India squad for ICC World Cup 2015: The bowling attack is perfectly fine

The only successful Indian bowler on the New Zealand tours has been Mohammed Shami.

As the Indian squad was announced, several eyebrows were raised at the inclusion of three spinners and Stuart Binny. Abhishek Mukherjee dissects the bowling attack.

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With slots for seven bowlers (and an all-rounder) up for the grabs, did India need three spinners (Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Akshar Patel) and Stuart Binny. After all, they already have Suresh Raina and Rohit Sharma, who can send down 12, or even more overs a match, and hurry through the middle overs?

The counter-arguments are the usual ones: Australia supports pace and bounce, and they have bowlers who can exploit the conditions; New Zealand provides movement in the air, and they have bowlers who can exploit the conditions; the pitches will not be very different from the traditional Australia and New Zealand tracks.

How valid are these statements? Let us check India’s pace vs spin contributions in the last two New Zealand tours, to begin with. While the averages match up, the fast bowlers did not have a really good time, conceding 6.59 compared to the 5.40 spinners have.

Indian bowlers in ODIs in New Zealand, last two tours

 

	B	R	W	Ave	SR	Econ
Pace	1,332	1,463	33	44.33	40.4	6.59
Spin	970	873	18	48.50	53.9	5.40
Total	2,302	2,336	51	45.80	45.1	6.09

The only successful Indian bowler on the New Zealand tours has been Mohammed Shami, who has accounted for a third of the wickets at an outstanding strike rate (but has gone for 7.18 an over).

 

	B	R	W	Ave	SR	Econ
Pace	1,332	1,463	33	44.33	40.4	6.59
Mohammed Shami	264	316	11	28.73	24.0	7.18
Other pacers	1,068	1,147	22	52.14	48.5	6.44

Let us move on to Australia, now. While the fast bowlers have been far more effective in terms of average and strike rate, spin has once again been the more economic option.

Indian bowlers in ODIs in Australia, last two tours

 

	B	R	W	Ave	SR	Econ
Pace	2,713	2,363	74	31.93	36.7	5.23
Spin	1,777	1,452	27	53.78	65.8	4.90
Total	4,490	3,815	101	37.77	44.5	5.10

Let us split the pacers further, into medium-paced (Irfan Pathan, Praveen Kumar, Vinay Kumar, Munaf Patel, and, er, Virat Kohli) and “above medium-paced” (Zaheer Khan, Ishant Sharma, S Sreesanth, and Umesh Yadav) bowlers. Once again, while the faster men have struck more frequently, their medium-paced counterparts have been more economic. This is perhaps why it was wise to push in Stuart Binny to back Bhuvneshwar Kumar to join the trio of Ishant, Umesh, and Shami.

Indian pacers in ODIs in Australia, last two tours

 

	B	R	W	Ave	SR	Econ
Medium	1,576	1,349	41	32.90	38.4	5.14
Above medium	903	817	28	29.18	32.3	5.43

 

 

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)

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