India's tour of New Zealand – Pride of Indian bowlers at stake

Ishwar Pandey

Just in a few weeks time, team India has to undergo another acid test – in the upcoming 5 match ODIS series against New Zealand. Taking lesson from the recent South Africa tour, this time 7 regular bowlers and an all rounder (Jadeja) have been included in the squad. Ishant Sharma, R. Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Shami Ahmed, Amit Mishra, Ishwar Pandey,Varun Aaron and Stuart Binny have been selected.

But who will lead the possible turnaround for Indian bowlers?

Primarily the onus of the Indian bowling attack will be on the shoulders of Mohammed Shami, supported by Bhuvneshwar, R Ashwin and Ishant Sharma. Amit Mishra is already 31 years old and he has not been able to achieve anything remarkable overseas. Stuart Binny and Varun Aaron are comparatively new and in fact have never really excelled. So the hope lies on Ishwar Pandey. It is pertinent to add that although the New Zealand batsmen are not at par with South Africa, but they have a couple of dashers in Ross Taylor and Brendon McCullum.

Before we move forward, let us analyze the performance of our bowlers on the recent tour of South Africa. In the first ODI, only 4 wickets were taken by the Indian bowlers and out of these, 3 were taken by Shami and one by Virat Kohli. Bhuvneshwar Kumar, R Ashwin, and Jadeja were not able to get even a single breakthrough.

Likewise, in the second ODI, Indian bowlers could get only 5 wickets – out of which Shami repeated his good performance by taking 3 wickets, while Ashwin and Jadeja could share one wicket each.

Among the new entrants, Ishwar Pandey seems to be the most promising. He has played 31 first class matches and has taken 131 wickets with the reasonable average of 24.43. He was the highest wicket taker in Ranji trophy last season, and could prove handful in New Zealand. Conditions will suit him too. Hopefully, he can restore some pride for Indian bowling.

Stuart Binny has played 53 first class matches and has 79 wickets, but being an all rounder this is decent. Also, his contribution with the bat has been reasonably good, with an average of 32.16. So the equation seems to be tilting towards him being a handy all rounder – although we should not expect too much.

Varun Aaron has played in 19 first class matches but has 49 wickets at the average of 33.11. In the only test he has played, he had taken 3 wickets – but the average of 43 is far from satisfactory. Amit Mishra’s record is also not very sparkling – he has played 13 Tests and got 43 wickets at an average of 43.30.

So unless our lead bowlers raise their performance level and rise to the occasion, nothing miraculous is expected. Pandey and Shami will have to work hard and lead the attack – otherwise the situation might get worse.