The ability to take 20 wickets is not that good in Indian team: Cheteshwar Pujara

PTI, Dec 23, 2024, 1:41 PM IST

Cheteshwar Pujara (pti_Cheteshwar Pujara

Melbourne: The Indian team in Australia lacks a bowling attack that is good enough to take 20 wickets in a Test, Cheteshwar Pujara said on Monday December 23 and called it the side’s biggest concerns heading into the last two matches of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.

The five-match series is currently levelled at 1-1 with everything to play for in the Tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

The visitors have been relying heavily on pace spearhead Jasprit Bumrah to get them wickets and while he has been a great success with both the red and pink ball, the peerless fast bowler has not received enough support from the other end, something that has plagued India besides their top-order batting woes.

“My biggest question and the reason for a little bit of concern is that the Indian bowling is looking a little weak,” Pujara told Star Sports.

“Batting is a little better, like the top five didn’t do well, but the middle order and lower middle order, Ravindra Jadeja, Nitish (Reddy), and even tailenders, Bumrah and Akash Deep contributed with the bat.

“Now, there is a weakness in the bowling, so what will you feed the team? That is the biggest question, because you can’t drop Nitish, you can’t drop Jadeja, so what will be the team combination?” Pujara felt that Nitish Reddy and Ravindra Jadeja are not able to do the job of being the side’s fourth and fifth bowler.

“Ashwin has taken retirement, so two spinners, I don’t think they will play in Melbourne. So, how will you strengthen the bowling? Because the three seamers are very good, but their supporting role, fourth and fifth seamer, Nitesh Kumar is the fourth seamer and Ravindra Jadeja is the fifth bowler. If you add both of them together, the bowling is not that good.

“We will have to think about that, because if you want to win a Test match, then you have to take 20 wickets, and the ability to take 20 wickets is not that good, the supporting role of the other bowlers is not good, so we will have to improve that as soon as possible, and how that will be, I don’t know, but that is a big question.” With the exception of opener KL Rahul, the top-order batting has also been a big letdown so far in the series, and Pujara said it has got to do a lot with their inability to see off Mitchell Starc’s initial spells with the new ball.

“He has been the best bowler for them in this series. And the way Mitchell Starc has played in the last 1-1.5 years, he has brought a lot of improvement. And he has a lot of ability.

“If I talk about my personal experience, when he used to play in the last series in 2018 or 2021, I used to feel that if he plays against me, I will get runs.

“And now, it feels like he will take wickets. So what is the difference? The difference is that his line length, his accuracy has increased a lot. He is bowling very less loose deliveries. He is playing on the stump. Every ball is hitting on the good length spot. He is getting swing.” Starc has so far taken 14 wickets in the series, the most by an Australian bowler and only behind Bumrah across two teams.

Pujara observed, “The change he has brought in his game has made him a different player. And he is looking more dangerous than Cummins and Hazlewood. So we will have to take care of his game, especially from the new games.

“In the first five overs, his first spell, he has taken the most wickets there. So if there is a good batting in the first five overs, bring him for the second or third spell. Because he gets tired. So the batting of the top order so far, our top order has never played in the third or fourth spell.

“The ones who have played are the lower middle order and the tail enders. And there we saw that when Bumrah and Akash were batting, when Mitchell Starc was bowling, he was not that effective. So they will have to play their new game well.”