Reports: India likely to rest key bowlers for the limited-overs series against England
Under the new regime of Anil Kumble as the head coach of the Indian cricket team, there has been significant emphasis laid on ensuring that bowlers are looked after well and are not burdened with too many overs under their belt, which would raise their chances of them burning out soon enough, thereby missing out on the action and causing the team a great level of discomfort.
Keeping that point in mind, reports in the Times of India(TOI) have now emerged that the team management could rest certain key bowlers for the ODI leg of India’s series against England, starting next month in order to bring them back fresh for the last bit of India’s long home Test season.
The likes of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Mohammad Shami and Umesh Yadav could be the players, who would be rested for the three-match ODI and three-match T20 series involving the teams, the begins on the 15th of January in Pune.
"During our last tour to England in 2014, Ed Smith remarked that one of the English pacers should've been rested for the third Test. When Atherton asked him `who,' he said that `it doesn't matter. It's about resting one of these guys, because a fresher pacer would've added more value to the team. It was an interesting point, and it's started to happen now. In that series, Varun Aaron was impressive in the last two Tests, because he was he freshest amongst all the Indian pacers. So, this has become reality of our times," Former India batsman Sanjay Manjrekar told TOI on Friday.
This is the second time in the ongoing season that India have decided to opt the approach of resting key players for the limited-overs leg of a series. After playing a key role in the 3-0 Test whitewash of New Zealand, Ashwin, Jadeja and Shami were given a break from the ODI series which India won 3-2.
That series had the likes of Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Axar Patel, Amit Mishra and Jayant Yadav as the key members of the bowling arsenal and if the reports do get confirmed then perhaps we could see a similar bowling attack take the field for the series against England next month.
Post the England series, India are scheduled to play a one-off Test against Bangladesh in Hyderabad and then a four-match Border-Gavaskar Test series against Australia at home.
Here’s a video of the best balls bowled by R Ashwin:
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