XtraTime Web Desk – After team India’s first ODI against Australia, it’s more or less cleared that the men in blue needs a sixth bowling option as soon as possible. Unfortunately, captain Virat Kohli doesn’t have enough option with him. When Yuzvendra Chahal and Navdeep Saini were leaking a lot of runs, Virat Kohli was helpless as his sixth bowling option Hardik Pandya has been recovering from a back injury which leads him out from the bowling department.
Virat Kohli himself used to bowl in the early stages of his career but didn’t follow that road. Shikhar Dhawan is a complete batsman while Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer doesn’t have that experience in International Cricket. KL Rahul is the wicket-keeper of the team. Thus, Virat Kohli is completely helpless in this. The subs, Sanju Samson, Shubman Gill and Manish Pandey are also proper batsmen. Manish Pandey can bowl but he again falls in the category of Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal.
Hardik Pandya on Saturday agreed that the men in blues needs an extra bowler to create that pressure. “It’s going to be very difficult without a sixth bowler”. Hardik then gave an update about when he can bowl again. “I am working at my bowling in the nets. But I’m not yet match fit with my bowling. I am going to come in when the time is right. Right ow, I am looking at the long-term goal. I want to be 100 percent fit to my bowling capacity. I want to bowl at speeds that are required at the International level. I won’t exhaust myself. The process is going on”.
All the Indian cricket fans miss those days when India used to have so many bowling options. Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh always helped their bowlers and captains whenever the team required some part time bowling options. Suresh Raina was very well used under MS Dhoni’s captaincy and recently Kedar Jadhav used to work as a 6th bowling option. Virat however has no proper option right now. Team India should definitely start grooming Shreyas Iyer and Mayank Agarwal or a Manish Pandey in order to get some bowling service from them.