A crew of high-grade fast bowlers storming in, whipping up speed and fear, soiling shirts with dirt and dust, shattering stumps and etching moments have become an integral part of watching Test cricket in India. It’s an experience the crowd flock to watch, like they once used to when the Fab Four waved their magic wands, or when the famed spin quartet weaved magical webs.
It’s a peculiar 21st-century Test match reality in India. Or precisely, a phenomenon that has sprung in the last six years, the coming together of an unreproducible genius bursting forth and the country reaping a rich harvest from its sustained investment and structured attention to nurture fast bowlers for nearly three decades. En route, they have debunked preconceptions and perceptions as well as transformed India into a winning act across geographical boundaries and conditions.
Until the stroke of the century, before India began to produce fast bowlers in crops, spinners and turning tracks spooked touring captains. Seamers were generally afterthoughts. So much so that Sunil Gavaskar and Eknath Solkar once shared the new ball, against England in Chennai. “The formula to beat India at home is simple, just out-bowl the spinners. But it is a difficult task,” former Australia captain Allan Border once said.
The truism remains, but begs to be tweaked. To beat India at home, one has to out-bowl the spinners and seamers. Before batsmen get into the arduous task of defanging Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, and on some days Kuldeep Yadav, they need to un-sting Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami. If they could afford a sigh of relief that Shami is regaining fitness, spears in Mohammad Siraj or Akash Deep. Two generational spinners are still the biggest terminators of overseas batsmen, but the seamers are no less resourceful.
Indian bowler Akash Deep. (FILE photo)
In recent times, they have comfortably out-bowled their overseas counterparts. A raging Bumrah put the ageing and now retired James Anderson to shade. His second-session burst on the second day in Visakhapatnam would find a cult-space of its own for its sheer heart-rate pumping thrill. Ollie Pope was the poster-boy of the horror spell. His middle stump flew left, the leg stump soared right, his bat slumped hapless on the ground, his feet in a different postcode, probably sunk in the Bay of Bengal.
In only nine home Tests, Bumrah has snared 38 wickets at 16.15. Several of those wickets, like the Mushfiqur Rahim scorcher in Chennai, are worthwhile standalone pieces.
Similarly, a rampaging Shami proved unmatchable for Anrich Nortje and Kagiso Rabada; Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood. The injured fast bowler has been as joyous a sight to behold as Bumrah, more classical and artful but as hostile and haranguing. Shami’s home count reads 76 wickets at 22.10 in 21 Tests. Like spinners, he has been deadlier in the third and fourth innings, clocking averages of 17.95 and 18.20 in third and fourth digs, when one least expects a seamer to be the intimidator.
No respite
If Shami is injured, there are Siraj and Akash. Siraj can nip the ball in, with the conventional and the wobble seam, he can shape the ball away too, with an action that seems unsuitable for away-goers. Akash brings Shami-like virtues but without his sharpness. Terrifyingly for batsmen, all of them could run through a side at any stage of the game. All could harness conventional movement with the new ball and the semi-new ball, and reverse-swing and seam with the oldish ball. Bumrah and Shami are masterful at alternating their lengths; all could orchestrate chin, chest and rib-cage music.
Consequently, they have unburdened the spinners too. Long gone are the days when they toiled all day long after probably the first hour of the day. They get adequate breaks to rest their aching fingers. They are unstressed in the conviction that if they endure a bad day, they could rely on their seam colleagues to salvage the day.
They could interchange roles — the seamers could block an end so that the spinners could attack and the other way around. “It’s not like we spinners have to bowl all the overs or take all the wickets. We have very good seamers, who could get wickets on any pitch. So we are more relaxed and fresher. Maybe, that’s why we are more effective,” Jadeja once said.
Chennai: India’s Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja after their win against Bangladesh in the first Test cricket match at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, in Chennai, Sunday, Sept. 22, 2024. India lead the series 1-0. (PTI Photo/R Senthilkumar)
With the well-groomed seamers, India are less pitch-reliant. Whatever be the permutation, be it three spinners and two seamers or three seamers and two spinners, India have the ammo to grab 20 wickets. Only three times in the last 26 Tests have they failed at this. Whatever the nature of the pitch, they have spinners and seamers to take the 22 yards out of the equation. India needn’t fuss about misreading the pitch, or fret when nothing is happening. Dial any one of them, and they would invariably produce game-changing moments.
So, rather than being wary of Bangladesh’s phalanx of young pacers, India rolled out a surface with bounce in Chennai, fully aware that if their adversaries’ stocks can prosper, so could theirs. Unlike in overseas conditions, there is a refreshing directness about their endeavours. There is no extensive setting-up, or elaborate double bluffs. They bound in, bowl fast, at the stumps, move the ball both ways, even though their favoured modes of dismissal are bowled and LBW. Together, they have added a new experience into watching Test cricket in India too. That of a crew of high-grade seamers steaming in.
