Australia’s upcoming tour of India – Is our bowling attack vulnerable?

Australia has always had a tendency to demoralize the opponent by projecting themselves to be a better side than they actually are. They have been the masters of mind games – be it 5-0 Ashes predictions from Glenn McGrath or the brute statements of Ricky Ponting.

In any cricketing event, they always claim their strong hold and rarely give up. Whatever the Australians might say this time, but I believe the fight in the upcoming T20 and ODIs is actually going to be very intense yet interesting. I think this series will be closer than most people are predicting – primarily due to India’s weak bowling attack.

The Indians will step in with very high morale after three consecutive series wins in the Champions Trophy, tri-series in West Indies and Zimbabwe. The timely come back of Yuvraj Singh has strengthened the batting order. He has displayed his fitness and batting skills in a fairly impressive manner.

There is no dearth of talent as far as the batting line up is concerned. Rather, it will be a difficult situation for MS Dhoni to decide who will sit out to facilitate Yuvraj. Hopefully, he will not think of touching Ravindra Jadeja, who has not been in the best form in the CLT20. Jadeja is capable of displaying his magic anytime, anywhere – with the bat or the ball or with both!

Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh and MS Dhoni are capable of scoring big runs, especially with the added advantage of playing in home grounds with vital local support. After a relaxing vacation for most of the members of team India, hopefully they will fire again. As far as batting is concerned, we are capable of pushing the visitors’ bowling attack on the back foot. I can see a few more records coming up for Kohli, Dhoni and Yuvraj.

My primary concern is the Indian bowling. I understand that many of my friends might not agree with this, but consistency is the key factor. Ravichandran Ashwin, in his latest appearance in the Champions trophy, displayed a very poor performance. Sir Jadeja also went for a lot of runs.

Umesh Yadav has not been able to cement his place in the Indian team and Ishant Sharma’s consistency is questionable. Bhuvneshwar Kumar is the only one who has done well recently. Jaydev Unadkat and Shami Ahmed have yet to prove their mettle against a top international team. What makes things worse is that Australia recently won the ODI series in England. Their batting looked decent, with George Bailey and Shane Watson in good form.

Unless the Indian bowlers can really raise their game, I can foresee Australians smashing them to all parts. Capable replacements are also not there, as players like Vinay Kumar and Amit Mishra have not been able to do wonders. What is even more worrying is that senior bowlers such as Zaheer Khan and Irfan Pathan have also lost their way recently.

The result of this series will depend on the strength of Indian bowling. Unless our bowling attack can outperform, I see a very close series in prospect. Hopefully our bowlers will come to the fore!