Ex-India cricketer Sunil Gavaskar has praised the Indian bowling attack for their performance on the opening day of the fifth Test. India are lacking experience after their prime bowlers got ruled out because of injury. They are playing two debutants, Washington Sundar and T Natarajan in the team.
The other three bowlers; Shardul Thakur, Mohammed Siraj, and Navdeep Saini are also new to the red-ball format in international cricket. Gavaskar feels they have done a decent job to let Australia score only 274/5 at the end of the first day. But he also talked about the struggle of Indian bowlers to take the last five wickets quickly.
“The Indian bowlers get the first wickets but they struggle to get the last five wickets,” Gavaskar said in the Extraaa Innings show on Sony Sports Network.
India had a good chance of staying ahead in the game with a couple of more wickets in the last session. They dismissed Marnus Labuschagne on 108 and Matthew Wade on 45 before Cameron Green (28*) and captain Tim Paine (38*) put up a partnership.
“India at least till tea time were controlling the game. If they got another couple of wickets then you could’ve said the day was India’s India had a really good chance of restricting Australia if they had got another wicket but this unbeaten partnership as taken it towards Australia,” Gavaskar said.
T Natarajan removed Labuschagne and Wade and brought India back in the game after their 100-run stand. Gavaskar lauded the effort from the inexperienced bowling attack. “I think the Indian attack did exceptionally well. When you look at Shardul (Thakur), he had hardly bowled a dozen delivery when he had played his first Test, Navdeep Saini just one Test match old so also (Mohammed) Siraj, T Natarajan, and (Washington) Sundar playing their first games so for all that the first 5 wickets that they’ve taken tells you how much they were committed to the task,” he said.
Talking about removing the lower-order cheaply, Gavaskar said India has been facing this issue since the year 1932.
“Like it has happened since 1932, when India played their first game in England, they had England’s top five out for a low score and the last five added a lot of runs. So that has been the story of Indian cricket.
“I’m only hoping they don’t struggle as much as 1932 or subsequently and they restrict Australia to maybe 350 or thereabouts,” Gavaskar said.
(Quotes from Sony Sports Network)
