The first Test between England and India at Edgbaston is a little more than a week away and the visitors have their task cut out to assemble a pace attack given the spate of recent injuries to key players.
Virat Kohli has seen his options dwindle significantly in India’s limited-overs exertions with injuries to Jasprit Bumrah and Bhuvneshwar Kumar highlighting their woes.
Bumrah injured his thumb in the final T20 against Ireland and is facing a race against time to get himself fit for the first Test. The Mumbai pacer, in all likelihood, is expected to miss the first Test with his participation in the second still up in the air.
Bhuvneshwar meanwhile, has flown back to India to recuperate after not being named in the squad for the first three Tests and is a doubt for the remainder of the series as well after aggravating a lower back injury in the final ODI against England.
The injuries to two pacers who were a certainty to form a part of India’s bowling attack in the five-match series has severely depleted the options at Kohli’s disposal.
Bumrah is expected to miss the first Test.
India will have to bank on a pace attack comprising of Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Mohammed Shami at the start of the series if Bumrah is unable to recover on time. Mumbai pacer Shardul Thakur has been named in the squad too but India will only want to turn to him as a last resort given his inexperience.
In Ishant, India have an excellent work-horse who has performed decently on previous tour of England. His promising stint with Sussex in the County Championship should also hold him in good stead ahead of the series.
However, expecting Ishant to be the strike-bowler will be wishful thinking on India’s part with the pacer more suited as the first-change option in the pace department.
That means the onus on providing the wickets with the new ball will fall on the shoulders of Umesh and Shami. The former has not played Test cricket previously on English shores while the latter endured a disappointing time during the 2014 tour.
Umesh will need to step up big time on his first tour of England.
Shami picked up only five wickets in the three Tests he played in 2014 at an average of nearly 73 and a strike-rate greater than 115. On top of that, the pacer is coming back into the team on the back of struggles with fitness as well as controversies in his personal life.
The 27-year-old missed the one-off Test against Afghanistan due to his failure to clear the Yo-Yo fitness test but such is India’s desperation in the pace department currently that Shami will probably be the first name of on the team sheet for the first Test.
Umesh, on the other hand, did well in the Afghanistan Test but he has not been a regular in India’s Test setup in recent times. The Delhi pacer did not feature in a single Test in India’s tour of South Africa earlier this year with Shami, Bumrah, Ishant and Bhuvneshwar forming the attack.
Quite simply, India will be running on bare reserves when it comes to fast-bowling in the Test series and another injury in that department could prove catastrophic for Kohli and his men.
They will desperately be hoping that Shami can hit his stride immediately after his long lay-off and for Umesh to bring his more consistent self rather than the occasionally wayward and frustrating bowler he can be at times. Failing that, it could be a long and disappointing English summer for the visitors.
