'I'll just cut to the chase. Our top three fast bowlers would be…': Sridhar picks India's pace attack for T20 World Cup
Since the last T20 World Cup, in the UAE, India have played 11 pace bowlers. Few were added to the then existing line-up on the back of their impressive show in the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) while others two new were added after the 2022 season.
Even with the 2022 T20 World Cup just two months away, the audition for the 15-man squad continues for India, who remain in experimental mode with still a couple of white-ball series to play which includes the Asia Cup in the UAE. Among those includes one of the fast bowler's role and former India fielding coach R Sridhar has picked his top three who will make the eventual XI for the Indian team in the World Cup in Australia later this October. Also Read | 'We saw it with Gavaskar and Kapil Dev, Tendulkar and Ganguly': Top BCCI official addresses Kohli vs Rohit debate
Since the last T20 World Cup, in the UAE, India have played 11 pace bowlers. Few were added to the then existing line-up on the back of their impressive show in the 2021 Indian Premier League (IPL) while others two new were added after the 2022 season.
Speaking to Cricket.com on India's possible pace line-up for the T20 World Cup, Sridhar picked Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He reckoned that while Bhuvneshwar can take care of the old and the new ball, Shami could prove lethal against opposition attacks while Bumrah can stop the run flow in the middle overs and then take care of the bowling in the death overs. Not to forget, India also have a fast-bowling all-rounder in Hardik Pandya.
“I think we have problem of plenty, isn't it? Look I'm going to be straight and I'm cutting to the chase. I think our top three fast bowlers would be Bumrah, Shami and Bhuvi. Because, if you have this, you have an absolute banker, banker, banker new-ball bowler and death-over bowler in Bhuvi who is in the best shape in terms of his fitness."
"And we have Shami, who will come up with the new ball and ask a lot of questions to the best opening batters in the world. So you can bowl Bhuvi and Shami twice and now that Hardik is bowling and Jadeja is an all-rounder, we have the fifth and sixth bowler covered. When it is the World Cups you need the big boys to go in and play and these are the three as far as fast bowling in concerned and backed by another big boy in Hardik,” he said.
Bhuvneshwar has been India's best bowler since the last World Cup, picking 23 wickets in in 18 innings at 6.94 runs per over. Harshal Patel has picked as many wickets in 16 innings but has gone for almost 9 runs an over. Bumrah has been least active among the pacers used since the last World Cup, featuring in only three matches with three wickets while Shami has not appeared in a single T20I match for India since November 2021.