Beware of India's pace attack: England are not the only side with speed, swing and eye for wickets

Everyone expects England’s bowling attack to be more incisive with a pink ball. Yet it is eminently possible that India’s pace bowlers will out-bowl England’s in the third Test in Ahmedabad, just as the home spinners outbowled England’s in the second in Chennai.

For all of James Anderson’s expertise and Olly Stone’s pace, India’s pace bowlers have been more enthusiastic - spell for spell - than England’s have been collectively.

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Even though India suffered two major casualties when they were hit in Australia - their pace bowler Mohammad Shami and left-arm spinner Ravi Jadeja - they can still field a top-class pace attack which, equipped with a pink ball and particularly at twilight, could run through England’s top order.

Ishant Sharma, 32, will be playing his 100th Test if selected, so James Anderson is not unrivalled in his knowledge. Jasprit Bumrah has a sensational Test record for someone who has played a single home Test, Mohammad Siraj in his debut series was India’s leading wicket-taker in Australia, and India’s call-up of a fourth pace bowler in Umesh Yadav (with a tidy Test record of 148 wickets at 30) suggests they could perm three of these four under the lights.

It is a very far cry from half a century ago when India would open their bowling with the Nawab of Pataudi, or Sunil Gavaskar would act as opening bowler as well as batsman, and their speeds would be about the same as Sir Geoffrey Boycott’s mum. Spin was everything. Not now, especially away from home. In Australia India’s pace bowlers took 42 wickets, their spinners 23.

Ishant in himself is an example of how India have come to maximise their pace resources. For years he would coast along like Stuart Broad on a bad day, hanging the ball outside offstump, fairly economical but averaging fewer than three wickets per Test, looking the part of a new-ball bowler but not always acting it.

Lately Ishant has been transformed, like Broad last summer, into a far more attacking bowler, and by the same means - pitching a fuller length. In his last three years, after meandering through mid-career with an average that at times scaled 38, Ishant has taken 68 wickets at only 19 each.

It is the opposite of a coincidence that Ishant has been giving the white ball a miss. He has not played a one-day international for five years, or a T20 international for seven-and-a-half years. There is no bigger deterrent to pitching the ball up than bowling a white one.

It was a sign of Ishant’s new seriousness that he preferred to play a few County Championship games for Sussex instead of the 2018 IPL. At Hove the Sussex coach Jason Gillespie preached the doctrine of pitching the ball up to hit the batsman’s pads just beneath the roll. Ishant took 15 wickets at 23 for Sussex, then 18 at 24 in the subsequent five-Test series in England. By pitching fuller, Ishant has been able to swing the new and old ball both ways, not just jag it back like he used to.

Only 10 pace bowlers - 11 if you count Jacques Kallis - have played 100 Tests, and Kapil Dev is the only Indian hitherto. Some of their tracks are disheartening, like Chennai. Of Ishant’s 302 Test wickets, 103 have been taken in India, 199 abroad. And of those pace bowlers with 100 Tests, only Courtney Walsh and Makhaya Ntini would have been consistently faster than Ishant.

England’s top order are therefore going to be examined by the pink ball, especially if India play three seamers. Even though he has played only one home Test, the first of the pair at Chennai, Bumrah’s record is up with the all-time greats with 83 wickets at 21 each and four-and-a-half wickets per Test. Never mind India's spinners, Ishant and Bumrah can match England’s new-ball pair.

Kohli banking on 50,000 fans to intimidate England

By Tim Wigmore

India captain Virat Kohli believes the raucous crowd in the day-night Test at Ahmedabad will play “a massive role” in deciding the third Test.

The re-built Motera stadium, which has a capacity of 110,000, is the largest cricket stadium in the world. It will be able to host a crowd at half-capacity - 55,000 - for the third Test, and the opening days have already sold-out.

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Kohli said that the crowd could prove intimidating for England’s players, especially those who have little experience playing in front of Indian crowds.

“Yeah I think so - the crowd plays a massive role,” Kohli said. “It does play on your head so we would love for that atmosphere to be present to make life more difficult so the opposition and really get behind the team.

“That's what playing at home is all about - it's not only about the conditions on the field but 50,000 people and their energy behind your team. It does push you in the right direction and it does put a lot more pressure on the opposition.”

Kohli said that the presence of crowds in the second Test in Chennai, after being barred from the first due to Covid-19, was a factor in India squaring the series with a crushing 317-run victory.

“The crowds really get behind us and the difference of which we saw in the second Test - you know, the opposition does feel the pressure, when you go to play in Australia, England South Africa, New Zealand, anywhere. I've experienced that as a batsman who walks into the field and 30,000 fans are booing you or you know clapping when the bowler's running into bowl.”

Each day will begin at 2.30am local time, meaning that fans may be able to do a half-day’s work before. The floodlights in Ahmedabad are LED lights built into the stadium roof, which can be switched instantly on and off.