Team India likely to start as a favorite in the series against Sri Lanka beginning from July 18th.
As India and Sri Lanka are gearing for the limited-overs series, the focus would be on the performance of the young Indian squad while seniors will be on a lengthy tour of England. We have seen statistical analysis of Indian batsmen in the previous article, it's time to analyse the numbers of pace and spin bowlers of India.
Deepak Chahar is the new pace bowling sensation of India in limited-overs cricket. He is one of few pace bowlers of India who mastered the art of swing bowling in both directions. In the last two years, the 28-year-old pacer played very few games for India due to injury concerns. However, he had bowled some menacing spells in IPL 2021 for Chennai Super Kings.
If one glances through Deepak's domestic record, his T20 numbers are impressive with an economic rate of less than eight. He bags a wicket every 18 balls in T20s. Also, he maintained the same numbers in International T20 cricket with a wicket every 16 balls. The right-handed pacer has an average List A record and has played only three ODIs for India.
Navdeep Saini is one of the fastest pacers of India, who clocks over 140kph with the ball. His bowling upfront in the innings is intimidating for batsmen, however, his death bowling needs more improvement. In T20 cricket, the right-arm Delhi pacer shells out less than eight runs per over with a wicket after every 26 balls. Besides, he has a better record in international T20 cricket with a wicket every 15 balls in 10 matches. His List A record is exceptional as he has bagged 81 wickets in just 54 games.
Chetan Sakariya is the only left-arm pacer in the Indian contingent. The 23-year-old newbie played only seven List A games. His domestic T20 record speaks for himself as he bagged a wicket every 15 balls with conceding less than eight runs per over. He will be an interesting pick for T20I matches against Sri Lanka.
Rahul Chahar, the Mumbai Indians leggie, is a star performer in the recent seasons of IPL. Also, he has stellar List A and T20 records. The 21-years-old youngster 64 wickets in just 39 List A matches while conceding only five runs per over. In T20 cricket, he bags a wicket every 18 balls.
Varun Chakravarthy has some mystery around his bowling but it is fair to say that he is a similar kind of bowler as Rahul Chahar. The 29-year-old spinner has an excellent T20 record. He hasn't played many List A matches but has taken 22 wickets in the 9 matches he has got to play in this format.
After analysing the numbers of newbies in the Indian squad, we will look at the international stats of our seasoned bowlers.
Yuzvendra Chahal is a premier spinner of the Indian team in limited over formats however, he doesn’t have form on his side in recent matches played for India. The 30-years-old spinner has an imposing record in ODI and T20I cricket. He snares a wicket every 18 balls in T20I cricket.
Kuldeep Yadav is the wicket-taking spinner of the Indian team. He has bagged around two wickets in every T20I match and has also picked 105 wickets in just 63 ODI games. In recent times, team management has overlooked Yadav due to his below par returns in international and IPL games. It will be interesting to see how he books his spot in Indian eleven for the upcoming T20I World Cup.
Bhuvneshwar Kumar is an accomplished swing bowler of India with over 100 wickets in ODI cricket. He has 138 wickets in ODIs and 45 wickets in T20I cricket. It will be fascinating to see the vice captain's bowling with the new ball against Sri Lanka.
Comparative Analysis of bowlers' records
ODIs Bowling Record
T20Is Bowling Record
As we see in the above graphs, Kuldeep Yadav has a striking record in T20Is. He snares a wicket every 12 balls, which is an unbelievable number in the batsmen dominated format. Chahal and Kuldeep have quite similar records in ODI format. Bhuvneshwar Kumar's ODI numbers suffered in the recent past he couldn’t get many wickets after the ball lost its shine.
List A Bowling Record
T20 Bowling Record
We also have drawn graphs of domestic records of new pacers and spinners. From the graph, we can see that Varun Chakravarthy has amazing numbers in List A format but, he has played less than ten List A matches; the same can be said about Chetan Sakariya. Chahar brothers have a remarkable List A record whereas, Saini needs to improve his average in this format of cricket.
In T20 format, Rajasthan Royals’ pacer Sakariya has an appealing record with a wicket every 15 balls whereas, Chahar brothers and Chakravarthy have made their mark in the shortest format of cricket. In the last few years, T20 numbers of Saini went from good to worse. He needs to get his mojo back to get a berth in the Indian eleven.
Probable bowling combination for India against Sri Lanka
Considering the turning nature of Sri Lankan pitches and the experience of Chahal and Yadav, Indian management will likely play these two spinners in earlier matches of the series. Veteran pacer Bhuvneshwar will lead the pace bowling attack with Deepak Chahar. Navdeep Saini can get a place in eleven as he can be the only sheer pace bowling option among all the pacers. Due to left-arm angle variation, Sakariya can play as the third pacer in the eleven.
The ODI series begins on July 18
The ODI series between India and Sri Lanka has been rescheduled to start from July 18 to July 23 at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. The T20I series will be played at the same venue between July 25 to 29. The rescheduling was done after two members of the Sri Lankan team’s support staff, batting coach Grant Flower and data analyst GT Niroshan tested positive for COVID-19.
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