Unforgettable moments from the India-Australia Test series 

#3 The Indian Pace Bowling Trio

The Best Pace attack in the world at the moment?

It won’t be wrong to say that this is the most complete pace bowling unit India have had. Yes, in the past they have had some really skillful bowlers including Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, Ashish Nehra, and Sreesanth amongst others. But this was perhaps the best attack that performed as a team.

The Indian pace attack, so far, has been a languid dream studded with plated with the immense talent and capability of one individual (Kapil, Srinath, Zaheer) or studded with the occasional brilliance of a spell (Ishant Sharma in Perth, Sreesanth at Johannesburg).

But here we had a trio that hunted as a pack. Kohli did not need an enforcer because they were all equally capable. For the major parts of it, the Indian skipper just kept tossing the ball around to his three pacers, rotating them in short spells of 4-5 overs irrespective of whether or not wickets were achieved. The fact that he could do this in Australian conditions was a tactical testimony to their brilliance.

Statistical testimonies followed when they beat the great South African and Windies counterparts across different years to latch on to the record of most Test wickets by a pace trio in a calendar year.

But besides all the stats and records, that 6-wicket spell from Jasprit Bumrah at the MCG and that hostile spell that had the Aussies ducking and missing at Perth while they themselves had to rely on Nathan Lyon’s spin was the defining moment.