Ndia’s pace Symphony No. 4
Ia’s pace quartet umrah, Shami, ant and Siraj fill in h other’s blanks unt as a unit
he India pace attack delivered a remarkable turnaround victory at Lord’s but they have on the button since the Test in Nottingham. All main quicks are averaging er 30 in the series so 16.4 for Ishant Sharma, 18.5 asprit Bumrah, 23.45 for ammed Siraj and 29.71 for ammad Shami. dd Shardul Thakur (19.5), a ble support bowler who did emely well in Nottingham it’s clear that India’s pace ry is not lacking for quality e slightest. hat is more interesting, ever, is how this pace attack tions as a unit, how their s, attributes and strengths lap in such a way as to leave almost no weaknesses as a quartet. While no one could individually claim to be the ‘perfect’ fast bowler, collectively, they fill in each other’s blanks. Bumrah is the most clearly, straightforwardly ‘great’ of the Indian quicks. With 95 Test wickets at a bowling average of 22.62, he is firmly on route to legendary status. Bumrah doesn’t particularly swing the ball and finds only the bare minimum of seam movement. Yet underlying numbers, including Cricviz’s Expected Average---which looks at what you’d expect a certain group of deliveries would average based on ball tracking---suggests he’s not lucky to have the record he does.
His unorthodox approach to the crease and action does come with some extreme elements (for instance, his release is the widest on the crease for anyone in the ball-tracking era), but it also brings rewards. His 43% ‘good line and length’ percentage is exceptional, even more so when delivered at his average speed of 139kph.
Bumrah is just extraordinarily good at bowling, and perhaps for the first time in Test history, India have the world’s best fast bowler.
Ishant is the glue that binds the attack. In the Lord’s Test, it was almost comical how much more swing he was getting compared to his colleagues and even the England bowlers. That isn’t a new thing. Since the start of 2018, Ishant has averaged 1.4 degree of swing, more than every seamer in the world barring Jason Holder---and Ishant is almost 10kph quicker than the West Indies pacer. Other bowlers are more skilled in their manipulation of that swing (the overwhelming majority of Ishant’s deliveries swing towards right), but in terms of the sheer scale of movement at a high level of pace, Ishant is unmatched.
Shami’s disparity in bowling average—31.98 in the first innings but 22.78 in the second--gives India an ace up the sleeve as the game moves on. That strength could be pinned on his immaculate control of line— since the start of 2018, 50% of Shami’s deliveries have been in the channel outside off stump, comfortably above average. Add to it his consistent and significant seam movement and you have a bowler who despite bowling short at times is never giving the batsman an inch.
Siraj’s success is slightly harder to pin on a single attribute. At Lord’s specifically, he attacked the stumps far more than any Indian seamer, with 25% of his deliveries ‘hitting’ the stumps.
The next highest figure for any seamer on either side was Sam Curran’s 19%. On a surface that was showing appreciative inconsistent bounce by the end of Day 4, that was significant. More broadly, Siraj doesn’t really move the ball at all, and doesn’t have the pace of Bumrah. His willingness to bowl full, attacking lengths is perhaps his greatest strength.
We should put this in caveat, of course: Lord’s was the first Test where Ishant, Bumtah, Shami and Siraj have played together. Going into the final day---before the heroics of Bumrah and Shami--- India were thought to be lacking batting depth with an out of form middle order.
While that didn’t turn out to be so at Lord’s, there’s a very reasonable argument that these four should not play together very often, given the unbalanced
All right-arm pacers in Tests since 2006; Distance in cm from middle stump; Source: Circviz
XI it creates. It should not be ignored that it took one of the great lower-order performances, followed by a declarationafter-lunch-and-collapse which has been unseen in Tests since 1984, to bring India a win. But
for now, let’s appreciate the quality Ishant, Bumrah, Shami and Siraj offer together. Pace, swing, seam, accuracy, aggression---they have it all. They are, in many ways, the perfect Test bowling attack.