Live Score
Cricket Teams
Cricket PlayersIndia legend Anil Kumble rings the alarm bells; Suryakumar Yadav will have to address this big problem
On days when some of India's main bowlers are going to struggle, it can cost Suryakumar Yadav's men dear.
Former spinner Anil Kumble, the only Indian to date to have taken 600 Test wickets, has expressed his worries over Suryakumar Yadav's lack of options in the bowling department especially when the going gets tough for the main bowlers.
Spinner Varun Chakaravarthy and allrounder Hardik Pandya have not made any telling contributions in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Rinku Singh, Tilak Varma, Abhishek Sharma and Shivam Dube have tried their hand at bowling at times but without really impressing.
Against Zimbabwe on Thursday in a crucial Super 8 encounter, Dube bowled two overs and conceded 46 runs. If India had not had posted a mammoth total of 256/4, one doesn't really know what would have happened.
"They certainly did all the right things to get the batters to bowl a bit through the previous World Cup to now," Kumble said on ESPNcricinfo's TimeOut show. "If you look at the last 18 months, where India played T20 cricket where they've won every single game, that Tilak Varma got to bowl, Abhishek Sharma got to bowl, Dube got to bowl. Then even Rinku Singh bowled, even Suryakumar Yadav bowled.
"So in that sense, you have options and that's great. But on a flat pitch, there will be challenges. India would ideally want the comfort of playing eight batters, rather than going in with seven batters and five specialist bowlers."
Faf du Plessis couldn't agree more
Former South Africa captain Faf du Plessis agreed with Kumble's assessment, stressing that if some of the main Indian bowlers are attacked and then a sixth bowler will have to come on to bowl, and they can make things worse for Surya's team.
"100%. You look at it and ask: who are the danger bowlers? Most of the time, it's Bumrah. On the day, you make that call - if you can get on top of someone else early, then the sixth bowling option is going to have to come in.
"If that happens, and he [Dube] is bowling wide yorkers or defensive lines, you can line him up," he said.
Jasprit Bumrah has been only Indian bowler in the ongoing event who has lived up to his reputation, with the opposition teams struggling against him more often than not. One can't say the same about the the rest of the bowlers.
India play the West Indies in Kolkata on March 1 in what is a virtual knockout now. The winners of the match will advance to the semis along with South Africa from Group 1.
