India’s pace battery storms into history
LANDMARK Finished 2019 with the best average by a pace pack in a calendar year in Test history
NEWDELHI/LONDON: Holding, Garner, Marshall and Walsh, or Bumrah, Sharma, Yadav and Shami?
India’s fast bowlers, who have rapidly changed the rules of engagement between their teams and others at home or away, bounced to a new high in 2019 by collectively averaging an astonishing 15.16 runs per wicket in eight Tests this calendar year— the lowest in the 142-year history of Test cricket.
Among teams that played at least eight Tests in a calendar year, England’s fast bowlers in 1912 (led by Frank Foster, Sydney Barnes and Johnny Douglas, and in nine Tests) were pushed to second (16.74). Australia’s pace force of 2000 (Glenn McGrath, Damien Fleming, Brett Lee, Jason Gillespie, Andy Bichel and Steve Waugh and a few batsmen who bowled seam-up for fun) averaged 17.35, in a year when they won all eight Tests during a world record 16 wins in a row.
The West Indies pace sextet of 1986 (Michael Holding, Malcolm Marshall, Joel Garner, Courtney Walsh, Patrick Patterson and Anthony Gray — Richie Richardson bowled one over of seam) is fourth in the list. An attack that gave batsmen sleepless nights in that era averaged 19.02 that year with West Indies winning six of their eight Tests, including a 5-0 rout of England.
India’s pace pack has been a subject of hot discussion in world cricket in the last two years, and it has got better and better over the period. In India’s 22 Tests since the start of 2018, they have bowled out teams twice in a game 19 times. Pacemen have accounted for 68.15% of the wickets (274 of 402 wickets).
This year, the leader of the Indian quartet, Jasprit Bumrah, missing five home Tests due to back injury didn’t seem to matter as Mohammed Shami, Ishant Sharma and Umesh Yadav were relentless even without him on pitches that were far from seamfriendly. The three shared 19 wickets Indian bowlers took in Kolkata in the pink-ball Test against Bangladesh last week— the first time the spinners didn’t take any in a home match that saw a result. In all, the Indian pacemen took 95 wickets between them in 2019—Bumrah 14 at 13.14, Sharma 25 at 15.56, Shami 33 at 16.67 and Yadav 23 at 13.65.
Ravi Shastri explained their rise and rise. “We’re bowling as a unit and you feel proud sitting outside and seeing them at work in such a professional manner. It has taken time. In the last 15 months they played a lot of cricket overseas and that’s how they learnt,” the India coach said.
The World No 1 team is now way ahead atop the World Test Championship table after extending their world record for consecutive series wins at home to 12. The seventh Test win in a row is also India’s best, with the Kolkata Test wrapped up in 161.2 overs making it the shortest finished game in India.
R Ashwin, the go-to bowler at home, this time enjoyed the show from the best seat in the house. “Sometimes you feel every spell they bowl something is happening or they make it happen. It’s one of the most lethal pace attacks going around in the world, if not the best,” he said in Indore.
Sharma’s first five-for at home in 12 years set the tone for India’s innings and 46-run win in Kolkata—their fourth in a row—and his nine-wicket match haul got him the man-of-the-series award. Shami’s third career five-wicket innings haul in the Bangladesh second innings ensured the pacers took 34 of the 39 wickets that fell to pace in the series.
Bumrah featured in only three Tests this year, but helped sign off with a draw in the Sydney Test to seal India’s first-ever series win in Australia. He then claimed 13 wickets in two Tests in West Indies — including a career-best 6/27 in the second Test at Kingston — as India won 2-0.
India’s seamers this year have, on average, been the second fastest bowling attack in the world— after Australia—underscoring the ferocity that was absent from earlier iterations. The pace is backed up by skill; only West Indies have swung the ball more than India this year.
West Indies coach Phil Simmons, 56, the former all-rounder has seen from close the wrecking ball that Caribbean fast bowling once was. On Tuesday, ahead of the one-off Test against Afghanistan in Lucknow, he pointed out how far Indian pace bowling has come. “I can’t say how long ago, but when I first came here, you would have Madan Lal opening the bowling. Now you have guys bowling at 90mph, and your premier fast bowler (Bumrah) was injured. It’s exciting for world cricket,” he said.
Former India pacer Ashish Nehra put things in perspective. “I don’t think we should go only by numbers or averages. Also, I am not a fan of comparing different eras. But the good thing is we now have a battery of quality fast bowlers. You recently saw that even though Bumrah was injured, Umesh stepped in and took wickets. The main reason for the increase in the number of good fast bowlers in recent years is the exposure through IPL, plenty of India ‘A’ and Emerging teams tours.”