Why don't India try R Vinay Kumar as Ishant's partner in test matches? His domestic stats are quite impressive.
Seriously? For once, we have 4 bowlers who actually have some pace. Two of them (Yadav and Aaron) can actually hit the 150 k mark when in rhythm. Why would we want to go back to Vinay Kumar! Remember, as far as test cricket goes, Yadav, Aaron and Shami are still pretty new. They have shown ability in patches and we have seen that bowlers take time settling in (read Ishant). I will stick my neck our and say that we have better fast bowling than Pakistan, at the moment (shoot me for that). Ishant, Yadav, Aaron along with Shami could form the core bunch along with Bhuvaneshwar being the 5th seamer who could slot in for tours to NZ/England.
Also, with Kohli`s captaincy, he is going to back these guys to get wickets. I`m actually pretty upbeat about our test side. I keep saying this again and again, will repeat this again. India, since the retirement of Tendulkar had not played a single test till this SA series. That is 2 years without a home test. The bulk of the side that toured SA, NZ, England and Australia were on their first tours. The conditions were alien to these guys as well, as it has been for SA here. For guys on their first tours, let us look at how we fared in those series.
2013 SA tour: We dominated 4/5 days of the Jo`burg test and were in with a shout of winning it. At Durban, we were on top with the bat in the first innings and even with the ball I remember SA being 100-ish for 4 before we let it slip. Should`ve drawn that series at the very least. We gave wickets to Robbie Peterson at Durban!
NZ tour: We did a fine job chasing 400 in the fourth innings at Auckland. Lost by 50 runs and at one stage were sitting pretty during the chase. The game at Wellington, had Jadeja caught McCullum should`ve been an innings win for us. Yet again, a squandered chance.
England: 1st test at Nottingham, we let Anderson put on 200 runs with Root for the last wicket! A possible first innings lead of 200+ turned into an even first innings. Should`ve won that game despite the wicket being a road. Won at Lords and were woeful since. Yet, we managed to stay even for the first three tests. Most teams haven`t managed that overseas.
Australia: Drew two tests and were in with a real good chance of a win going into the final session at Adelaide. We again showed promise with the ball at the GABBA and let Australia go from 240/7 to 500. A story of missed opportunities but not disgraced.
SL: Should`ve won 3-0, to be honest.
So overall, if you stack that up against how teams fare overseas these days, these guys with some luck or some experience of winning should`ve got 5 or so overseas test wins under their belt. Yet we only got that 1 at Lords on what was ironically a garden of a wicket for the first 3 days. The overseas stats (including the SL series) during that period read; P:16, W:3, D:5,L:8. That by modern touring standards is not disgraceful. I believe, this side, on their next set of overseas tours will turn a leaf or two. Ashwin, if he can bowl the way he is right now will do fine overseas. The seamers will do better with a captain who is now willing to back them, unlike Dhoni who was allergic to pace. Its okay for bowlers to be a little erratic in tests, if they have real firepower. These guys will always get you more wickets than a Mohit Sharma, Vinay Kumar or Pankaj Singh.
All the pitch talk and reiterating that Delhi is a good wicket has got a little boring. So though of doing some analysis with this long post.
Looks like they've given up already...
