BENGALURU: No Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar or Yuzvendra Chahal. India’s regular bowlers are absent from the T20I series against South Africa. The management is giving chances to others with an eye on next year’s T20 World Cup. In the second game, the combined international experience of the first three bowlers — Washington Sundar, Deepak Chahar, Navdeep Saini — was 17 and they did a good job.
With key bowlers needing rest, these games present a golden opportunity for India to develop a second rung. Players like Chahar and Saini have come through the ranks after impressive performances in IPL and domestic cricket. The third and final T20I at Chinnaswamy Stadium on Sunday is another chance for them.
“Since we are trying out youngsters, it’s good that we give them a fair run. They can express themselves because when young players comes in, they take time. They are taking these opportunities. We get a lot of benefits. Their confidence is high because they played with international players and that’s a huge boost,” said Shikhar Dhawan.
Sundar, Chahar and Saini along with Krunal Pandya will be eager to prove that they belong. At times, things will not go according to plans and that’s where seniors have to play an important role. “We ensure that we calm their nerves. We make them think what is needed at a moment. We keep discussing and that is important,” added Dhawan.
Chinnaswamy is known to help batsmen and will test the bowlers also because of the smaller boundaries. The South Africans are aware of the lack of experience in India’s bowling and could put them under pressure.
“It’s an area we are looking at. We know we can put pressure on them and hopefully tomorrow is the day,” said Rassie van der Dussen.
Dhawan, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma are the big guns in India’s batting who could be the difference between the sides.
“They are probably three of the best T20 batters in the world. It’s a great challenge for young bowlers coming here to bowl at them,” said der Dussen.