India’s miraculous win over Australia at Jaipur overshadowed a major weakness in the Indian team, that of their constantly poor resources in the bowling tank. India cannot ignore this aspect because chases like the one pulled off at Jaipur won’t happen every day. There is no secret about the fact that batting is India’s stronger suit, but they cannot ignore the bowling to the extent that India have to chase down 350 plus scores every time they bat second, or conversely have to put up 350 on the board batting first to secure victory.
The biggest worry for India in the bowling department is definitely the performance, or the lack of it, of Ishant Sharma. When Zaheer Khan was shown the door in ODIs citing the need for younger blood to be drawn in, Sharma automatically became the pace spearhead. He didn’t have a huge amount of experience in one-dayers, but had played close to 50 one-day games, which means he had reasonable expertise. Also, he had been playing Tests for nearly half a decade so he was no stranger to the big stage. Somehow, Sharma hasn’t been able to get his act together in any of the formats of the game.
When India went into this series with Sharma as the leader of the bowling attack, there were question marks as to whether he has it in him to be the leader of the pack. He hadn’t done anything in the preceding games to earn the title of India’s pace spearhead. In fact, his struggles only made people raise queries as to why he was still in the team. Three matches into the Australia series, and Indian cricket’s worst fears related to their bowling have come true. Sharma figures are as follows – 0/52 (T20), 1/56 and 0/70. The stats are self-explanatory.
The most shocking aspect of Sharma’s performance, particularly in the ongoing series against Australia, has been that he refuses to learn from his mistakes. Time and again, it has been mentioned that length balls will only disappear into the stands in the slog overs. Yet, Sharma comes in and bowls one length ball after the other, and, not surprisingly, gets thwacked. It is evidently clear that Sharma doesn’t have any degree of control over the fuller-length deliveries. Among the few ones he has tried in the series, most have ended up being full-tosses.
In spite of all the criticism, Sharma can stand up and say, look at my figures – 95 wickets in 67 matches averaging 31 at an economy rate of under six. Sharma’s stats are a perfect example of how misleading figures can be. The fact is that Sharma has got a number of his wickets in the slog overs, in the midst of being whacked all around the park. He has rarely delivered the early breakthrough for India, and MS Dhoni has been lucky to have Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowling from the other end. Sharma’s bowling also lacks variation, as a result of which he rarely beats the batsmen. Six years after his international debut, Sharma is a far cry from the bowler who gave Ricky Ponting a harrowing time with his spell during the 2008 Perth Test.
--By A Cricket Analyst
