India’s much-criticized bowling department has so far done a good job from the beginning of the World Cup. Remembering the disastrous tri-series, it was hard to muster hopes and experts believed that only India’s formidable batsmen can save them in the tournament.
So far through the tournament, all the five main bowlers (Mohammed Shami, Mohit Sharma, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Umesh Yadav) have been progressive and made significant contribution in the four matches played. India has managed to take 40 wickets in 4 matches, implying that they have bowled out every team they played before reaching 50 overs.
Mohammed Shami and Ravichandran Ashwin are highest wicket takers within the team with 9 wickets. The other three bowlers Mohit Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja have taken 6 wickets. Despite a bad fielding against the West Indians, all 5 bowlers took wickets with Mohammed Shami tallying 3 wickets proving their consistency and reliability. However, Gavaskar has slammed Indian Bowlers for not using yorkers and that they have persistently been bowling short deliveries affecting the economy rate.
Ashwin seems to be the only one bowling with a decent economy rate at 4.83. India is yet to tap the potential of the unused bowlers since Stuart Binny and Axar Patel are yet to play, while Bhuvneshwar Kumar has played one match against UAE taking 2 wickets. The next few fixtures can help India attain even more match fitness since they are considerably favourites to win against Ireland.