'Exploring the Fast Bowling Talent in IPL: Bharat Arun's Revelation after Siraj and Shami Impressive Performance'

As India prepare for their challenging tour of Australia, where they will be competing in a five-Test series for the prestigious Border-Gavaskar Trophy, they seem to have most bases covered. However, there is one area of concern – the depth in their fast-bowling department. While India boasts a formidable batting lineup, the lack of options beyond Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Siraj, and Mohammed Shami is a cause for worry for the team management. Looking back at their last tour of Australia, injuries to key bowlers such as Shami, Bumrah, R Ashwin, Hunuma Vihari, and Umesh Yadav left India scrambling to field a competitive pace attack. This led to players like Navdeep Saini and T Natarajan being thrown into the mix, highlighting the lack of experienced backup options for the pace trio. India will be hoping to avoid a similar situation this time around, but the reality is that they may not have ready-made replacements if injuries strike again. The management will need to carefully manage the workload of their fast bowlers and have contingency plans in place to ensure they can field a competitive pace attack throughout the series.

India have experimented a lot with their fast-bowling bench strength. But with Ishant and Umesh now completely out of the mix, it's mostly Bumrah, Shami and Siraj that will have to do the heavy lifting. Over the last couple of years, names such as Mukesh Kumar and Akash Deep have made Test debuts, but whether they can be effective on Australian soil against their batters no one knows. Shardul Thakur, who played a crucial role in India's last series win in Australia with his all-rounder skills, has faded as well. With Bumrah rested, Siraj pulled out of the first round of Duleep Trophy matches due to illness and Shami yet to recover from his ankle injury, India will be keeping their fingers crosses. God forbid if something goes wrong, in such a scenario, who do Rohit Sharma and Gautam Gambhir fall back on?

Even former India bowling coach Bharat Arun doesn't have an answer to that, although he has a solution. Arun suggests that between now and November end, India need to identify and knuckle down on a few options. With India set to return to Test cricket from September 19, with five matches to go before the BGT, along with a few T20Is in between, Arun hopes for a proper scanning of talent, even if it has to be picked from the IPL and other domestic form of competition.

"It's a question of identifying the right ones and giving them opportunities to be ready for the Australian trip. There are lots of bowlers who hit 140-150 kph in the IPL. So it is about nurturing and giving them the right exposure. There must be a first time. Red ball cricket is something these bowlers must get used to. We have time but we need to prepare by giving them enough overs under their belt," Arun told Indian Express.

Why Siraj and Shami are effective, Arun explains

Arun did not name any bowler but Umran Malik and Mayank Yadav clock around 150 kph mark regulalry. Even Harshit Rana of KKR varies in the mid 140s. Umran, a classic case of IPL find making waves, has disappeared from the Indian set-up after a heroic start two years ago. That Umran has vanished, as Arun's successor Paras Mhambrey reckons, stems from his inexperience in red-ball cricket, which makes it all the more important for the candidates next in line to tick that box. Arun's thoughts echoes with Mhambrey's as he stressed on the importance of becoming a good red-ball pacer before anything else if the desire is to play for India long-term.

"Bowling in first-class cricket, you bowl on unresponsive pitches. You have to come out with some guile or you would need to learn how to reverse the ball because of the conditions that exist in our country. I think it helped Siraj and Shami a great deal. That's why when the conditions are right and the ball is reversing, Siraj is probably one of the most dangerous bowlers in world cricket," said Arun.

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