India had their entire frontline attack wiped out before the Brisbane decider, but the injury-ravaged tourists still pulled off an epic 2-1 series victory in Australia after a lion-hearted effort by their replacement bowlers.
When India began their Australia tour in November 2020, their bowling shortcomings were at the forefront during the one-day internationals (ODI). With the tour progressing into the long and hard Test series, injuries ravaged Rahane’s men. But at the end of it, India can now boast of having finally created a pace pool that will allow them to rotate the quicks and sustain the kind of performance they pulled off in Australia.
India had their entire frontline attack wiped out before the Brisbane decider, but the injury-ravaged tourists still pulled off an epic 2-1 series victory in Australia after a lion-hearted effort by their replacement bowlers. Playing only his third test, Mohammed Siraj led their pace attack, which included Shardul Thakur and Navdeep Saini, both had played one test each, as well as debutant T. Natarajan.
Net bowlers Washington Sundar and Natarajan were handed test debuts in Brisbane after Mohammed Shami, Umesh Yadav and Jasprit Bumrah had their tour cut short by injuries.
The emergence of the new crop of bowlers augured well, considering the workload ahead which includes a combined nine test matches, home and away, against England. Sundar was particularly impressive picking up important wickets of Steve Smith and David Warner.
To understand the mental strength of the current crop one must look back at the Boxing Day Test in Melbourne where a depleted Indian attack shrugged off an injury to paceman Umesh Yadav to rout Australia’s batsmen and give themselves a platform for a series-levelling victory on day three of the second Test. Ravindra Jadeja, Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj chipped in at crucial stages of the game as a rejuvenated Indian side under Rahane won the game. This after their Adelaide horror-show hence, making this performance even more incredible and probably was the turning point of the series.
(With Reuters inputs)
Source: Read Full Article