Haren
The biggest difference between India and Australia at the Adelaide Oval was Mitchell Starc. No one swung the ball as much, and no one interrogated the technique and resolve of batsmen as he did, because no one hit the fuller lengths as often. He showed India what they lacked—a full-length, swing metronome, a swing merchant. In the past they were bountiful. The lost ilk of Kapil Dev, Madan Lal, Karsan Ghavri, Manoj Prabhakar, and more recently Praveen Kumar, who devilishly swung the ball both ways when the conditions allied. Kapil and Prabhakar teasing and tripping Australia’s top order in the 1991-92 tour was a heart-warming memory in a nightmarish series.
India no longer possesses one like them in their stable. The closest they had was Akash Deep. They clearly missed a trick by not playing him in Adelaide. Bowling full is not his default setting either. But he is more proficient at this than someone like Harshit Rana. He can swing the ball, he skids the ball too. Rana was the perfect choice for the Perth surface, which had bounce and pace. The lengths suited him naturally. But Adelaide under lights was different. India needed someone who could harness the movement the new pink ball generated when the twilight set in. Akash Deep’s skill-set suited more to the conditions than that of Rana. Besides, he was India’s most hostile fast bowler after Jasprit Bumrah in the home season.
But the bustling hit-the-deck operators are preferred in most places, barring perhaps England. They are workhorses with pace and energy. They are a failsafe option on most surfaces, only that in conditions where the ball moves alarmingly in the air, the humbler swing-artistes become a deathlier proposition. Even if they don’t possess the speed of Starc, they could rip through attacks, especially one that is as muddled as Australia’s now. World over, there is an acute shortage of them.
It’s hard to dismantle a winning combination no doubt, but the right bowler for the right pitch could make a world of difference. It’s the same folly that India made in the Perth Test in 2018-’19, when they chose an all-pace attack on a surface that eventually assisted spinners. India cannot undo the past but can learn from the past failings when they reach Brisbane for the next Test.
