Brisbane Test: Sans Jasprit Bumrah, Pacers' Experience To Be 4 Tests; Australia's 150
If fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah doesn't play in the fourth and final Test starting here on Friday, India's pace department could at best have a combined Test experience of four matches as compar
Experienced pace bowler Ishant Sharma, who has toured Australia four times, didn't make it to the team for the Australia tour as he was recuperating from an abdominal tear. Though now he is fit and playing for Delhi in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament, the Covid-19 restrictions prevented replacements to be sent to Australia.
Trending
It leaves India with a weak line-up, one that is thin on experience.
For Aussies, in contrast, the combined experience of Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins, and Josh Hazlewood add up to 147 Tests. With pace-bowling all-rounder Cameron Green's three-Test experience, it comes to 150.
Even with Bumrah in, India doesn't have any pace bowler who has the experience of playing at the Gabba. He toured Australia for the first time in 2018-19 and India did not play any Test in Brisbane on that tour. The Gabba is considered to be a fortress for Australia and their pace bowlers are most well-equipped to bowl there.
India's other worry will be the availability of Ashwin, who woke up on Monday with a tweaked back and batted with it to help India draw the third Test with his dogged batting (39 off 128 balls).
If Ashwin doesn't play, then India may be forced to field Kuldeep. The left-arm wrist-spinner played just five IPL matches last season.
On this tour, Kuldeep has played just one ODI and one warm-up, in which he bowled just 16 overs. That has been the only cricket he has played post lockdown.
Kuldeep's last Test match, incidentally, came exactly two years ago, on the last tour of Australia during the Sydney Test in which he took a fifer.
India though will be hoping that Bumrah and Ashwin regain fitness for the fourth and final Test.
