 "Mohammed Shami's form and Jasprit Bumrah's fitness will be two main areas of concern for India as far as their bowling department is concerned in the upcoming tour of England. AP")
The 18th season of the Indian Premier League is set to conclude less than three weeks from now, with the playoffs commencing on 20 May and the final taking place at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens five days later. While the IPL has dominated cricket discussion in India for well over a month now, it won’t be long before the spotlight is back on the Indian team, which will return to action for the first time since winning the ICC Champions Trophy in March.
Team India will be heading to England for a marquee five-Test series in its first assignment after the IPL, the high-profile tour marking the beginning of the 2025-27 World Test Championship cycle. And while the Men in Blue have been among the most consistent in the limited-overs formats if not the standout white-ball team, their recent struggles in the red-ball format doesn’t exactly pit them as favourites against the Ben Stokes-led English team.
There are quite a few areas of concern for the Indian team heading into the England tour, starting with senior stalwarts Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli’s batting form in recent Test assignments as well as the leadership conundrum.
India also have something of a dilemma as far as their bowling department is concerned, specifically in their pace battery.
Why India’s pace department is a cause for concern ahead of England trip
On paper, India certainly have their best attack heading into the England tour. Jasprit Bumrah and Mohammed Shami, India’s frontline quicks, will be bowling together for the first time since the 2023 World Test Championship Final against Australia at The Oval.
Throw Mohammed Siraj, who had produced a series of impressive performances in the 2021 Test series in England, into the mix, and the Indian pace battery certainly looks like one that could fulfill the team’s objective of collecting 20 wickets in a match, with help from the spin department as well as from the all-rounders of course.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAnd the fact that Bumrah was the standout bowler in the tour of Australia, where he finished as the leading wicket-taker with 32 wickets at a superb average of 13.06, should give India and its supporters further reason to believe they can finally inflict a first Test series defeat at home for the Englishmen in the ‘Bazball’ era.
Newcomer Harshit Rana too had impressed in patches in Australia, where he made his Test debut, while Prasidh Krishna is likely to get added to the pace reserves after impressing with the ball lately.
There are multiple factors, however, that complicate things for Team India – Bumrah’s fitness, Shami’s form, Siraj and Prasidh’s consistency and Rana’s inexperience.
Bumrah’s excessive workload during trip Down Under resulted in him suffering a back injury during the fifth Test against Australia in Sydney, which resulted in a three-month injury absence during which he missed the Rohit Sharma and company’s victorious Champions Trophy campaign.
It’s understood that the Indian team management and the BCCI will not be taking a risk by including him in the playing XI for all five matches against England. And it’s also why he has reportedly not been considering for a leadership role in England.
New Zealand pace legend Shane Bond, who had worked closely with Bumrah during his stint as Mumbai Indians bowling coach, warned the pace star against playing more than two Tests in a row in England, adding that the next injury could potentially be career-ending.
Which means Shami will have to fill in as the leader of the attack in Bumrah’s absence. The Bengal pacer had played competitive cricket for the first time since the 2023 ICC World Cup final during the Ranji Trophy in November and made his return to the Indian team in the limited-overs series at home against England.
The 34-year-old pacer would then finish as the joint-second-highest wicket-taker in the Champions Trophy, where he collected nine wickets at an average and economy of 25.88 and 5.68 respectively.
Shami’s sharp decline in form a major worry
Shami’s sharp dip in form in the ongoing IPL season, however, is a cause for concern for the Indian team ahead of their high-profile Test series.
Shami, who had won the Purple Cap with Gujarat Titans in 2023, has collected just six wickets in nine appearances in his maiden season with Sunrisers Hyderabad, at an abysmal average and economy of 56.17 and 11.23 respectively, which forced captain Pat Cummins to eventually bench him.
Despite the fact that India will be facing England in an entirely different format later this summer, such a drastic decline in form is worrying indeed.
As for Siraj, he was among the wickets in Australia, finishing as the fourth-highest wicket-taker overall and the second-highest among Indians with 20 wickets. The Hyderabadi pacer’s consistency, however, certainly is a point of concern. That along with his tendency to leak runs, as he average of 31.15 in the Border-Gavaskar Trophy would suggest.
Rana had registered an impressive 3/48 on debut against Australia in Perth, only to go wicketless for 86 runs in the Pink-Ball Test in Adelaide, the very next game. Krishna was the standout Indian bowler in the Sydney Test with six wickets (3/42 and 3/65), but it remains to be seen whether he can replicate that performance in English conditions and provide Bumrah and Shami the support that they will be in dire need of.
Rohit, or whoever leads the Indian team in England, and head coach Gautam Gambhir will be hoping that things fall perfectly in place as far as the bowling department is concerned. The batting is crucial no doubt and Rohit and Kohli’s form will no doubt play a big role in shaping the outcome of the series.
But taking 20 wickets in a Test was Kohli’s mantra when it came to his approach as a captain in the Test format. And it is that mantra that has made him one of the most successful red-ball captains in the history of the game.