Our cherry charmers will decide World Cup fate

The 12th ICC World Cup starting on May 30 in the United Kingdom will be tough on bowlers. One need not be a rocket scientist to guess the World Cup in England will be high-scoring. It won’t be surprising if the batting records are rewritten and the first-ever triple century by a batsman is notched up in the 10-team, six-and-a-half week tournament.

It was not for nothing that the England and Wales Cricket Board, hosts of this year’s quadrennial event, has placed an order for printing of scorecards to accommodate 500 runs for distribution to spectators. In that context, it is the bowlers who will make or break the World Cup for their teams.  So flat have the pitches in England become in recent times that scores in excess of 340-350 have been chased down with ease, as was seen by England during their recent bilateral rubber against Pakistan. India will have to be wary of this. But, the encouraging signs for captain Virat Kohli is that his bowlers have proved themselves in all conditions.

The likes of pacers Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, medium-pacer Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya, wrist-spinners Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal, finger spinner Ravindra Jadeja, and the man with the ‘golden arm’ Kedar Jadhav have been around together for quite some time and have done well enough consistently the world over to take India into the World Cup as the number two-ranked team.

Adaptability is the key for bowlers, and the Indians reaching there a good 14 days before their opening encounter against South Africa in Southampton. Another key is that, while they play nine matches in 31 days before the semifinals and final, they have an adequate gap between matches to help them recover.

Having the experience of playing together, and understanding and sharing each other’s success, the Indian bowlers are no novices to international cricket. Head coach Ravi Shastri keeps harping that his current bowlers have accomplished what they have set out to in Tests outside the sub-continent and hence tasted some memorable victories in South Africa and Australia. This team has been made to believe that no condition is alien to them, and plays accordingly. Shastri has inculcated on his boys that every pitch away from home be treated as their home pitch.

It is with this approach that the Indian bowlers will go into the World Cup. In Bumrah, India has one of the fiercest bowlers that cricketing legends praise lavishly, and someone that the opposition teams are wary of. Bumrah is one of the best death bowlers, if not THE best, and has his own way of handling pressure. Shami has hit the right rhythm going into the World Cup and swings the ball well. What he misses on pace, he makes up with the sideways movement. Bhuvneshwar may have lost his nip in recent times but can still be a potent weapon and the English conditions (read weather) should suit his bowling. Wrist-spinners Kuldeep and Chahal will play a crucial role in stemming the rot. Even though they may have been found out by the opponents, they still have tricks that bamboozle the best of batsmen. Like the legendary Sachin Tendulkar told DNA the other day, “For one who is persistent and able to do so day after day, the results start following eventually.”

Under Kohli and Shastri who have no room for anything lethargic in the team, the Indian bowlers are well tuned to do the boring stuff again and again.