India’s bowling mantra: Watch, improvise, deliver magic balls

This is also an Indian attack where bowlers complement each other’s strengths and take cues from what the others are doing

Pakistan lost their last eight wickets for 36 runs in Ahmedabad on Saturday. Australia lost their last eight wickets for 89 runs in Chennai last week. These are spectacular collapses that have comprised spectacular deliveries.

India's Jasprit Bumrah celebrates the wicket of Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan (PTI)

Against Australia, Ravindra Jadeja triggered the implosion by getting Steve Smith with a ripper that pitched on middle stump and hit the top of off. A bewildered Smith could do nothing but acknowledge Jadeja's brilliance and trudge back to the dressing room. Against Pakistan, Jasprit Bumrah produced an off-cutter that deviated so sharply it could have made ace off-spinner R Ashwin envious. In Bumrah’s universe of slower balls, this was a worthy sequel to the slower yorker that flummoxed Shaun Marsh in a Test in Australia nearly five years ago. It accounted for Mohammad Rizwan, who had marauded the Sri Lankans in Hyderabad and done the hard yards in Ahmedabad to reach 49.

This is an Indian attack that can produce these magic balls. This is also an Indian attack that looks to create pressure by squeezing the opposition in the middle overs. This is also an Indian attack where bowlers complement each other’s strengths and take cues from what the others are doing.

Without the confluence of these qualities, India wouldn’t have been able to bowl out Australia and Pakistan for under 200. In between these matches, India also restricted Afghanistan to 272/8 on a Ferozeshah Kotla surface where an earlier game between South Africa and Sri Lanka had yielded 754 runs.

“You see, our bowling unit is doing so well from the last three matches. It's not like only one person is performing,” pacer Mohammed Siraj, who claimed the important scalps of opener Abdullah Shafique and skipper Babar Azam, told reporters after beating Pakistan on Saturday.

“Overall, the bowling unit is performing. If you don't get a wicket, you're building pressure and putting in a dot ball. In this, the team will get the success and the team will get the help. When Jassi (Bumrah) bowls, you can see what line is better on the wicket. When you're at third man and fine-leg, you get to see the line and get some information from the keeper that this line is better on the wicket. So, it becomes easier to execute.”

Even Bumrah, a fast-bowling genius with the rarest combination of skills, is constantly receptive to what’s unfolding at the other end. The slower off-cutter to Rizwan, for instance, was a reaction to the hint of turn Jadeja was extracting. “I saw Jaddu’s ball was turning, so I count my slower ball as a spinner’s slower ball. I thought it can make the run-scoring tough, and it worked,” Bumrah said at the post-match presentation.

Paramount to India’s bowling displays so far has been the building of pressure. A great ball provides a wicket-taking opportunity, but it can seldom be viewed independent of the deliveries that have preceded it. It’s essentially about accumulating dots, pushing batters into a defensive, safety-first mindset and forcing them to take undue risks. The dismissal of Smith in Chennai came after India hadn’t conceded a boundary for 46 balls. By the time Azam was dismissed on Saturday, Pakistan’s scoring rate had dipped to 5.27 from 5.93 at the fall of the second wicket.

“They had made a good start. It was important to bowl in one area. It was important to hold onto that good length. On this wicket, you couldn't say there was a lot of seam or spin. Yes, the pitch was a bit slow. The plan was to not give much room to any batter. We just look to squeeze with dot balls and by cutting out singles. That always builds pressure,” left-arm wrist spinner Kuldeep Yadav, who starred with two wickets, said after the game.

The tone is dictated by Bumrah, whose back injury and subsequent surgery seems to be a thing of the distant past. Immaculate with his execution ever since his comeback, he prefers to hold his length back a touch and not offer easy balls to drive. On an Ahmedabad pitch where Pakistan’s batters were putting away the full balls with regularity, Bumrah only conceded 14 runs in his first spell of four overs as a result.

Siraj has been much more expensive with an economy of 6.46 at this World Cup, but it’s in the hunt for wickets with the new ball that he likes to opt for a fuller length. You can’t fault his approach for it has paid rich dividends this year. He is the third highest wicket-taker – 33 scalps in 17 matches – among full-member nations in ODIs this year. He also registered career-best figures of 6/21 in the Asia Cup final against Sri Lanka last month.

Then there’s Kuldeep and Jadeja, essential to strangling the opposition in the middle phase even though only four fielders are allowed outside the 30-yard circle. Both have claimed five wickets each at an economy of below four. Kuldeep has been a revelation with his control, seldom dishing out a bad delivery despite bowling a variety of spin prone to full tosses and long hops. Jadeja, of course, is a master at hitting his preferred spots for hours at a stretch.

Hardik Pandya too has done his job. While he’s the most expensive of the Indian bowlers in the tournament, the seam-bowling all-rounder's role is primarily to break partnerships and give Rohit Sharma an alternative when one of his main bowlers has an off-day. It hasn’t come to that yet.

Can this Indian attack do better? Yes, it possibly can if Mohammed Shami is added to the mix as the third seamer instead of Shardul Thakur when conditions merit, but the latter provides them batting depth at No. 8. It’s a route India can afford to go down as long as Bumrah, Siraj, Kuldeep and Jadeja maintain their high standards.