New bowling bunch eclipses old order

RANCHI :When India’s T20I squad for the Australia series was named, Ashish Nehra’s name created the biggest buzz. The 38-year-old left-arm pacer was the odd man out in a squad where all the other bowlers were at least 10 years younger to him.

And it is not their younger age that has made the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav stand out. It is their consistency that has made them the first choices ahead of senior players.

Be it the pace duo or the wrist spinners, the last few series have given India options. For example, in the Champions Trophy in June, R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja failed to live up to expectations and India had no other options to call upon.

The situation has changed since then. Indian selectors and team management have started looking beyond the tried and tested lot. Wrist spinners have been brought in while young pacers are being given a longer run. In fact, during the ODI series, Md Shami and Umesh Yadav were recalled for one game, and when they proved expensive and India lost, Bumrah and Bhuvi were brought back. Bumrah in his pre-match press conference summed it up pretty well. “We want to improve every time; we keep asking questions to each other. We keep learning from the seniors,” he said. The first T20I again saw the same trend. After Bhuvneshwar had taken David Warner’s wicket in the first over, things looked bright for India. But then Hardik Pandaya started leaking runs while Bumrah could not pick a wicket. In came Chahal and gave India the crucial breakthrough. After Chahal, it was Kuldep Yadav’s turn to grab the limelight as he foxed the dangerous Aaron Finch, bowling him. He removed Moises Henriques too to further cause Australia’s batting downfall.