INDIA COMPLETE SERIES ROUT
Virat Kohli celebrates with teammates during the third day of the second Test of the two-match series against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Sunday. India beat Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs in the day-night Test to complete series sweep and to record their 12th home series win in a row.
KOLKATA: Lethal. Relentless. Skilful. World class. Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque and coach Russell Domingo have used these words often while describing the Indian fast bowlers in the last couple of weeks. Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami shared 14 wickets in the first Test win at Indore.
Their domination went up several notches in Kolkata. The Indian pacers bowled out Bangladesh in 30.3 overs on Day 1, and on Day 3, it took them just 47 minutes to claim the remaining 4 wickets and wrap up the Test. Bangladesh lasted all of 71.4 overs in the day/night Test.
Umesh Yadav completed a five-for, his third in Tests, as India crushed Bangladesh by an innings and 46 runs. But there were no exuberant celebrations, no screams from the players. All seemed so inevitable. India sweeping the series and the fast bowlers being the architects is no longer rare.
“Everything happens with time,” said Virat Kohli. “They have gained more experience and now they are bowling well together. Now they take ownership of their training, their fitness and everything. Shami was already in the system when I became captain, Ishant had played 4-5 years of Test cricket, Bhuvi was in the system, Umesh also came into Test cricket in 2012; Bumrah is a late addition, but he has blended in very well.”
Sharma, who claimed his first five-wicket haul at home after 12 years on Day 1, was adjudged
Player-of-the-Series (13 wickets in two Tests). Sharma, Yadav and Shami shared 34 of the 39 Bangladesh wickets to fall. They also out-bowled spinners R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja in terms of overs—145.1 to 54.2.
This was the second time in two years when Indian pacers had kept the spinners away from the wickets column for a Test. Sharma (9), Yadav (8) and Shami (2) shared 19 wickets here—the most by Indian pacers at home. Shami and Yadav were in the eleven that took 17 wickets in the Kolkata Test against Sri Lanka in December, 2017.
A lot of the credit is due to the team management for making the fast bowlers feel secure, said Kohli. “The communication is very clear. If someone is going through a workload problem, we don’t tell them ‘it’s upto you’, we take that call for them. We tell them to train and comeback, ‘bowl like this, get 20 wickets’. They feel very secure. Even if they don’t play, we have enough back-up bowlers, so the bench strength is also helping us a lot,” he added.
What separates the Indian fast bowling unit from the rest of the world is their ability to take wickets even on pitches that are less conducive to fast bowling. “I think it’s the skill set. All three of them (Sharma, Shami and Yadav) have a lot of skill and that’s why India have one of the best fast bowling units in the world,” said Mominul Haque.
The foundation was laid much earlier. Even in the last series against South Africa, Shami and Yadav took 10 wickets while three spinners shared the other 10 on a Ranchi pitch that was anything but seamer-friendly. On the same track, South Africa spearhead Kagiso Rabada picked only three and Lungi Ngidi went wicketless.
“When the fast bowlers don’t get wickets in difficult conditions, mine and Ravi (Shastri) bhai’s job is to remind them why they started playing this game, that you can’t let lose when the situation is not in favour. That change of mindset has helped them pick wickets on pitches that the others feel are dead, not just in India. In that Sydney Test, they were pretty effective and lethal,” he said.