11 days into the World Cup tournament with India playing 2 games, one against Bangladesh and the other against England. The statistics say that Indian bowlers had nothing much to be proud of in these two games. Even Bangladesh (with due respect to it) went on to score 283 runs (and not to forget England’s 338) against India, which is supposedly the favourite team of the cricket pandits. There appears a loophole in the Indian bowling attack, which if not catered to can prove to be very harmful. At this moment there is one person whose presence would have certainly made a difference and that is Praveen Kumar.
We all know what this bowler is capable of. Despite having a disadvantage of being on the slower side in terms of pace he has the ability of swinging the ball both ways. Not only this but also the line and length backs his bowling always and contains the flow of runs in almost all the situations. Many a times we have seen batsmen succumbing to the irritation that he generates by continuously bowling wicket to wicket thereby hindering the batsmen from scoring runs freely.
In this world cup there is no doubt that India has one of the strongest batting line- ups but do we have the bowling to win us matches?
I might sound a tad harsh but the bowlers with their performances in the last matches have not given us reason to think otherwise.
Despite the fact that the pitches don’t offer much to the bowlers, there is no ratification for them to rely on the batsmen to get the runs all the time.
If a Tim Bresnan can take a 5-wicket haul on the same pitch then why can’t our bowlers replicate the same thing? Where Kemar Roach and Lasith Malinga are taking hattricks on almost the same tracks, the Indian bowlers are not doing anything extraordinary.
Zaheer khan and Munaf Patel both seemed helpless with the new ball against England in their last encounter. It was only later on in the innings that dual blow by the left-arm speedster proved to be of some help but that also only for sometime (because England still managed to draw the game). Talking about the spinners then we actually have nothing much to talk about. When in the warm-up matches the spinners ended up taking the maximum wickets, in the actual tournament they have been unable to do any magic with their wrists and fingers.
I think with a comparatively short run up and an accurate wicket-to-wicket bowling capability, (with swing as icing on the cake) Praveen Kumar would have turned out to be a good weapon in our armory of (cricket playing) soldiers. He could have certainly struck a balance in our bowling department. He is a street-smart bowler who is always aware of everything that goes around him on the field. Even the captain and the coach want him to be there. With his aggression and great presence of mind he does things, which every bowler cannot do. He is pretty handy with the bat as well, which also gives the team an additional advantage.
I personally think that he will certainly be missed in this World Cup.
We all know what this bowler is capable of. Despite having a disadvantage of being on the slower side in terms of pace he has the ability of swinging the ball both ways. Not only this but also the line and length backs his bowling always and contains the flow of runs in almost all the situations. Many a times we have seen batsmen succumbing to the irritation that he generates by continuously bowling wicket to wicket thereby hindering the batsmen from scoring runs freely.
In this world cup there is no doubt that India has one of the strongest batting line- ups but do we have the bowling to win us matches?
I might sound a tad harsh but the bowlers with their performances in the last matches have not given us reason to think otherwise.
Despite the fact that the pitches don’t offer much to the bowlers, there is no ratification for them to rely on the batsmen to get the runs all the time.
If a Tim Bresnan can take a 5-wicket haul on the same pitch then why can’t our bowlers replicate the same thing? Where Kemar Roach and Lasith Malinga are taking hattricks on almost the same tracks, the Indian bowlers are not doing anything extraordinary.
Zaheer khan and Munaf Patel both seemed helpless with the new ball against England in their last encounter. It was only later on in the innings that dual blow by the left-arm speedster proved to be of some help but that also only for sometime (because England still managed to draw the game). Talking about the spinners then we actually have nothing much to talk about. When in the warm-up matches the spinners ended up taking the maximum wickets, in the actual tournament they have been unable to do any magic with their wrists and fingers.
I think with a comparatively short run up and an accurate wicket-to-wicket bowling capability, (with swing as icing on the cake) Praveen Kumar would have turned out to be a good weapon in our armory of (cricket playing) soldiers. He could have certainly struck a balance in our bowling department. He is a street-smart bowler who is always aware of everything that goes around him on the field. Even the captain and the coach want him to be there. With his aggression and great presence of mind he does things, which every bowler cannot do. He is pretty handy with the bat as well, which also gives the team an additional advantage.
I personally think that he will certainly be missed in this World Cup.
