
The way things are going its only a matter of time until the Indians open with a medium pacer to take the shine off and resort to spin after ten overs.
India do have one option. They can recall Irfan Pathan and erase all memories of Greg Chappell from his brain.
Well 3 years back I had a penis and was happy and now I’m married.. Things change.