Ishant Sharma should lead Indian pace attack in England: Lakshmipathy Balaji

Balaji also believes that the Ishant’s English county experience for Sussex will also help the Delhi speedster to do well.

Balaji told News18, “At the moment, I will go with Ishant, Bumrah and Shami as the top three. There is always going to be a selection dilemma, a good dilemma, where the other exceptional talent will put you under pressure. I would look at how the English pitches behave. Ishant has done well there, bowled match-winning spells there, toured with the Test teams three times there. I will use his English county experience of the recent past (Sussex, 2018).

“He is the leader of the pack. I will put Bumrah and Shami with Ishant, three totally different bowlers where Ishant can play defence and the other two can be on the offence. Ishant with the new ball can be on the offence against the left-handers. I will fall back upon Ishant when the situation goes out of control. He can put things back in place.”

Balaji, who played 8 Tests for India, stated that Virat Kohli and his team can play attacking cricket even in Bumrah’s absence. The team will also have an opportunity to test identical talent Mohammed Siraj to thrive in the absence of Bumrah.

“With Bumrah’s talent, you have to see a similar replacement for him. He cannot be identically replaced as he is an exceptionally talented bowler. He is a match-winner. At the same time, you have an opportunity for an identical talent to thrive, say Siraj. The ball pretty much comes out of the hand perpendicular, angles away from the left-hander, straightens for the right-hander. They are almost identical, not exactly the same. The ball path, dismissal patterns are similar to LBW, bowled, caught behind. If Bumrah is not there, who gives almost the same, if not exactly the same, performance?

“Find a formula. Similar tactical discussions will help the captain, the team management, not go straight into defence but look for the offence if Bumrah is not there. India’s Test series win in Australia is a classic case. Without Bumrah and Shami, the Indian bowlers still managed to take 20 wickets. That was tactics and skills matching at the right time,” Balaji added further.