Even though spinners are ruling the roost in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy, the Indian team management is still rotating the fast bowlers.
While the decision has been questioned by the cricket pundits, India bowling coach Paras Mhambrey insisted on Thursday (March 9) that their call will benefit the pacers in the long term.
Notably, Mohammad Shami and Mohammed Siraj featured in the first two Tests. For the third Test, Shami was rested and Umesh Yadav played in his place as the second pacer after Mohammed Siraj, who has been rested as part of the workload management in the ongoing fourth and final Test.
“You have to take a call as you also have to look at the individual workload of each bowlers,” Mhambrey said when asked if pacers’ rhythm gets affected due to this break in game time.
“I think the way we looked at Shami, we needed to give him that break and it was an opportunity for us that someone like Siraj or Umesh also get a game.
“Looking ahead after this series, we have the World Championship (final) and we need to look at that as well. You have to at times, rotate bowlers and it is important for players as well,” he added.
Umesh, who was the best Indian bowler on view during Australia’s first innings in the third Test at Indore, was expensive with the ball on Day 1 of the fourth Test at Ahmedabad as he returned with the figures of 0/58 in 15 overs.
“Ideally, you want a bowler to have two or three games consecutively but in these conditions, it might not happen.
“He (Umesh) looked in great rhythm in Indore in that spell that he bowled and he picked three quick wickets and there are days when you land up don’t getting a rhythm.
“May be that first spell that he bowled (to Travis Head) but later on he put the ball in right areas and was effective for us,” Mhambrey said in his defence.
Opting to bat first, the visitors posted 255/4 on the board at stumps on Day 1 at Narendra Modi Stadium. Opener Usman Khawaja starred with the bat as he stayed unbeaten on 104.
“Looks like a batting track. We expected that having seen the wicket yesterday, unlike other three venues that we played at,” said Mhambrey, before adding that Indian bowlers conceded extra runs in the last 10 overs.
“First session, they batted well,” he stated. “Initially the runs that were leaked and second session was good for us but as the ball got old, run scoring became difficult and the last session became difficult.”
“We conceded 56 in last 10 overs and I thought the game slightly drifted there from us. End of day, if it was 220 for 4, it would have been a good for us. Yes, we gave slightly more runs in last session.”
India skipper Rohit Sharma took the second new ball in the 81st over but it didn’t yield the desired result.
When asked whether India should have delayed taking the second new ball, Mhambrey replied: “New ball came out of the bat better and made scoring runs easier but Rohit must have thought that nothing was happening on that wicket, so at least with spinners, new ball will go through nicely.
“Had we picked up a couple of wickets, we would have been talking differently. That’s fine and that will happen.”
(With PTI Inputs)
