India’s current pace battery comprising of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar is considered as “one of the most lethal” in the world cricket.
The fearsome pace attack has been instrumental in the dominance of the Indian cricket team especially in Test cricket over the past few years both at home and overseas conditions.
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The bowling attack has drawn praise from a lot of cricketing greats and now the former Indian paceman Venkatesh Prasad has also showered rich praise on India’s pace battery under Virat Kohli, saying they are amazing and talented while rating the current attack as one of the best in the world.
Prasad told Times of India, “The present set of fast bowling is one of the best in the world. With (Jasprit) Bumrah, Mohammad Shami, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Ishant Sharma, and a couple of other guys as well. The current Indian bowling attack under Virat is amazing, talented, and best in the world.”
He further added, “Zaheer Khan was the one guy who was extremely successful. But he didn’t have good partners. They came and went. Ashish Nehra was there for some time, Ajit Agarkar continued for a while, then there was RP Singh who came in, Praveen Kumar was there.”
In the 1990s and 2000s, there was a burst of left-arm seamers playing for India, but the current attack does not such talent presently and former pacer warned against the temptation of bringing in a left-armer just to have that variation in the bowling attack, as they have already tried Khaleel Ahmed and Jaydev Unadkat in the last couple of years but they could not make a big impact.
Prasad further explained, “Look, just because you want to have a variation in fast bowling doesn’t mean that you bring in some left-arm seamer. They have to be good in their skills and in executing their skills, like Zaheer Khan, RP Singh, and Ashish Nehra. If you don’t have, means you don’t have.”
He signed off by saying, “If you have got somebody, for example, Khaleel Ahmed, because he’s a left-armer, you’ve got to encourage a youngster like him, of course; but just to have a variation in your bowling attack doesn’t mean that you bring in a left-arm pacer even if the skill is not up to the international standard. So those are the things one has to keep in mind.”
(With TOI Inputs)
