The biggest task for the bowlers is to understand the pitch and the condition of the match and then bowl the right length accordingly. And it was done by Indian bowlers against Pakistan. It’s easy to bowl Bouncers or hard lengths, but pitching the balls at the exact spot and the exact length is a tough challenge.
While bowling in this way, bowlers must be aware of the fact that hard-length or bouncer balls must move towards the batsman body’s which gives him less time to play the shot. Then only these balls can be effective. The Indian bowlers followed all these things. They had a plan in their mind that how to bowl on this pitch. All the bowlers bowled very well according to their plan, and they took advantage of Rohit’s good captaincy and good field placement.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is a swing bowler, but there was not enough swing in his bowling against the Pakistan match. He soon changed his length and started bowling the short balls that took the upper edge of Babar Azam’s bat and he got out. Hardik Pandya also tried hard length and bouncers and got wickets on the same balls. It’s not that our bowlers don’t have the pace. Hardik can click at a speed of 135–140. Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowls at around 138-140, and Avesh Khan is bowling at a speed of over 140. Arshdeep was also bowling at a pace of 135-140.
A skill is also needed with this speed, and this skill was properly implemented by the Indian bowlers. Our bowlers bowled the same way and got five wickets in the last five overs. Then the match was completely turned upside down for Pakistan.
Indian bowlers bowled very well and they didn’t give any chance to Pakistan batsmen to play shots. The ball was not getting swing, and then Indian bowlers started bowling on hard length and bouncers.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Hardik Pandya were bowling according to pitch and conditions. They bowled bouncers properly and ensured our victory against Pakistan. For further matches, it remains to be seen how the pitch behaves. That will decide the performance of bowlers in the upcoming matches.
The writer has been a former cricketer and selector of Team India.