Former Indian Test opener Aakash Chopra has questioned India’s bowling in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar series against Australia. Chopra acknowledged that India’s batting has been a problem but bowling woes haven’t been much discussed.
The renowned commentator noted that the visitors have conceded more than 400 runs on two occasions in the ongoing series whereas they hadn’t done the same on the last two tours Downunder.
While Jasprit Bumrah has been the pick of the bowlers, he hasn’t quite received support from Mohammed Siraj, Harshit Rana, Akash Deep, Ravindra Jadeja, and Washington Sundar.
Australia posted 445 runs at Brisbane whereas they added 474 runs on the board at the MCG.
Aakash Chopra said on his YouTube Channel, “There is one thing that no one has spoken about thus far, and it’s very interesting. Since 2015, India had never conceded more than 400 runs in Australia before this series, and they have done that twice in this series.”
“Now think about it. All of us are talking about the batting failures. Of course, there is batting failure, but what about the bowling? In bowling, since Bumrah is doing very well, he is hiding everyone. To an extent, Siraj is hiding it a little more. He leaks a few runs but he has still picked up wickets,” he observed.
Bumrah has been the lone warrior in the series with 30 wickets in four Test matches at an average of 12.83. Mohammed Siraj has picked 16 wickets but he has bowled with an average of 31.44.
Chopra questioned India’s bowling for conceding more than 400 on two occasions despite out-of-form Mitchell Marsh in opposition’s team.
“You have conceded more than 400 runs twice against a batting lineup in which Mitchell Marsh is almost like a walking wicket. He hasn’t scored runs. They had to drop Nathan McSweeney and Usman Khawaja has scored runs only once,” he said.
Chopra added Marnus Labuschagne hasn’t been at his best in the ongoing Test series.
“Marnus Labuschagne has scored runs only one-and-a-half times. We have brought Steve Smith back in form. The team’s batting wasn’t looking powerful at all. Only (Travis) Head used to destroy us always but we gave more than 400 runs twice, which he hadn’t done in the last 10 years,” Chopra observed.
The fifth and final Test match between Australia and India will be played at the Sydney Cricket Ground from January 3 onwards.
