“They obviously only have five bowlers, so they can, I guess, be put under pressure if one of their bowlers is not on their day”
South Africa captain Temba Bavuma highlighted India’s five-bowler attack and sensed an opportunity to put the Men in Blue under the pump. So far, since Hardik Pandya was injured in Pune, the attack comprising of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Kuldeep Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja has done a phenomenal job but India are just one off day for any of the bowler away from feeling the heat.
In response to Bavuma’s comments, India coach Rahul Dravid said the Proteas skipper “said the facts” but quickly added that there are quite a few sixth bowler options in the squad. Dravid expects the “wrong-footed, in-swinging menace” to come good with a couple of overs if the need arises. He also informed that there are options of Suryakumar Yadav and Rohit Sharma to roll their arm over.
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“He (Bavuma) just said the facts. The fact is that we will not be in a position to have a proper sixth option. We do have the option to call upon our wrong-footed, in-swinging menace [Virat Kohli]. And with the crowd behind him, I’d back him for a couple of overs there in a few wickets. The crowd was demanding his bowling in the last game. We came very close to giving him an over. And then we’ve got Surya who can turn his arm over a little bit. And then Rohit’s bowled a bit as well,” says Dravid.
Dravid has backed his five specialist bowlers to come good in absence of Hardik Pandya and asserted that last four World Cup games have been without a sixth option. The former India skipper adds that the two games in the Australia series, before World Cup, were also played with only five options.
“So, look, yeah, you’re right. I mean, obviously, the sixth option is something that Hardik gave us. But you’re right as well that we have been playing the last four games without the sixth bowling option. We also played a couple of games in the Australia series before the World Cup without the sixth option. We won two of our games, both in Mohali and in Indore, when we played only with five bowling options in those games as well,” explains Dravid.
It’s clearly not an ideal position to be in but Dravid feels the team has responded well to the challenge in the “enough games” they have played without sixth bowling option.
“So, we have responded really well to that challenge. Yes, of course, we probably won’t have that sixth bowling option in these games. But the response of the team and the players has been really good when we have not had it. So, I think we have played enough games without having it. And we seem to have done pretty well,” says Dravid.
The race for sixth bowler in the nets
Ever since Hardik has been out injured, the batters have regularly bowled in the nets and leading the show is Kohli. The star batter not only bowls in the nets but spends considerable amount of time rolling his arm over during his pre-match routine too. The open nets session in Pune also saw Rohit Sharma bowl for a bit.
And in Kolkata, it was Shubman Gill’s turn to make an impression to the management with the ball. After another long batting hit, Gill was bowling in one of the nets. The opener is no stranger to bowling as he has done that during his age-group days and recently did that in a domestic game for Punjab too.
As of now, it seems Kohli is the clear favourite to be the sixth bowling option and Dravid revealed the crowd favourite was close to getting an over in the last game too.
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