L Balaji lauds current India pace unit, says fast bowling is defined by Bumrah's pace and Shami's skills

Balaji also feels Bumrah and Shami are most skilled pacers at the moment.

Fast bowling is one of the difficult jobs in cricket due to the amount of toll it takes on one’s body. Former India pacer L Balaji was very happy to see people appreciating a pacer’s hard work as well as youngsters aspiring to become Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, and Ishant Sharma.

“Earlier, nine out of 10 youngsters wanted to become a Virat Kohli or a Sachin Tendulkar or an MS Dhoni. Nowadays, they want to be like Jasprit Bumrah, Mohd Shami or Zaheer Khan. The importance of fast bowling is defined with Bumrah’s pace, Shami’s modern-day skill sets, Ishant Sharma’s huge experience,” Balaji said in an interview with Cricket Next.

“At present, Shami and Bumrah are the most skilled pacers we have and we could play one at a time. Even Ishant could be rotated. There are other fast bowlers like Bhuvi, Shardul Thakur, Mohammad Siraj among others,” he added.

L Balaji sees a lot of bowling similarities between Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj

Balaji, who works as a bowling coach for the Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Chennai Super Kings (CSK), then talked about how one needs to find a formula to keep the pacers fresh and make them more sustainable.

“You need to manage the fast bowlers to be fresh and sustain them over a long period of time. You need to find a formula that makes them sustainable. In the bargain, you end up widening the talent pool; they perform with the same intensity,” the 39-year-old said.

The right-arm quick then talked about T Natarajan and praised the left-hand bowler for his achievement and filling in the void of a left-arm seamer in the Indian team.

(With Cricketnext Inputs)