Zimbabwe vs India 2013: Five talking points

4. Indian Pace Battery

The Indian pace battery was entirely second string as the likes of Ishant Sharma, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Umesh Yadav have been rested. Vinay Kumar is not express pace but he derived a lot of lateral movement with the new ball that had the Zimbabwean batsman poking at thin air.

They were fortunate to survive the spell but the point is being repeatedly made that India fail to get early wickets in the absence of Bhuvneshwar Kumar and that was true of this game too. He was expensive at the latter end of the innings.

Shami Ahmed threatened a lot more with his ability to exponentially increase his threat by throwing in the odd short length ball pushing the batsmen on the back foot. He finished with figures of 45/1 in his 10 overs. Unadkat was the pick of the fast bowlers as he deceived the batsmen with his odd slower delivery while constantly cramping them for room.

The lack of wicket-taking deliveries in this innings was a worry and the fact that there are a few more bowlers waiting for their chance in the margins we might see a bit of chopping and changing in this series.