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Kaivalya Pillai

India moving towards becoming a pace-heavy nation

India pacers dominated in the first two Duleep Trophy 2024 encounters, indicating a massive shift in pace bench strength. Pacers took 49 wickets out 73 wickets fell in first two games.


Duleep Trophy 2024: Pacers took 49 wickets out 73 wickets fell in first two games | Walking Wicket (Images ©Twitter_X)
Duleep Trophy 2024: Pacers took 49 wickets out 73 wickets fell in first two games (Images ©Twitter/X)

Kapil Dev, Javagal Shrinath, Zaheer Khan, Irfan Pathan, and the list goes on. India have produced some legendary pace bowlers in the history of World Cricket. However, we haven’t made a mark as a pace bowling unit as Pakistan, South Africa, or Australia have. We have always been denoted as the spinners’ nation. But this notion seems to be getting disrupted soon with the quality of pace bowlers India have been producing lately. The Duleep Trophy 2024 is an example of it.


Four days of pace-dominant cricket 

The first two encounters of the most-awaited domestic tournament have exhibited some spectacular pace bowling. The two matches took place in Bengaluru and Anantapur, with two different natures of tracks. However, the pacers bowled impressively on both pitches. Let us have a look at the comparison stats of pacers versus spinners in both these matches. 


India A vs India B 

Venue- M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru

Bowlers

Overs

Runs

Wickets

Pacers

218

659

32

Spinners

65.4

230

6


India C vs India D 

Venue- Rural Development Trust Stadium, Anantapur

Bowlers

Overs

Runs

Wickets

Pacers

125

423

17

Spinners

105

348

18

The Indian pitches are known to be the mecca for spinners. The red ball turns from day three of a test match, and sometimes even day one. But that is certainly not the common case anymore. The pitches have been a little more pacer-friendly, and to add to that, the quality of India’s pace line-up is getting to another level with every passing day. 



In these two Duleep Trophy matches, 12 front-line pacers displayed their efforts, and none of them went wicketless. Moreover, a few of them performed with some exhilarating spells. Akash Deep was the standout of all with a 5-fer and a 4-fer in the two innings he bowled. Let us have a brief look at their performances.

Bowlers

Overs

Runs

Wickets

Akash Deep

41

116

09

Khaleel Ahmed

38

123

05

Navdeep Saini

28

101

05

Mukesh Kumar

29

112

05

Vijaykumar

24

80

05

Yash Dayal

28

89

04

Harshit Rana

19

71

04

Avesh Khan

28

77

03

Anshul Kamboj

24

96

03

Arshdeep Singh

25

66

02

Himanshu Chauhan

17

70

02

Aditya Thakare

16

39

01

However, all the bowlers cannot be judged based on these stats alone, as the pitches were different in nature. But the ratio of wickets in both matches indicates the dominance with which the pace-attack has established itself. The pacers took 67% of the wickets in these two matches, which accounts for the higher sides in respect of the Indian pitches. And it will be very interesting to see how the performances continue in the upcoming matches of the tournament. We will get more clarity in the upcoming days.


These young pacers, along with the experience of Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, and Ishant Sharma, will be a tough unit to face on the away pitches as well as at home.



How does a pace-heavy unit help Team India?

India have always had an exceptional batting and spin-bowling unit. However, most of the time, India struggled in the SENA countries because of the lack of depth in the pace attack. But now, they have strong front-line experienced pacers complimented well by a young troop. Team India will have much more stability and rawness to exploit those fast-bowling-friendly conditions. 


However, this does not mean that the spin attack must not be in focus. The spinners are as important of an asset as the pacers. But who will be there to support the experience of Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, and Axar Patel? In the early days of Duleep Trophy 2024, Manav Suthar (26.1- 9- 83- 8) and Saransh Jain (28.2- 3 108- 6) have shown some spark in their spells. Kuldeep Yadav and Sai Kishore are other prospects whom the management will be watching closely for the long formats.


The pacers are growing well domestically and are creating strong bench strength for the national side. Besides that, Morne Morkel’s guidance as the bowling coach of team India will certainly synergise the quality of the attack in the international tours, especially in the upcoming long season of red-ball cricket. With all that to be seen, one can certainly say the upcoming era of Indian cricket might be known for the depth and quality of their pace bowling attack.


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