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Former captain of New Zealand Ross Taylor feels that the Indian bowling attack led by Mohammed Shami has considerable “depth” despite Jasprit Bumrah’s unavailability and will cause problems for the Australians in the ICC World Test Championship Final.
He expected the Indian bowlers to “relish” the English conditions and the opportunity to bowl with the Dukes ball.
“Very tough to replace someone like Bumrah. He has been fantastic in all three formats and is the leader of their bowling attack. But I think there is still enough depth in this Indian line-up to trouble the Australian side. Shami and Co are fantastic in these conditions,” Taylor told the ICC website.
Taylor said that bowlers like Mohammed Siraj and Umesh Yadav are very good at using the Dukes ball. “When you consider the India attack, Siraj and Co are very good with the Dukes ball. Umesh Yadav also bowls 140-plus. They will relish the opportunity to bowl with the Dukes ball in English conditions,” the former Black Caps skipper added.
Taylor said that in England, the weather and playing conditions have a lot of bearing on matches and that the Australian seamers are fine exponents of bowling with the Dukes ball. However, he did not rule out the Indians who have had considerable success in those conditions in the recent past.
India and Australia recently clashed in a four-match Test series for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy. Spin was the determining factor in that series and while India were served well as usual by Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja, Nathan Lyon and Matthew Kuhnemann played crucial roles for the visitors. However, despite the best efforts of the Australians, India retained the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with a 2-1 series win.
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The focus will now, however, shift to pace bowling in English conditions and Shami, Siraj, Umesh and Shardul Thakur will have to be on top of their game.
This is the second time in consecutive editions of the ICC World Test Championship that India have reached the final and also the second consecutive time that the WTC final will be played in English conditions. India were defeated by New Zealand in 2021. Taylor incidentally played that match, scoring a polished 47 not out in the second innings to take the Kiwis to victory.
