ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Wahab Riaz’s bowling spell against Australia cannot be replicated by Indian bowlers, says Joe Dawes

The lethal spell of bowling by Pakistan pacer Wahab Riaz against Australia at Adelaide Oval in the quarter-final of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015 has been one of the highlights of the tournament. Wahab’s spell was one of the best in the history of One-Day International (ODI) cricket and it was unfortunate that it came in a losing cause. The Australians who faced Wahab’s wrath in the quarter-final, will now face India in the semi-final at Sydney Cricket Ground (SCG).

Former Indian bowling coach Joe Dawes doubts on whether the Indian bowlers can produce Riaz’s dream spell against the mighty Australians in the semi-finals. It was well observed that the Australian batting line-up was exposed to a great extent in that game and India would have certainly made a note of that.

The Indian pace trio of Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami and Mohit Sharma, have performed significantly well in the ongoing tournament, but according to Dawes the attack still lacks the sting of Wahab.

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“Umesh has definitely got the pace to do it, but he’s not an overly tall man so that sort of changes the trajectory and the bounce,” Dawes said in a report from IANS.

Dawes feels that although Duncan Fletcher is a smart coach, his team lacks a left-arm pacer. “Fletch (Fletcher) is a pretty astute coach. He’ll look to try and bring that in somewhere and give it a whirl. But the left-hander is a big advantage and that’s where the Indians don’t have anyone with real pace, or any left-hand bowlers here at the moment,” concluded Dawes, who was India’s bowling from February 2012 and October 2014.