Returning to the T20I squad after opting out of the Dharamsala game due to personal reasons, Jasprit Bumrah was gearing up to mark his run-up at one end of the Ekana Stadium surface when pacer Arshdeep Singh joined to plot his areas.
To their left, Kuldeep Yadav and Varun Chakaravarthy were sending down deliveries on the practice pitch, raising the prospect of a rare but intriguing association in the India blues. In the end, India were barred from handing South Africa the ultimate test, 2-1 up in the series. With excessive fog holding the reins in Lucknow on Wednesday, the unveiling of Bumrah, Arshdeep, Kuldeep, and Chakaravarthy for the first time in the same India playing XI was put to rest.
The quartet could still make the cut at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad in the final T20I on Friday, but will that be the uniform code thereafter when India aim to defend the T20 crown in the sub-continent?
There is the vicarious thrill in projecting this seam-spin quartet as the essential distinction between India and their major rivals at the World Cup, given the season’s top-order batting woes. It is a temptation that the India head coach Gautam Gambhir and captain Suryakumar Yadav have resisted across 20 matches this year.
There are definite upswings in fielding them to man the three distinct passages of play during high-pressure T20s.
No team heading into the World Cup can pose as potent a bowling foursome if India choose to. Kuldeep has purchased 90 career wickets with a strike every 11 deliveries, a feat matched by no bowler who has played at least 50 games. Arshdeep boasts the best strike rate (13.39) among all seamers with at least 100 T20I wickets. Chakaravarthy recently nudged 50 career wickets at an uncannily similar pace (13.35). For his body of work taking on the best head-on, Bumrah still holds up incredibly strong with a 17.14 strike rate and 6.42 economy unrivalled by any pacer among the top 10 T20I nations. Garnishing them is the skiddy Hardik Pandya, whose figures are no less at 100 wickets with a sub-20 SR.
Therein lies India’s finest blueprint to weaponise the white ball on potentially fresher pitches at the World Cup. It is also their spiralling dilemma.
Kuldeep-Varun conundrum
The single biggest reason why this particular four-bowler motion is unlikely to be passed in the long run is down to their one-dimensional abilities, lacking white-ball hitting capabilities, and a management persistent on having a sturdy willow wielder at number 8. It is a position rotated among a flurry of all-rounders and pacer Harshit Rana, who can give the ball a whack, in recent months.
While Rana has glimpsed his hit-the-deck routines and ability to temper fuller lengths with the new ball at decent clicks, it is unlikely that he displaces Arshdeep (India’s highest T20I wicket-taker) to forge an association with Bumrah up front. It would be a disservice to the two heroes of India’s 2024 World Cup win, who have a proven track record in T20 Powerplays and death overs.
Deliberations will then boil down to the contrasts in the magic of Kuldeep’s left-arm wrist spin and Chakaravarthy’s mystery. Their union is a no-brainer on drier strips that were the norm in the United Arab Emirates in the Champions Trophy and the T20 Asia Cup earlier this year.