India’s fast bowling revolution in Test cricket that started under Virat Kohli produced a crop of quicks they never had in their Test history. The period between 2018 and 2022 saw Indian fast bowlers take 506 wickets at an average of 23.96. Fast bowlers from no other Test team averaged as low as that in this period.

When Jasprit Bumrah made his Test debut in early 2018, Ishant Sharma had already completed a decade as a Test cricketer, Umesh Yadav six years, and Mohammed Shami four. Yet, the arrival of Bumrah flicked a switch in the Indian fast-bowling setup – as if they had found the missing piece of the puzzle that finally made the other pieces have purpose.

Over the next few years, the four Indian quicks combined to wreak havoc on opposition batting lineups in a period when pacers ruled Test cricket more than they had for decades. India had their own bunch, and they ruled the hardest. Along the way, these four found able support from Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur, and even from Hardik Pandya and Bhuvneshwar Kumar to an extent.

Apart from these eight bowlers, there are a few other relatively young fast bowlers as well that India have invested in some capacity or the other in the last couple of years.

Umran Malik, Prasidh Krishna, and Kuldeep Sen have played limited-overs cricket for India. Kartik Tyagi, a star at the 2020 Under-19 World Cup, has been around the Test team as a net bowler.

Arshdeep Singh, who has played just eight first-class matches so far, recently made his County Championship debut and possesses a unique set of skills that might be of interest for the Indian Test team going forward.

This brings us down to 13 fast bowlers aged 27 or below who India can zero in on and groom with an eye for the long-term future. Other names will obviously spring up, either through domestic cricket or the IPL. They can be taken under the wing of this batch as and when they come, but this is a solid base to start with.

Nagwaswalla, Prithviraj, and Arshdeep are left-arm seamers, an extremely rare commodity in today’s Indian Test setup. Avesh, Prasidh, Kuldeep, Tyagi, and Akash can be groomed for their hit-the-deck skills, skills that every Test team requires but India is lacking.

Porel is known for his accuracy, extra bounce, and stamina. Sheth has the potential to be a fast bowling all-rounder much like Thakur. The tall Simarjeet is quick, and has a natural outswinger.

Arora has the big-booming inswinger and recently showed that he can touch 140 kph and hit the bat hard in the IPL, while Umran is the fastest bowler in the country.

All these bowlers possess different skill sets and have either gone through the grind of domestic First Class cricket with good results or have been around the national white ball setup and have shown lots of promise. The most important common factor though, is that all of them are relatively young, with the oldest among them being 27.

Shami, Siraj, Unadkat, and Thakur all have a few years of Test cricket left in them. Bumrah might make sporadic appearances in between, fitness permitting. This makes it the ideal time to start grooming these youngsters with specific visions in mind.

Naturally, not all of them will respond well. Some might drop off due to injury, some due to performance, but a batch size of thirteen is decent enough to start with. If four of them are able to form a quartet as formidable as that of Bumrah, Ishant, Shami, and Umesh in the next few years, the Indian Test team will be in safe hands.