IND vs BAN | Indore Day 3 Talking Points: Umesh’s unique template to success and Indian pace revolution

11/16/2019

India completed the formalities as pacers put up an exhibition in Indore to help the hosts become the first team to reach 300-point mark on the ICC Test Championship table. While India had all the reasons to cheer for, Bangladesh, on the other hand, found themselves with more questions than answers.

A template of how to bowl on batting-friendly wickets

Beyond reverse swing, what has made Umesh Yadav a go-to bowler for Virat Kohli in home Tests, is the ability to pounce on the assistance. He has raw pace, a muscular build and more importantly, an affinity to land the ball on a good length regularly. When Umesh bowled the first spell to Imrul Kayes on Day 1, it was a spectacle in itself and a reminder of the threats that the Indian bowling attack possesses. The second innings bowling, however, was a bit different and a clear demonstration of how to puzzle a batsman on a batting-friendly wicket.

Like a certain Brett Lee - pardon the blasphemy - Umesh Yadav’s bowling is more about stamina, strength, pace and dexterous wrists. Unlike an Ishant Sharma or a Bhuvneshwar Kumar, his bowling doesn’t require him to subjugate the ego which resulted in him bowling with lethality with both new and new-ish balls. With old ball, he is probably a notch ahead of everyone but Mohammed Shami, who can claim to have a similar ability with the ball.

Normally, Yadav’s delivery to castle a batsman is slightly fuller than Mohammed Shami and little backward of Ishant Sharma’s natural full balls. It requires him to be precise and once he lands it on length, the cherry goes on to hit either the top of off stump or the front leg. His slippery pace adds a thick natural movement away from right-handers, and his seam position complicates things on tracks where the ball comes onto the bat nicely. On most occasions, it was creating a deception that a shot was there to be hit, but precisely, it was Umesh’s avant-garde speaking.

If you had envisioned this, go and buy a lottery

Okay, cut some slack. I am going to tell you stuff that you already know or probably thousands of others have continued to tell you every hour. Let me tell you again, I am marvelling at the Indian pace bowling unit, and for a good measure, telling you how spin has taken a backseat. Don’t blame me later that you were not warned.

As the umpires called for lunch on Day 3 in Indore, the reality dawned on me that spinners were yet to bowl a single over on the day. It is, in fact, a symbolic change in perception, and of course, the reality is as true as the perception, that this is the best Indian pace-bowling unit of all-time. The wicket was as flat as any in the country, and with the red soil tending to break down faster, the cracks had been created for the duo of Ashwin and Jadeja to exploit. But, as things panned out, Indian pacers made Bangladeshis huff and puff at their peril.

Even though the pattern is getting repeated over and over again, this Test was a representation of how the paradigm has been shifted for good in Indian cricket. The possible impact of this revolution has also helped India gain respect for their home dominance, instead of it being frowned upon. Ishant, Umesh, Shami are leading the surge with Jasprit Bumrah quietly smiling at the unit from his rehab table. For a generation grown up accustomed to nothing but spin as the primary calling card, I rest my case here. You, too, sit and savour.

Ignorance comes together to bury Bangladesh in a crucial Test

Justin Langer, in a recent interview, talked about how 2022 India tour would pave way for current Australian cricket team’s legacy. That sounds familiar as Steve Waugh’s war cry of “Final Frontier” almost two decades ago, but if anything, this is the fundamental truth of world cricket right now. To be considered the best, you have to beat the best in their home and Langer couldn’t have been more right. Something about his quote resonates well with Bangladesh.

Here is a team that had been depleted, but claimed to not have lost any prowess. Here is a team that doesn’t have a spine but ready to play the blame game on external circumstances - a trait that never helped anyone come out of mediocrity. Bangladesh are suffering because of their ignorance they have piled on over the years and never paid heed to it despite being warned over and over again. First, the seamers are an endangered species in Bangladesh, the wickets - starting from international to domestic cricket - are favoured for spinners, and batsmen have gone on to the BPL mould.

The poor quality of National Cricket League, Bangladesh’s premier domestic competition, has been an open secret for a long time, and recently, Shakib Al Hasan ripped apart the BCB for not taking steps to make it a better one. It has come to a point where Test selection is done based on a players’ performance in BPL and Dhaka Premier League One-day tournament. This ignorance of NCL resulted in the embarrassing loss to Afghanistan and now to India. If this doesn’t call for an immediate reaction, then I wonder, what would.