Fast, flamboyant and fearless: The 2.0 version of Indian bowling

In the past, when a layman talked about Indian cricket, he would mostly cite examples of Sachin’s, Sehwag’s or Ganguly’s. In the last decade, barring a couple of years or so, the majority recalled Indian matches in quotes like, “Virat’s hundred”, “Dhoni’s fifty”, “Yuvraj’s sixes’” and so on. There rarely was any talk about the blokes with the ball. The Indian bowling as a whole was to the utmost called good, but never it was best, at least in the last 10 or 15 years.

However, in the last two years, the scenario has changed to a larger extent. If nothing, teams and cricket enthusiasts no more call Indian bowling line-up a fragile one now. They no more think Team India can’t defend anything below 270-80 in ODI cricket. There is a belief now that India too can take 10 wickets in limited-overs and 20 in the Test cricket.

But the question is what happened all of sudden that the average Indian bowling turned into a lethal one? Well, the answers are many. The first and foremost is the emergence of some really quick and fit fast-bowlers. Gone are the days now when Indian bowlers would rarely click 140km/h on a consistent basis. In the current set-up, even an Indian all-rounder is able to go past this mark.

Another artifact is the presence of fearless wrist-spinners. There is no denying that India was always a good spin side, however, the spin often didn’t work for them overseas. The finger spinners struggled especially with the white-ball, halting India’s chances when they toured countries like Australia, England and New Zealand.

However, nowadays, the duo of Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, also called by acronym ‘Kul-Cha’ are doing some superb job irrespective of the venue and conditions they play in. They don’t complain of pitches not providing the help as they least need it to do the damage. It’s the fearless approach, the confidence that does the job for them.

With the emergence of Jasprit Bumrah, whose talent and skills can’t be described in a handful of words, Indian cricket is considered as a bowling heavyweight side now. Bumrah says yes even when the job seems equal to impossible. He bowls up front, in between and in the death as well. What more can you expect from a fast-bowler?

Well, the story doesn’t end here as one man can never do the job lonely in a game like cricket. So, apart from Bumrah, there is Bhuvneshwar Kumar. No, he is not that Bhuvi who would just swing the ball on grassy tops. He is a fresh and fabulous version of himself. He now easily crosses the 140km mark and has those variations, which no more require a helpful deck to work.

The last but not the least is the 2.0 Mohammed Shami. He bowls quick, real quick, can swing the ball, gets reverse swing with the old one, can hit the toes of batsmen and on and on.

To support this bunch, Men in Blue have all-rounders who not only can bat through the innings, bowl those 10 overs but they save plenty of runs in the field also. Hardik Pandya, Kedhar Jadhav and now Vijay Shankar as well. All these are not only more than handy bowlers but expert batsmen and as good fielders as well.

This 2.0 version of Indian bowling attack is one of the main reasons that India has done exceedingly well in the ongoing ICC World Cup thus far and are the hot favorites to life the mega trophy.

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