At the end of the recently concluded Duleep Trophy in Bengaluru when the selectors and a few support staff had a casual chit chat, there was one question that led to a long pause from everyone. “What was the best spell of fast bowling that we saw over three weeks?” The silence said a lot about the state of India’s fast bowling reserves. As the new season of the Ranji Trophy gets underway on Wednesday, top of the national selectors wish-list remains the need to identify a pool of fast bowlers, who can withstand the rigours of red-ball cricket.
“There is a lack of a genuine third seamer in India Test team,” says former India pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji. “In the previous decade, you had many talents coming through the system, but in the last five years, we have not had a single red-ball bowler who has come through, after Mohammed Siraj,” Balaji, who has been coaching at the domestic circuit in the recent years, tells The Indian Express.
In India’s last away tours in Australia and England, the most worrying facet was the performance of the fast bowlers beyond Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Siraj. While the likes of Prasidh Krishna, Akash Deep, Harshit Rana have been around for a while, that none has made a compelling case to be the designated third seamer has only added to the head-ache. When Shardul Thakur was picked for the tour of England, it wasn’t an unanimous choice among the selectors as at least a couple believed it is a step backwards. That selection was a reflection of the pool that was made available to the selectors, who believe the next couple of Ranji seasons are vital in terms of improving the resources.
Beyond the pack there is Arshdeep Singh who hasn’t been able to transition from white-ball to Test cricket. And beyond him, there isn’t much of a hope with the Duleep Trophy being the case in point.
Balaji points out the domestic drought. “There is a definite dip in the resources starting from the Under-19 levels. Even at India A levels, we don’t have any young pacer knocking on the doors,” he says. “There is a definite dearth of fast bowling talent with regards to red-ball.”
Over the past decade, each of the Under-19 World Cups have thrown about exciting pace prospects. From Avesh Khan to Khaleel Ahmed in 2016, the quartet of Arshdeep, Shivam Mavi, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Ishan Porel in 2018, Kartik Tyagi and Akash Singh in 2020. But none have managed to graduate to the next level. Those from the 2022 and 2024 batch have struggled to even get into the IPL XII paints a grim picture. In India A’s recent tour of England, the youngest pacer in the ranks was Harshit Rana at 23. For the A series against Australia that concluded a fortnight ago, none of the pacers in India A ranks were below 25, with Gurnoor Brar being the youngest at 25.
While the BCCI has introduced a targeted fast bowlers pool with central contracts to the best performers in the domestic circuit, it hasn’t been able to find a steady supply chain. Balaji believes the time is perhaps right to introduce the 6mm grass rule that was effective in Ranji Trophy in the early part of the previous decade.
“It has its own disadvantages as it takes the spinners out of the equation and the batsmen tend to struggle. But, you will at least get some pacers coming through. It was the phase where the likes of Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj all came through. You had enough options, because the pitches were conducive. To get a core of fast bowlers, the entire ecosystem has to work together,” Balaji notes.
What the grass rule also did was it made teams go looking for spinners who can bat. And rooted to India’s Test dominance in the past decade were their spin-bowling all-rounders, a tribe that the current management also prefers over specialists. Even among those next in line among spinners, R Sai Kishore, Manav Suthar, Harsh Dubey all happen to all-rounders who can be counted as batsmen. “It also ensured most teams played three seamers, which in turn was providing a bigger pool. At the moment, it is still the likes of Jaydev Unadkat, Mohammad Shami who keep the red-ball tradition going in domestic,” Balaji says.
The IPL, in particular, over the last couple of seasons has seen some exciting pace prospects coming through in Umran Malik, Mayank Yadav, Yash Dayal, but none of them have been able to make a mark in red-ball. For the England tour, when Arshdeep picked up an injury, Anshul Kamboj – tipped as a bright red-ball prospect – was handed a debut, but only for the Haryana seamer to barely touch 130kmph. Kamboj’s performance was attributed to the long season he had, where he didn’t have a break which in turn resulted in the speed gun making for a sorry reading.
“We need to look after the fast bowlers. From the pitches to scheduling, you need to have everything that supports them. We play Ranji cricket till March and then we have only white-ball games till the next season begins with red-ball cricket. Now we have white-ball cricket sandwiched in between Ranji, so managing the body won’t be easy. There has to be a proper injury management system in tune with the scheduling. If your pacer doesn’t have enough overs behind his leg, then ultimately he will struggle in the long format.
“We are now in a place where we are picking white-ball talents and putting them in red-ball, when the ideal scenario is the opposite. Siraj started with red-ball and then to white,” says Balaji.
When the 91st edition of the Ranji Trophy gets underway, finding another Siraj would be Indian cricket’s main target.
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