Kamboj added as cover; Reddy doubtful
Although there's no official word from the BCCI, it has been learnt that Kamboj was summoned by the selectors considering Arshdeep and Akash are racing against time to be fit for the Manchester match, which India need to win or draw to keep the series, which England lead 2-1, alive.
Left-arm pacer Arshdeep, who is a regular feature in T20Is and was a key member of the triumphant T20 World Cup campaign in the Americas last year, suffered a cut to his bowling hand during a training session in Beckenham on Thursday.
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Indian Express
19 minutes ago
- Indian Express
No help from other end for Jasprit Bumrah… they are little bit greedy: Morne Morkel
The one big reason for India trailing in the fourth Test at Old Trafford is Jasprit Bumrah's failure to take wickets with the new ball, a trend that started in the last Test he played at Birmingham. The blazing start of English openers Ben Duckett and Zak Crawley — scoring 166 runs in 32 overs — pushed England ahead in this decisive Test. According to the Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel, it is the lack of support from the other end that is making it difficult for the team's pace spearhead to get the better of England's top order batsmen. 'For him to be successful, we need to build partnerships. The other guys need to help him out and I think at times, the guys are also trying from the other end, they are a little bit greedy — trying to strive too much and that's how we leak and sort of release that pressure. You can't say anything about Bumrah, he's number one in the world, he's skillful. At times you need help from the other end,' Morkel said. When talking about Day 2 when the game truly slipped out of India's hands because of the worst-bowling day of the tour, Morkel again spoke about leaking runs and bowlers being greedy. He was answering a question about debutant Anshul Kamboj being preferred over Mohammed Siraj with the new ball. 'See if we attack first with Bumrah ad and Siraj up front, then we have to go to less experienced guys at first change. So that is a bit of a tricky one, but looking back at yesterday, you back a guy that's picked on his strength — which being Anshul bowls with the new ball with the best bowler in the world. Siraj has been doing a fantastic job bowling first change. Yesterday our execution let us down, so I think it's not so much to blame on the combinations we went with, it's more the fact that we let ourselves down with our execution. I haven't seen a pitch map where we basically leaked runs, I think 100 runs on both sides, normally like a bit of a split. For me yesterday was either a sign that we were too greedy but we couldn't stick to the plan and then from there we found ourselves chasing the game a little bit.' On the question of Bumrah's workload he said, 'You know, he's the strike bowler, there will be moments that you need to push a guy a little bit harder and longer to get the breakthrough. England has a powerful batting line-up. As a batter, your initial first 20 balls are very crucial and in terms of a guy who can ask questions, he is Bumrah. He is going to be asked a lot of times to come in and do the job for us.'
New Indian Express
29 minutes ago
- New Indian Express
Bowling over and under: A big concern for Gill and Co
MANCHESTER: Since Gautam Gambhir took over as head coach, one of the most identifiable trends with this Indian team is the preference for all-rounders over specialist bowlers in their bid to strengthen the bowling depth. They chose to go with Shardul Thakur and Ravindra Jadeja at Leeds before replacing the former with Nitish Kumar Reddy and bringing in Washington Sundar in place of specialist batter, B Sai Sudharsan, in Edgbaston. The trio was then retained at Lord's match but injury to Reddy meant Thakur made it to the playing XI for the ongoing fourth Test here at the Old Trafford Ground. With their batting ability seems to be the deciding factor, most of these all-rounders seemingly remained underutilised with the ball. The latest on the list is left-hand batter and off-spinner Washington. After not bowling a single over on Day Two, he was handed the ball six overs before the lunch (69th over) on Friday. He sent in three overs before lunch without making much difference but shortly after the break, Washington made the ball to drift away from Ollie Pope to induce an outside edge. He followed it up with another, deceiving Harry Brook — the breakthroughs India were looking for all day. Into his third match of the series, Washington has always been the last to be introduced by skipper Shubman Gill. He started by bowling 14 overs in the first innings in Birmingham, one more than pacer Prasidh Krishna, giving away 73 runs without any success. The ordinary outing and being last to start bowling meant he got only six overs in the next innings. He scalped the wicket of England skipper Ben Stokes.
