Published: May 27, 2017, 08:00 AM (IST)
Edited: May 26, 2017, 11:33 PM (IST)
It’s the morning of the first Test of the summer. There is a sense of expectation in the air. The outfield is freshly mown and the sun is out. The players walk out in their neatly pressed whites, and the mean, angry, slightly baby-faced fast bowler has the brand new ball in his hands. The batters know they are in for a challenging morning, for after all this is England, the home of swing and seam.
Traditionally, swing bowlers have thrived in England. The conditions seem to suit their style of bowling, which means more often than not touring teams pack their squads with fast bowlers, or at least the nibbly, Ravi Bopara-type medium pace all-rounders.
In the first four rounds of this year’s Division One County Championship alone, the fast bowlers have accounted for 337 of the 433 wickets to fall — close to 78% of the wicket tally.
Then again, the longer version of the game is quite different from the One-Day and T20 formats. For one, the red ball swings for a longer duration, keeping the fast bowlers in the contest; and two, pitches for the shorter formats are invariably flat tracks that produce run fests and often reduce the bowlers to bowling machines.
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That being said, the conditions in England usually give the fast bowlers something to work with, even if only for the first few overs. The 2017 Royal London One-Day Cup provides enough evidence in that regard. Of the 900 wickets taken by bowlers across 68 league matches in which at least one innings was completed, 682 were taken by the pace bowlers and only 218 by the spinners.
A look at the Indian men’s squad for the upcoming ICC Champions Trophy and the swing and seam theory holds good: four genuine fast bowling options in Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav, complemented by the all-round skills of Hardik Pandya. If push comes to shove, Virat Kohli and MS Dhoni can also bowl fairly innocuous medium-pace, which means, for all practical purposes, India have seven possible pace-bowling options.
Similarly, for the 2017 Women’s World Cup, South Africa and New Zealand have six fast-bowling options in their squads. England and West Indies have five each, while Australia go into the tournament with four genuine pacers and Elyse Villani and Meg Lanning as their fifth and sixth options.
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In stark contrast to their male counterparts and most of the other women’s teams, the India Women squad for the World Cup beginning on June 24 has only three possible fast-bowling options — Jhulan Goswami, Shikha Pandey and Mansi Joshi. Ekta Bisht, Rajeshwari Gayakwad, Poonam Yadav and Deepti Sharma form a spin quartet, while the part-time options of Harmanpreet Kaur, Mona Meshram and Veda Krishnamurthy are, again, all spinners.
Spin has always been India’s main strength. The famous ‘spin choke’ has played a part in almost every Indian victory all over the world. From the times of Diana Edulji and Shubhangi Kulkarni to Neetu David and Nooshin Al Khadeer to Preeti Dimri and Gouher Sultana and now Bisht and her compatriots.
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The belief that most of the non-subcontinent teams are vulnerable against spin has meant that India has relied on its spinners to wreak havoc even in unhelpful conditions overseas. The theory has often held true, most recently during India’s victory in the Women’s Quadrangular series in South Africa, where Sharma led the bowling charts with 12 wickets.
The Indian spinners, though, have not worked in isolation: they have flourished often thanks to the support of a good pace battery. Take India’s 16-match winning streak for example: while the likes of Bisht, Sharma and Gayakwad bowled some exceptional spells, taking 4- and 5-wicket hauls almost at will, Pandey flew under the radar but finished as India’s highest wicket-taker during that period with 26 wickets.
Even in 2005, when David, Deepa Marathe and Al Khadeer spun India into to the final of the Women’s World Cup with a combined tally of 37 wickets, they did so with the backing of consistent performances from their fast bowling compatriots. Amita Sharma (14 wickets), Goswami (13) and Rumeli Dhar played equally important roles in India’s successful campaign.
While India’s choice to back the spinners even in alien conditions is understandable, they may be going into this mega event short by one seamer. One can argue that the options were almost non-existent with Niranjana Nagarajan having fallen off the radar since the tour of Australia last year and Soni Yadav and Sukanya Parida not having enough exposure at the international level. However, that shows a slight lack of vision and unwillingness to expand the fast-bowling pool.
The first round of this edition of the World Cup is set to be one of the most grueling — 7 matches over three weeks in four different venues. High-intensity games, lots of travelling and not quite enough time to recover. With no back up fast bowler in the squad, India will have to handle their trio carefully. After all, this World Cup is a marathon, not a sprint.
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Two other teams from the subcontinent, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, also have typically spin-dominant bowling attacks. However, they are carrying five pacers each in their squads this time. Like India, they have a couple of pace-bowling all-rounders as well, but unlike their ‘big brother’ they have also called up three genuine quicks to support them.
Goswami, the spearhead of India’s bowling attack, has only just returned to international cricket after having recovered from a shoulder injury that kept her out of the game for a couple of months. She was rested for two games in the Quadrangular series, a clear indication that the management wanted to ease her back into the circuit. Her fitness will be severely tested during the four-week stint in England. As India’s best bowler overseas, the team will be counting on her to deliver on the big stage.
Pandey has been the only regular pace bowler in the starting XI for the last 15 months, while Joshi has rarely been a part of Mithali Raj’s plans since her debut in February this year.
Considering the conditions in England, Raj may have to alter her plans and bring Joshi into the picture. The Haryana pacer is gifted with both speed and the ability to swing the ball, and will, therefore, be the perfect addition to the bowling unit. With Pandey and Goswami expected to provide some impetus with the bat as well, Joshi can help take some pressure off them with the ball.
Goswami and Pandey seem to have settled into good rhythm, while Joshi will be eager for an opportunity to show her worth. The conditions in England will suit all three of them, and while India are clearly keen to play with a spin-heavy attack, the team’s success will depend a great deal on how their fast bowlers perform.
