The Indian Express (Delhi Edition)
Flat pitch, no Pandya, no sweat... India’s bowlers still call the shots
Theflatpitchatpuneofferedindia’sgreatest test yet this World Cup. The difficulties increased when they lost Hardik Pandya in the ninth over, twisting his ankle trying to stop a ball off his own bowling, and escalated further as Shardul Thakur bled runs at the start of his spell. Bangladesh were cruising at 110 for 1 in 19-odd overs, and India’s bowling unit were in the hot seat. Remarkably, they restricted Bangladesh to just 256 when at one stage 320 seemed on cards.
There is no doubt that India have the bowlingthatcansparkleinconditionshelpfulforseamandspin. Onequestionmarkthat remained was how they would do on flat tracks; especially the bowlers barring pacer Jasprit Bumrah and left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav.
The pair’s natural skill and variation can help them perform even in such conditions but what about others? With Bangladesh startingwell, thequestionthatisgoingtoalwayshoveruntiltheendofindia’sworldcup popped up: Why Shardul? Why not R Ashwin or Mohammad Shami? How are they now going to cope in the absence of Pandya?
Enterravindrajadeja, India’sbestbowler on flat tracks for a while now in Tests. With his ability to get the ball to skid on even on thesepancakes, Jadejaalwaysputsupafight. It’s when used in the end overs on such pitches, asheistriedattimesint20, doeshe really bleed runs as he starts to fire them on alengthandinthebatsmen’sslot. Butinthis format, heusedhisskill, experience, andnaturaltalenttooutwitbangladeshbatsmenin the middle overs.
Nowtothatmomentinthe20thover. For a brief while before that, Nazmul Hossain Shantohadalreadyshownanalarmingtendency to bat away from his body and pitching himself as an lbw candidate. Usually on the front foot, as he would take a tiny step forwardand then stretchhisupper bodyinexorably to wrist the ball - the bat would come across from an angle with a fairly big bat and pad gap.
Kuldeep had tried but couldn’t squeeze one through to hit the pad.
There were a couple of balls that rolled offtheinnerhalfofthebatbeforejadejafired inaskidder. Perhapsduetothepaceandthe skid, Shanto hurried back but couldn’t get any wood behind the leather. And was trapped lbw.
Jadejawasgenerallybowlingonalength orfulltotheotherwell-setplayerlittondas but a couple of beefy hits in the 24th over would make him change.
Das first walloped a full ball just over Jadeja, who despite the violence in the shot triedtocatch. Nextball, atadslower, wasanother boundary as Das unfurled the sweep shottoperfection. Jadeja’scoursecorrection began; byandlarge, hebegantogettheball to skid from a back of length. Couple of times, Das was beaten and began mistiming on the cut.
Impatient Das
Inthe28thover, didjadejasensethatthe impatient Das was about to rush down the
AP track at him? For he squeezed out the ball between his thumb and fore-finger, and the ballcutaratherlimpidtrajectory, enoughto inducedastototallymistimehisbigshotand hole out to long-off.
This is Jadeja’s blessing and curse. With any other spinner with such an impressive record as he has in Tests, there won’t be any doubtinhighlightingthedismissalasacerebral work from the bowler.
But with him, abetted by himself to an extent as he constantly downplays his arts into binaries of hitting the length and line, andbythewatchers’inabilitytospotspecial artistry, his art goesunscrutinised as well as it should.
It’sablessingashealwaysseemstobowl without the pressure of expectation hovering. It’sacurseasitisn’tappreciatedasmuch. Whateverbethecase, thesqueezedoutball was enough to push Bangladesh into a tailspin.
It wasn’t just Jadeja of course as one by one, theotherstoochimedin. Unsurprisingly, Kuldeep’s wristy tricks had tied down the batsmen, and he was the first one to strike, removing a promising knock from the lefthandedopenertanzidhasan(51). Itwasthe legbreakthatjustaboutstraightenedtobeat the sweep shot and ping the pad in front of the middle stump.
Siraj too went for his go-to scrambledseam ball and it worked on this surface. Mehidy Hasan Miraz's dismissal would be credited to the spectacular leg-side catch from KL Rahul but that ball, even though its radar wasn’t right, did surprise Miraz by the amount it bounced that forced an awkward jab. Bumrah would return in the end to pick uptwowicketswithhismixofslowercutters and yorkers.
Even Shardul, who leaked 16 runs in his first over as Tanzid sliced, whacked, and rushed out at him to wallop two sixes and a four, kept things tidy thereafter to end with figures of 59 for 1 from his 9 overs. But it’s unlikelythatitwillstopthecritics. Butthat’s a story for another day.
The takeaway from this match is how well on a flat pitch, India soaked up the absence of Hardik Pandya to bowl out the opposition for a below-par total.