Indian Express
an hour ago
- Indian Express
Indian fast bowlers lacked ‘energy behind the ball' at Manchester, says bowling coach Morne Morkel
There were many questions spinning around at Old Trafford at stumps on this seemingly decisive day of the series. Why didn't Washington Sundar bowl till the 68th over? Why Kuldeep Yadav hasn't played a Test? Can Anshul Kamboj be a third seamer at the international level by bowling around 120 kph? Are Mohammed Siraj and Jasprit Bumrah fit after the grueling day of cricket? First the fitness update by Indian bowling coach Morne Morkel. 'Unfortunately, when we took the second new ball, Bumrah rolled his ankle going down the stairs and Siraj rolled his foot in one of the foot holes. But they seem to be okay,' he said. Morkel also had one generic answer to India's forgettable bowling performance — their lack of pace and bite on the Old Trafford pitch. 'That is something that we're definitely also trying to get our heads around. On a flat surface, you need a little bit of energy behind the ball. I think that's definitely one of the factors for us so far in our bowling innings … You need that little bit of energy on the ball on good surfaces where the ball at times is not doing as much,' he said. Morne also said the team didn't stick to plans and they leaked too many runs. 'We were fantastic in the last two Tests, but we had a bad day yesterday, we were on the back foot. We had plans, but at the end of the day, you can have a plan, but it is about executing those plans for a longer period of time,' he said. On the question of Bumrah's ineffectiveness with the new ball, he mentioned the run leak. 'We are finding it hard to create pressure from both ends. For Bumrah to be successful, we need to build a partnership. So the other guys need to help him out. And I think at times, you know, the guys are also trying from the other end. It's a little bit greedy, trying to strive too much and we leak runs to release the pressure.' In the four Tests that India has played under Shubman Gill and Gautam Gambhir, the team management have been obsessed with bowlers who can bat. They have tried every possible combination but still refused to give a chance to specialist Kuldeep Yadav. At Old Trafford, the captain showed the same stubbornness in not getting Washington Sundar into the attack. The off-spinner came on to bowl at 305/2 in the day's 69th over. The bowling coach had an answer for that too. 'It was Shubman who took the call to stick to the seamer a little bit longer … I think in the first couple of days (when England bowled) we saw the ball moving and seaming around. And then when we got the opportunity to bowl, we missed out … Did we bowl enough good balls to decide to (turn to) spin straight away? I don't think so,' he said. Captains generally bank on gut feeling and conviction to take important decisions. Either way, Shubman got this one wrong. Washington, as was the case at Lord's, got the ball to drift and that got him the wickets of Ollie Pope and the dangerous Harry Brook. In such conditions Kuldeep could have been a handful. He and Root have a history, one in favour of Kuldeep. Back in 2018, in the space of three balls, within 10 days, across two games, first in a T20 and then in an ODI, the wrist spinner had taken out Root. The T20 dismissal in fact came at this same venue in Manchester and the ODI was at Lord's. Both dismissals were in contrasting manner. The T20 at Old Trafford had Root stumbling clueless to the ball sliding away from him and dragged out of his stumps while groping for the ball in the dark, he was stumped by MS Dhoni. At the Lord's ODI, he went back but was bewildered by the ball that spun in sharply to pin him lbw. Morne conceded that Kuldeep was a good option but the limitation of the rest of the squad is keeping him away. 'We are trying to find balance and how can we get that batting line-up to be a little bit longer and stronger. We've seen in the past that we've lost wickets in clumps and Kuldeep is world-class and he's bowling really well at the moment. So we're trying our best to find ways for him to get in,' he said. The bowling coach sounded totally helpless when asked about Kamboj. Was he fit? How come he bowled at an average speed 125 kph? 'He's definitely fully fit. I wish I could give you that answer (about speed) because I would have told him then how to bowl quicker, but when he arrived here, he bowled well in the nets. He was definitely quicker when bowling for India A and games back home,' he said.
