Shastri hails India pacemen
RAVI Shastri said India now had its most potent pace attack of all time after a crushing 203run victory over England in the third Test at Trent Bridge.
India’s pacemen took 19 out of 20 England wickets in Nottingham before Ravichandran Ashwin, an off-spinner, ended the match just 10 minutes into Wednesday’s fifth and final day by dismissing No.11 James Anderson.
Because the dry and dusty pitches often found in India traditionally favour spinners, its Test attacks were once dominated by slow bowlers.
But it was a very different story as the pacemen held sway at Trent Bridge, with allrounder Hardik Pandya taking 5/28 in England’s first innings 161 and fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah 5/85 in the host’s second innings 317.
India also has Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav waiting in the wings.
Team coach Shastri, asked if India had its best pace attack of all time, told reporters: “By a mile, by a mile. No (other India) team comes even close.”
Bumrah bowled 26 overs during Tuesday’s play, a feat made all the more remarkable by the fact this was his first competitive match since suffering a thumb injury in a Twenty20 international against Ireland in Dublin on June 27.
“He is different, he is like when (Lasith) Malinga came on the scene or a Mitchell Johnson,” said Shastri of the 24-year-old Bumrah, who only played the first of his four career Test against South Africa in Cape Town in January.
“He has that element of surprise … with that long spell he surprised us as well. Almost 30 overs in that one innings for someone who has not played for a month-and-a-half is commendable.”
India may be the world’s top-ranked Test side but in the past five years it has won just one of its six previous series outside Asia, against a struggling West Indies.
Shastri, the former spinbowling all-rounder and a member of the India side that won 2-1 in England in 1986, has been involved in India’s backroom set-up since 2014, initially as team director. He is adamant the team can be a force abroad.
“In the four years I’ve been doing this job, I think if you look at a clinical performance overseas, I think this has to be the best,” he said.
“When you look at all three departments, they stood up — as a batting unit, as a catching unit and as a bowling unit — so you can’t ask for more.
“The endeavour of this team is to be the best travelling team in the world and I believe they’re almost there. In India, we know what we can do, especially if we play in conditions that suit us. Very few teams will have a sniff.”