The Indian pace attack will be under the scanners in the upcoming T20 World Cup as they will be missing the services of Jasprit Bumrah who has been the leader of the pack for past few years. Bumrah has the ability to take wickets in both powerplay and death overs. In his absence, India have the bowlers who can claim wickets with the new ball but the struggle lies in the death overs stage where there is a lot of uncertainty about who is going to take charge with the ball. The return of Mohammed Shami gave a huge boost to the Indian team and he proved his worth with a match-winning final over against Australia in the warm-up match in T20 WC.
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However, it will be unfair to expect wonders from Shami in every match as he was out of India’s T20I set-up for almost a year and he might take some time to find his rhythm and execute the plans of the current team managements under whom he has not played any T20I.
In an exclusive conversation with News18 CricketNext former West Indies pacer Fidel Edwards talked about the Indian pace attack as he recalled how the Asian Giants beat Australia in back-to-back Test series Down Under where the fast bowlers played a crucial role in historical triumphs.
Edwards feels that Indian pacers have done well on Australian soil in recent times and they have the quality to emulate the same in the T20 World Cup.
“Yeah, I do think so (on India having a weak pace attack). When they played Test series in Australia and won a Test series over there. It’s not easy to win a Test series over there in Australia. Playing Test cricket over there is probably more conducive or fast-bowling than anything else and India did really well with it. They know that their fast bowling is gonna come good. India have quality fast bowlers, so I don’t think that’s gonna be much problem," Edwards said.
Edwards, who was known for his raw pace, suggested that in the Australian conditions one can trouble the batsman with consistent pacer as he feels that the fast bowlers make cricket a spectacle.
“For me, pacers can trouble any batsman. In a place like Australia (T20 World Cup host) one has to bowl as quickly as possible to test the batsman. or me fast bowling, fast bowlers make cricket spectacle. You wanna see fast bowlers and you wanna see guys who bowl in 90 plus and getting people over their seats," he added.
Edwards was part of the 2012 T20 World Cup-winning team but things have not been the same for West Indies team in recent times. After the retirement of legendary players like Kieron Pollard, Dwayne Bravo and Chris Gayle, Windies team have not lived up to the expectations of cricket fans. The two-time champions were knocked out of the current edition in the qualifiers, losing to Ireland. Several star cricketers including Andre Russell and Sunil Narine missed out on T20 WC squad as the Cricket West Indies somehow punished them for preferring franchise cricket.
Edwards pointed out what have not gone well for the Windies team in the past couple of years and said that emergence of Caribbean Premier League (CPL) is a good sign for future.
“I don’t think we have played enough cricket in Caribbean. It is not a lot of cricket played in the Caribbean, first class isn’t very sharp and we had, Covid hit the Caribbean pretty difficult. So it was a lot of problem for the board as well. But watching the CPL did a lot of youngsters coming up and made, it’s gonna be right at the end of the tunnel," he said.
The veteran pacer also backed Nicholas Pooran to do well as captain but wants everyone to give him some time to gain some experience.
“Nicholas Pooran a young captain and he’s gonna get better. You just gotta give him some time, but he’s gonna get better," Edwards said.
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