India will tour Bangladesh for a one-off Test and three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) starting next week. As Indian bowling attack has struggled in the Test format in recent times, Suraj Choudhari examines India’s Achilles heel and wonders if they have enough ammunition to clinch twenty Bangladeshi wickets in the solitary Test.
India will tour Bangladesh for a one-off Test and three One-Day Internationals (ODIs) starting next week. As Indian bowling attack has struggled in the Test format in recent times, Suraj Choudhari examines India’s Achilles heel and wonders if they have enough ammunition to clinch twenty Bangladeshi wickets in the solitary Test.
Subcontinent pitches are known to assist spin bowlers and with spin being India’s primary weapon; they will bank heavily on the tweakers to pick wickets against the Bangladeshi side, who till recently were termed ‘minnows’ in the world of cricket. India’s pace attack will be led by Ishant Sharma, who despite having been around for eight years doesn’t really inspires a lot of confidence.
Umesh Yadav has shown his potential in the past but can be erratic and inconsistent, whereas Bhuvneshwar Kumar’s effectiveness in not so seam friendly conditions is a question mark. It is unlikely Varun Aaron will get to play. He does have the extra pace but often has lacked direction.
India’s pace attack sans Mohammed Shami and Zaheer Khan lacks zing in docile surfaces and it will be up to the spinners to deliver in conditions that will suit them.
India will most probably play the spin duo of Ravichandran Ashwin and Harbhajan Singh. Harbhajan has made it to the Test squad on the basis of his performance in the Indian Premier League (IPL), where the primary job of a bowler is to contain the batsman. But in Tests, it’s a different kettle of fish; a bowler’s primary job is to take wickets.
His selection was further explained by Sandeep Patil, the chairman of selectors, “The Bangladesh batting order has six left-handers. Keeping that in mind, we discussed with the captain and we felt it was necessary to have a second off-spinner [Ravichandran Ashwin, being the first]. I also want to point out we not only discussed Harbhajan, but we also discussed other youngsters and considered them. Ultimately the selection committee and the captain felt this [Harbhajan] was the right choice for this particular tour.”
Although Patil has a point, Bangladeshi batsmen have played spin well in the recent times and as a matter of fact, the subcontinent batsmen are well equipped to tackle spin effectively.
The last time India picked twenty wickets in a Test match was back in 2014 in the second Test of India’s tour to England at Lord’s and that was also when India’s last Test victory came. Since then, Indian bowlers have had a laborious time overseas.
At home, India outplayed West Indies when they toured India back in November 2013 but in wickets tailor-made for the Indian spinners, the ordinary Caribbean batting line-up fell like ninepins. In the same tour, Indian spinners picked 24 out of a total of 38 West Indian wickets and won the Test series by 2-0 margin.
Bangladesh on the other hand will be bolstered with confidence after a successful run in the recently wrapped up World Cup, where they qualified to the quarter-finals for the first time. Right after that, Bangladesh encrypted their name with gold in the history of cricket, when they whitewashed Pakistan in an ODI series at home for the first time.
Later they added more misery to Pakistan’s run by winning the only Twenty20 International of the tour. Their momentum was on a rise and were gaining confidence with every outing.
The limited-overs tournaments were followed by the Test series, where Bangladeshi batsmen did a remarkable job against the formidable bowling attack of Pakistan. Bangladesh managed to draw the first of the two Tests, while suffered a defeat in the second. Their batsmen played the bowling attack with unmatched confidence and displayed a rare art of temperament and persistence at the crease for most part.
Their batting has succeeded against the spin, which is India’s strength. One wouldn’t expect Bangladesh to be dominated by Indian spin on flat pitches. Though India will count on the experience of Ashwin and Harbhajan, the latter will be under a lot of pressure as he is making a national comeback after more than two years.
Bangladesh had scored a total of 1311 runs in the last four innings in Test series against Pakistan. Though they still went on to lose the series, the numbers are a testament to their consistency at home. Pakistani bowlers picked 34 Bangladeshi wickets out of which their spinners have accounted for 20, which may seem like a high percentage but when spinners do bulk of the bowling; wickets are bound to come at some stage.
It should also be noted that, Pakistan have a better bowling attack than India and they had variety in their spin department in the form of Yasir Shah, Zulfiqar Babar and Mohammed Hafeez. Also not to forget their pace attack, which has been their strength for decades.
Bangladeshi batsmen will be tough nuts to crack in home conditions, and though India holds an upper-hand, the contest at Fatullah is bound to be a much closer contest than it looks.
(Suraj Choudhari, an avid cricket follower who plays the sport at club level, is a staffer with Criclife)
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