Fast and furious criticism

leeds: The lack of depth in India’s bowling resources was exposed during the opening Test defeat to England but head coach Gautam Gambhir has urged critics to give the inexperienced pace attack more time in its “early days”.

Barring Jasprit Bumrah, who got five wickets in England’s first innings, none of the other bowlers looked penetrative as the hosts chased down a target of 371 with minimum fuss on the fifth and final day of the match on Tuesday.

The pace trio of Prasidh Krishna, Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur was not consistent enough with the line and length.

“We will have to give them time. Earlier, we used to have four fast bowlers in the squad with an experience of more than 40 Tests. It doesn’t make such a big impact in one-day or T20 matches, but when you go to Australia, England, or South Africa for Tests, experience matters,” said Gambhir following the loss.

“These are early days. If we start judging our bowlers after every Test, how will we develop a bowling attack? Outside Bumrah and Siraj, we don’t have that much experience, but they (the others) have quality, which is why they are in this dressing room. But we have got to keep backing them because it’s not about one tour. It’s about building a fast-bowler battery that can serve India for a long time in Test cricket.”

Also part of the squad, Arshdeep Singh is yet to a play a Test while Harshit Rana has featured in only two games. ‘Bumrah to play 3 Tests’

The Indian team management will not push lone warrior Bumrah to play more than three Tests despite the loss in the series opener, Gambhir has asserted.

Bumrah was the sole Indian bowler who consistently posed a challenge to the England batters at Headingley.

As part of workload management for the injury-prone star pacer, the management had decided to play him in three out of five Tests. That plan doesn’t change with four games remaining.

“No, we won’t change the plans. For us to manage his workload is more important because there’s a lot of cricket going forward and we know what he brings on the table as well. Before he came on the show, it was already decided that he’s going to play three Test matches,” said Gambhir.

The next Test starts in Birmingham from July 2 but Gambhir said the team has not taken a call on which two games the pace spearhead will be part of in the five-match series.

“But let’s see how his body turns out. We haven’t decided which two other Test matches he’s going to play. (Even without Bumrah) we absolutely have the bowling attack (to compete). We believe in them. We trust in them.”