How Anil Kumble and Virat Kohli transformed Indian fast bowling

#4 Making the bowlers bowl longer spells

Indian spinners Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja are pinpoint accurate for a reason, they bowl a lot of overs which will help them work out the lengths to bowl. However, fast-bowlers would not have the miles in their legs and wilt under the pressure of the opposition batsmen in conditions which would suit fast-bowling.

Kumble and Kohli made a conscious effort to make the fast bowlers bowl a lot of overs even in the hot scorching sun. They would bowl a few overs with the new ball and rotate around and come back again after lunch and tea. They would build the pressure and spinners would benefit out of this. Since they were used in short bursts, they had the energy and strength to bowl four or five hostile spells in a day.

Since January 5, the first day of the Cape Town Test to December 30, Shami has bowled a total of 383.5 overs, Bumrah has bowled 379.4 overs, Ishant has bowled 335 overs. Umesh and Hardik have bowled 126.5 and 124 overs respectively.

India could even afford to drop Bhuvneshwar Kumar, a 21-Test veteran and a strike bowler in Australia as they had others who were more suitable and match-fit than him to do the job.