Kuldeep Yadav, Yuzvendra Chahal – Indian cricket team’s new age bowling strengths

Kuldeep Yadav and Yuzvendra Chahal have given the Indian bowling plenty of depth and variety. Their performances, in addition to the consistency provided by Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar have made the Indian bowling powerful.

When India’s T20I squad for the series against Australia was announced, Ashish Nehra’s name created the greatest buzz. The 38-year-old left-arm pacer seemed to be the odd man out in a squad where all the other bowlers were at least 10 years younger than him. (INDIA vs AUSTRALIA UPDATES)

Kuldeep Yadav picked up two wickets and he was well supported by Yuzvendra Chahal as India continued to torment Australia by spin in the first Twenty20 International in Ranchi.(BCCI)

It is not the young age that has made the likes of Bhuvenshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal and Kuldeep Yadav stand out. It is their consistency and confidence that have made them the first choices ahead of senior players. (INDIA vs AUSTRALIA SCORECARD)

Be it the pace duo or the wrist-spinners’ combine, the last few series have given India an option to foray into areas which it lacked earlier. Take for example, the 2017 Champions Trophy in June, where both Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja failed to live up to the expectations and India had no other option to fall back upon.

Changed scenario

The situation has changed in the last few months. Indian selectors and team management have started looking beyond the tried and tested lot. Wrist-spinners have been brought in while young pacers are being given a longer run.

Bumrah in his pre-match press conference summed it up pretty well. “We just want to improve ourselves every time, we keep asking questions to each other. We keep learning from the seniors on what else we can do and how to improve, how to adapt to different conditions and the wickets. The focus is on training. We don’t focus on results. We want to get better every game,” he said.

Complimenting each other

The first T20I again saw the same phenomenon. After Bhuvneshwar Kumar took David Warner’s wicket in the first over, things looked bright for India.

But then Hardik Pandaya started leaking runs while Bumrah could not pick a wicket. In came Chahal and gave India the crucial breakthrough in his first over itself by getting Glenn Maxwell for the fourth time in a row.

After Chahal, it was Kuldep Yadav’s turn to grab the limelight as he foxed the dangerous Aaron Finch and bowled him. He removed Moises Henriques too, to further cause Australia’s downfall.

Bumrah, silent till now, joined the party with twin strikes of Tim paine and Nathan Coulter-Nile in the latter overs. One of the dismissals was caused by his now famous Yorkers.

With each playing to their own strengths, it is the growing capacity of complimenting each other that has made the Indian bowling line-up hope for better days.