Cliff Notes – India’s commitment to wicket-taking will be Gill’s first big test
- India’s bowling strategy has shifted, with concerns over taking 20 wickets efficiently, especially in the absence of a reliable all-rounder.
- Jasprit Bumrah’s limited availability for the series highlights the need for a robust bowling attack, potentially leading to the selection of five bowlers for the first Test.
India’s commitment to wicket-taking will be Gill’s first big test
That wonderful feel of slowly building anticipation for Test cricket is upon us. There has already been the wonderful World Test Championship final, but the week in the lead-up to the start of a five-Test series is something else. The weather is set fair in an unusually dry Leeds, England have started training already at arguably the most intimate and raucous Test venue in the country, the groundstaff are doing their best to retain enough moisture in the surface before they give it a final trim, and India will start training on Wednesday after having played against India A behind closed doors in the outskirts of London last week.
When you dust off the whites for a fresh season, it is inevitable the mind starts tracing back memories of the last season. There has been six months of limited-overs cricket since India last donned the whites, but the memories of the 3-1 series defeat in Australia hardly need refreshing. How they led the series in Perth, how they celebrated saving the follow-on in Brisbane, how they were one collapse away from drawing Melbourne, how Sydneycould have gone either way had Jasprit Bumrah not got injured.
Scratch a little, and you will also remember, for the first time in a long time, looking at an Indian team and not being certain how they planned to go about taking 20 wickets as cheaply as possible. From 2018 onwards, India’s focus had been on taking 20 wickets even if it meant asking the batters to do more. Virat Kohli, the captain then, was clever enough to realise that in effect he was asking himself and the batters to do less because his bowlers were getting the opposition out cheaply.
The leadership team of Rohit Sharma and Rahul Dravid continued with the same philosophy. In fact, Dravid as captain was the first to try to play five bowlers whenever he could. He dropped VVS Laxman once to play the extra bowler. He invested in Irfan Pathan to manufacture that extra threat.
In Australia 2024-25, though, India never played four quick bowlers for the fear of no batting post No. 7. It is tough to know if the composition of the XI would have been different had Shardul Thakur – not a complete tailender at No. 8 – been in good form and not just coming out of a surgery. Still the enduring theme in the series was to guard against a blowout once six wickets were down. Even when India played a fifth bowler, it was Washington Sundar, which is a bob each way, especially in conditions designed to take spinners out of the game.
The comfort of those extra runs derived from the tail is notional unless you can play proper allrounders, which is what R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja become in Asia. Outside Asia and the West Indies, Jadeja and Ashwin had limited utility with the ball. In the absence of that proper allrounder, India kept choosing that notional comfort over depth and penetration in their attack.
Bumrah bowled fewer overs than Pat Cummins in the series, but he sent down a larger share of India’s overs than Cummins did for Australia. That despite practically missing the Sydney Test. Having to keep returning for spells can disrupt the rhythms of exertion and rest. He took 46% of India’s wickets. Need we be reminded of the most telling visual of the series when Australia were piling on third-innings runs in Melbourne, and Bumrah finally told the captain Rohit that he was not able to exert anymore? Now he is going to be smarter about it, and play just the three Tests.
Sai Sudharsan or Abhimanyu? Shardul or Nitish? What combination do India go with?
The Chatter crew discusses India’s likely XI for the first Test against England at Leeds
At that point when Bumrah ran out of “zor”, strength, India and Australia had taken the same number of wickets – 34 – in the first 40 overs of all innings. In fact India had done so at a better average and economy rate. This is where India ran out of bowling, averaging twice per wicket than Australia did with the old ball. Nitish Kumar Reddy bowled just 44 overs in five Tests, unwittingly undoing all the good work he did with the bat.
It is no surprise that India had a win-loss record of 6-7 when they played four quicks and 5-10 when they played three of them in Tests outside Asia and the West Indies from 2018 to 2022.
One of those famous wins was at The Oval in 2021 when India had the extra bowling to stay competitive despite being bowled out for 191 in the first innings and then still had batting depth in Rishabh Pant and Thakur taking India to a huge third innings.
Thakur’s comeback from injury and his form in domestic cricket – 35 Rani Trophy wickets at 22.62 – should give India enough reasons to go back to playing five bowlers at least for the start of the series. The need for the extra bowling has been impressed upon the team management. Especially when Bumrah is available only for three Tests, which offsets to an extent that this is an easier tour: outside Chris Woakes, no fast bowler in England’s squad for Leeds has played more than five Tests. That will be big relief from having to face the Australian attack at home, and should reduce the anxiety around the batting.
However, there is every chance England will look to eliminate Thakur. Like they did at Edgbaston in 2022 to give him match figures of 18-0-113-1. Only if Thakur – provided he does play as the fourth quick at Headingley – is attacked successfully by England will we really know the real extent of India’s commitment to taking 20 wickets as cheaply as possible. Whether he does play four quicks – not including Reddy among them – and how he reacts to any early reverses will be the one true test of Shubman Gill’s captaincy.