India vs Australia: Loss to Australia lays bare India's shallow bank of quality bowlers

Ishant Sharma

There was no pace in the pitch of Pune. Nothing much for the bowlers in terms of swing either. India has got a strong dependable batting line. These were the few observations made by Harsha Bhogle during the match preview. Shane Warne did insist that Australia is a good side, with many aggressive youngsters. Kapil Dev had opined that India would have a definite advantage playing on a familiar pitch in Pune.

Everything was rather favorable for the Indian side – many of the Australian players did not have the exposure to Indian weather conditions either. Also, all experts agreed that Indian team is good in chasing targets. Incidentally, out of the last 10 matches in which they batted second, India had won 9.

But our young bowlers did not deliver according to their skills. They could not fulfill the expectations which millions of fans had. Everyone had put high hopes on young and vibrant Bhuvneshwar Kumar – my personal favorite. But he did not have a great day. He quickly needs to learn one vital point that when he is not able to get a wicket, there is absolutely no urgency to bowl short balls. Also, being a lead bowler, he will have to learn to make good use of his swing, even on non-responsive pitches like Pune. Gradually, with passage of time and pertinent exposure, he will sharpen his skills and learn to stay contented.

Ravichandran Ashwin, unfortunately, has not been able to do much with the ball recently. At times, he appears to become complacent. Today, although he got two wickets, but we expect much more from him. He needs to be more consistent.

Apparently, Ishant Sharma has been losing focus. Kapil Dev, while commenting on Ishant’s bowling today, made a perfect comment. He said that even after being given so many chances spanning across 8 years’ time, his level of bowling is not impressive and much effective. Thus, Ishant’s selection clearly becomes questionable.  He is just getting advantage of the fact that there is no suitable replacement.

Vinay Kumar has never been an international class bowler. It is fairly easy for the opposition batsmen to smash him in any manner they want. However, Sir Jadeja has again displayed his utility and shown as to why he is world number one. Off late, he is becoming indispensable. Yuvraj also struck on time and got two of the important wickets. But Vinay Kumar, R Ashwin, Ishant Sharma proved to be inconsistent, yet again.

Now let us move to our batting. I had read somewhere that form is temporary but class is permanent. This is what I intend to highlight as a visible difference between the batting of Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan. I understand that many of my friends might not agree, but despite doing fairly well during the last year, Shikhar Dhawan does not seem to be up to the mark. Almost all his centuries have come after dropped catches. He is not a long term solution for India. Rohit Sharma and Suresh Raina played decent innings, helping India build the chase. Unfortunately Yuvraj got out early today, but I honestly think he deserves more chances. But again, on a flat pitch like Pune, had team India shown a bit of more consistency, the end result would have been different.

Despite the best efforts put in by Kohli and Rohit, India lost by a huge margin of 72 runs. The target of 305 proved to be too difficult.

I personally think that Amit Mishra and Shami Ahmed should play instead of Vinay Kumar and Ishant Sharma. These changes might improve the strength of the Indian attack in the remaining matches.

Before the upcoming series against West Indies followed by the South African contest, team India desperately needs to show its mettle. With the kind of average performances by the prime Indian bowlers, there is an immediate need to improve and remain consistent. There seems to be no dearth of talent but the only need is to streamline the performance. The contest against Australia in the remaining ODIs is definitely going to be interesting and intense. Good luck to team India.