Former India opening batsman Sunil Gavaskar has praised India’s fast-bowling bench strength the current team possess. India is currently playing the ongoing Test series without the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Ishant Sharma in the side who were ruled out of the Test series after sustaining injuries during the 2020 IPL.
In the followup India had to bear more losses as their leader of the pace bowling attack Mohammed Shami was ruled out after the first test at Adelaide Oval. Shami fractured his bowling arm after coping a short delivery from Mitchell Starc. After Mohammed Shami’s departure, young fast bowler from Hyderabad Mohammed Siraj replaced him in the playing XI.
Other than Siraj, India currently have the likes of Navdeep Saini, Kartik Tyagi, T Natarajan, and Shardul Thakur in the side out of which only Navdeep Saini is a part of the squad whereas others are in the capacity of net bowlers.
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India’s Fast Bowling Bench Strength Is Unbelievable: Sunil Gavaskar
In the wake of another superlative effort with the ball in Melbourne, Sunil Gavaskar praised India’s fast-bowling bench strength. Despite the absence of spearheads like Ishant Sharma and Mohammed Shami, the Indian side didn’t look short of fast bowler as they have the likes of Siraj and Saini to compensate the void. Though India have a bank of fast bowlers, Gavaskar believes its not the same when it comes to the spinners.
“The bench strength for fast bowling is unbelievable. It may not be the same as far as spinners are concerned but when you look at the amount of talent available in the fast bowling department, it’s just mind-boggling,” Gavaskar told 7 Cricket.
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Sunil Gavaskar further pointed out why Mohammed Siraj got a nod ahead of Navdeep Saini in the playing XI. Incidentally, Navdeep Saini didn’t had a good outing in the warm-up games which made the management to go with Mohammed Siraj.
“We’ve got Navdeep Saini who’s pretty quick, bowls around 145 regularly. He’s not playing (in Boxing Day Test) as he did not have god warm-up games, maybe that’s the reason why Siraj got the nod ahead of him. But he’s there, there’s Umesh Yadav, and there are lots of other young fast bowlers who are knocking on the doors,” Sunil Gavaskar said.
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