Kolkata: Many will agree that India’s bowling has never looked so good as now. Death bowling, forever a weakness, has all of a sudden turned into the team’s biggest strength and they have eked out wins against quality opposition from near impossible situations in the recent past.
With an experience of decade and-a-half and having coached many of the current crop at the Under-19 level, Arun had a natural advantage with Bhuvaneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami, Umesh Yadav and the lot. As he says: “It is really good to have variety and potency in your attack and that’s what we have now.”
Can this attack pick up 20 wickets in overseas conditions, starting with the demanding tour of South Africa? While there is no immediate answer to this question, Arun says: “There is no debate we have the potential. We have pace and seam movement, swing and spin. No reason for us to be overawed any more.”
While visiting the Fanattic Sports Museum on the eve of Kolkata Test with head coach Ravi Shastri, Arun opened up on his unit and analysed the strength of each of his bowlers. Excerpts from the conversation:
Question: There is little doubt the bowling unit looks very strong at the moment and you deserve credit for it. What are your thoughts on the overall strength of the unit before I go on to ask you about the four men who are making a real difference to this team’s bowling?
Bharat Arun: Thanks for your words. What we now have in this unit is all-round ability. We have pace and most of our fast bowlers are touching 140 kmph regularly.
We have swing, both conventional and reverse. We have quality seam movement and finally we have quality spin. If you have an attack with such variety, it is only natural you will do well consistently.
If we can replicate what we have achieved in the last few months in South Africa, England and Australia, we can easily claim to be the very best in the world.
You have won matches from near-impossible situations recently and mostly because of the bowling. Let’s start with someone who is not a part of the Test team yet but is perhaps the best bowler in the world at the moment in the 50 overs format: Jasprit Bumrah.
He has been terrific since the time he has broken into the team. What you get in Jasprit is amazing consistency. He will bowl yorkers with real pace and accuracy towards the end of an innings and as you said, is extremely difficult to get away. If you have noticed, he has a real good temperament. Whatever the situation, he doesn’t get flustered and just does his job. That’s the hallmark of a really good bowler and both against New Zealand and Australia, he has been exceptional at the death. He has checked the run flow and most importantly, picked up wickets in real crunch situations and that’s a huge plus for any team.
Bhuvaneshwar Kumar — Will you agree that ‘Bhuvi’ is one of the most improved bowlers in the last one year. He has added pace, has perfected the slower ball and the yorker and is now almost a complete package.
Yes, he has really improved a lot but I think he can do more. He has the potential and the skill. He will be of real importance to us in places like England where the balls seams. If Jimmy Anderson can do it time and again, so can ‘Bhuvi.’ His slower ball is very well concealed and with the IPL, he has improved hugely as a death bowler. Coming from David Warner, it was a big statement that Bhuvi and Bumrah are the best death bowling pair in the business at the moment.
Umesh Yadav — What stands out for me is his ability to reverse. Will you agree?
Oh totally. If the ball is reversing, Umesh is one of the best exponents of the art at the moment and he does so with real place — making it very difficult for batsmen to negotiate. If you see his run-up, he has a very relaxed pace running up to the wicket but you know what in the last few steps, he gains momentum and then does great things with the ball. He has pace and swing and can also bowl the short ball. In South Africa, Umesh will have a huge role to play. To repeat myself, each of the bowlers complement each other and that’s what makes this a real good unit.
Finally, Mohammad Shami. Someone with real skills but injuries remain a concern.
That’s a concern with fast bowlers around the world, isn’t it? Australia are missing the services of James Pattinson for a while now, while Steyn was injured for a while. You have to arrange their workload and also challenge them once in a while. But make no mistake, Shami is a real asset to this team. His seam position and skill is top drawer and if we can manage him well, he will have a huge role to play in the next 14 months.
— The writer is a sports journalist and scholar based in Kolkata.
