Are you ready for some snarl and bite from the fast-bowling tribes? With the two-Test series between India and South Africa starting in Centurion on December 26, it is time for a pack of speedsters to leave the batters with bruised egos on tracks set to offer bounce and movement.
Both sides have been battling with injuries to key fast bowlers. India have already lost Mohammed Shami to an ankle injury. Who are the contenders to take his place in the XI? What are the strengths and weaknesses of the bowlers expected to step in for Shami? Here’s a lowdown on the two contenders – Mukesh Kumar and Prasidh Krishna.
Mukesh Kumar
He has leapfrogged others through consistent performances in the domestic circuit. Zoom in on his first-class numbers and you would notice that he has a noteworthy record since the start of the 2018-19 season. But the crux of the matter here is to gauge whether Mukesh is the right option in South Africa.
In some ways, Mukesh is a lesser version of his Bengal teammate, Shami. He also often bowls with a straight and prominent seam. Basically, he sacrifices a bit of swing for seam movement. If there is grass or cracks on the surface, he is set to extract seam movement/variable bounce. Three years ago, there was a masterclass in a Ranji Trophy semifinal versus Karnataka, where he ripped through the vaunted line-up by invariably hitting the seam.
Centurion and Cape Town offer spongy bounce and movement off the pitch. In Centurion, it also tends to crack up as the match progresses. Mukesh’s ability to hit the seam could prove useful. However, there is a downside to picking him for places like at Highveld and Cape Town.
Mukesh is a skiddy bowler and doesn’t get extra bounce. He is more than a yard slower than Shami. In the recent ODI at Gqeberha, we got a demonstration of this point. With the older ball, in the 29th over, Mukesh experimented with a back of a length delivery. It sat up nicely for Tony de Zorzi to pull off the front foot. But with the new ball, it was the quintessential Mukesh, who kept the seam upright and troubled the openers with movement.
In South Africa, taller bowlers who pound the deck with a high release have more of an impact. England and Australia — the two most successful sides in South Africa since 1991-92 —have packed their Tests squads with tall pace bowlers. Even Sri Lanka had Kasun Rajitha operating from one end at Durban and Port Elizabeth when they won the series in 2019.
Does that mean Mukesh has no chance of succeeding in South Africa? Not really. His skills need to be at an optimum level, both in terms of pace and hitting the pitch. Aamir Jamal’s recent five-for in Perth is an example. Among the eight pace bowlers in that Australia-Pakistan Test, Jamal had the lowest release point. But he bowled at optimal speeds for long hours, hitting the deck hard. The way the bat kept turning in the hands of a few Australian batters serve as a cue for Jamal pounding the pitch consistently.
Verdict – It looks like a close call but Prasidh is probably the better bet of the two.
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Prasidh Krishna
At 1.88m, he bowls with a high release point and braced front leg. He also flicks the wrist to extract that little bit of kick out of surfaces. In that sense, the Karnataka paceman has the attributes for conditions in South Africa. In 2015, this writer was in attendance when Prasidh destroyed Bangladesh A with bounce and swing. Although he wasn’t yet making full use of his strengths, it was clear that here was one for bigger deeds.
He showcased the aforementioned weaponry in ODIs against England and the West Indies in Pune and Ahmedabad, alongside a few Ranji games. Even though Prasidh hasn’t excelled in T20s, he did give further evidence of his traits in IPL 2022.
If Prasidh is in the XI, his role would be to ram the pitch hard for long periods. In the second innings, with some indentations around at Centurion, he could maximise his strengths. In the 2021-22 series, it was evident that the four-pronged South African pace attack had a distinct height advantage over their Indian counterparts. In the second innings, in particular, Indian batters had to largely hang back while facing Duanne Olivier, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi and Marco Jansen.
After India succumbed to a 1-2 series loss, Rahul Dravid, the head coach, had shared his insights on how the South African pace attack was extracting more out of the surfaces. “It just felt like the ball seemed to misbehave a little bit more for them, and that could be [because of the] fact of the height. On up-and-down wickets sometimes just having that extra height might tend to make a little bit of a difference, so it just felt for us [that] the balls didn’t misbehave as much.”
Conditions in South Africa are also slightly different from Australia — more movement and tennis ball bounce. Hence, the tempo of a Test is different. It moves at a faster pace. Simply put, the third seamer has more of an attacking role in South Africa. This advocates Prasidh’s selection as he has the raw materials to break open. Along with hit-the-deck skills, he has a fine in-swinger. That was on view during India A’s drawn game against South Africa A, where he bagged a five-for.
Despite Prasidh being tailor-made for the different climes in South Africa, there are some caveats. In the recently concluded T20I series against Australia, Prasidh provided width on enough occasions. It is a known fact that batters from the Southern Hemisphere pounce on any kind of room on offer. Prasidh also might get too excited by the helpful conditions and lose the plot.
That is where the captain and management have a task. They have to ensure the bowler is relaxed while performing his assigned duties. India also had the option of picking Avesh Khan, another bowler with hit-the-deck skills, after Shami was ruled out. But the think-tank has refrained from selecting a replacement.
The verdict – It is a close call but Prasidh seems to have a slight edge at the moment.
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