England have lost five fast bowlers — Stuart Broad, Mark Wood, Jofra Archer, Chris Woakes and Olly Stone — to injury, with Ben Stokes’ mental health break making their Test side tougher to balance on paper. Here, we look at what India’s bowling attack could look like if they had similar woes on this tour.
India flaunted the depth of their squad at the Gabba earlier this year when they shocked an Australian side in their fortress with their first-choice bowling attack absent. England are in a similar quandary right now with five quicks, at least three of whom would walk into their Test XI at home, unavailable.
To consider India in a position similar to that of England, they would need to lose Mohammed Shami (for Archer), Mohammed Siraj (for Wood), Ishant Sharma (for Broad), Shardul Thakur (for Woakes) and Ravindra Jadeja (for Stokes). It’s not a perfect like-for-like, and with Olly Stone some way down the pecking order in English conditions, it’s hard to figure out who he matches up with, so he’s ignored here.
How will the India bowling attack look, then, if faced with the prospect of facing the absences of this England side in one of the Tests this series?
Jasprit Bumrah
Jasprit Bumrah, James Anderson’s equivalent in that he is India’s attack leader in the Test side, remains in the side and leads a second-string bowling attack. With three of his trusted bowling allies absent in the fast bowling pack, the onus will be on Bumrah to not just create breakthroughs, but also be the bowling leader.
Ravichandran Ashwin
Ashwin, who is yet to play a Test in the series, will surely get a look in with Jadeja out of contention and the bowling attack light on experience. Given that none of the quicks coming in are good enough to bat in the top seven, Ashwin will also be burdened with additional batting responsibilities – a move up to No.7, where he has batted just 11 times out side India appears very likely. India will also be encouraged by the fact that Ashwin averages 48.7 when batting at No.7 or higher in Test matches away from home. There’s no questioning his bowling credentials. The only reason he missed out in the first two Tests is owing to team combinations.
Umesh Yadav
Umesh Yadav is pretty unlucky to not be a constant part of India’s Test XI. The fast bowler has 49 wickets in 12 Tests since 2018, averaging 19.7 with the ball, numbers that speak volumes about the kind of fast bowler he is. With forced changes to the XI, Umesh will walk in and partner Bumrah with the new ball in this line-up.
Prasidh Krishna
A reserve bowler on this tour, Prasidh Krishna will be asked to step into the XI despite his very limited first-class experience. Having played just nine first-class games despite making his debut in 2015, Prasidh will have his task cut out, but as skipper Virat Kohli, and several others have stated, Prasidh is an exciting prospect and this could just be the chance for him to showcase his skillset in front of a global audience.
Arzan Nagwaswalla
Gujarat’s Arzan Nagwaswalla is just three seasons into his first-class career, but has already shown loads of promise without being express quick. The left-arm seamer has 62 first-class wickets at an average of 22.53 and a strike-rate of 44.6 despite not being the new ball bowler. While inexperienced, Nagwaswalla has the raw materials in place to be an Indian Test quick in the near future and this should be an opportunity he would relish taking up.
