NAGPUR:A day before the third Test, Varun Aaron and Umesh Yadav cut somewhat forlorn figures at the nets. They were rolling their arms over and doing their bit, but away from the buzz around the place, the spinners mingled with the support staff and other players. No problem with that. Those not in the 11 sometimes don’t appear prominent in activities on the eve of the match.
Such insignificant piece of information is referred to because it puts in perspective the role played by Yadav, Aaron and others of their like in this series. Responsible for about 20 per cent of the overs bowled by India and blunted by surface, pacers have taken two of the 50 wickets. Little wonder then that there was a hint of aimlessness and general lack of purpose the way Aaron and Yadav went about business.
The team management has pointed out (there’s data to substantiate this) pace had seldom been the key to success at home, without remembering that in the last few years pacers were rarely rendered so redundant. Emphasis on spin had usually been the case. But after India started winning the odd Test abroad, reducing pace to a nonentity at home is something that was seen only towards the end of MS Dhoni’s reign as Test captain. Virat Kolhi’s leadership tenure in India has started in same fashion.
“I see no future of fast bowling in India if this continues. As it is the quality of fast bowling in the country isn’t great. If you prepare pitches that suit the use of four spinners, where will fast bowlers come from? I understand the need for conditions that help spin, which is our strength. But there’s a difference between turners and unprepared wickets. What we’ve seen this series is not good for cricket,” former medium pacer Manoj Prabhakar told Express.
Justifying the requirement of turning tracks, Kohli has argued that there is a question of getting even with others, saying that they often encounter conditions loaded in favour of fast bowling. While Indians do find it difficult against movement and bounce that opponents ensure, runs scored by the hosts is the difference between those pitches and what was seen in Mohali and Nagpur. Over there, Indians struggle. Over here, batsmen of both teams are finding the turn hard to handle.
Having played in all Test-playing nations barring the West Indies in an international career spanning over a decade from the mid-80s, Prabhakar felt conditions almost as rule favoured home teams. They were not so one-sided. “Pakistan in 1989 prepared seaming tracks to suit their fast bowlers. But they were such that our batsmen managed to post decent scores. If what we see now becomes the practice, it will threaten the foundation of fast bowling in the country. We’ve overdone the spin bit, forgetting the balance between extreme conditions and home advantage.”
After taking over as Test captain, Kohli had shown a liking for speed. This shift might have been influenced by Ravichandran Ashwin’s emergence as a turbulent force. Whether zooming in on one genre of bowling is affecting the development of another is something the captain has to evaluate. “The little we’ve seen of him, Kohli backs bowlers. Let’s see how he handles this situation,” said Prabhakar, the comative and crafty swing bowler, who also opened the batting. Aaron and Yadav might be among those keeping an eye on that.
Last Day, Last Show for South africa
Nagpur: With members of the Indian team scheduled to board Monday’s flight to Delhi choosing to have a leisurely time at the hotel, South Africans decided to sweat it out. Almost the entire team trained at VCA Stadium on Sunday, what would have been last day of the third Test had it gone the distance. Those who spent the previous day at a tiger reserve nearby were back and a number of them had full-fledged nets for over three hours from 9.30 am, said a local official. Dale Steyn’s progress is being monitored.