Former Indian batter Sanjay Manjrekar feels Indian bowling lacked teeth in the second pink ball Test against Australia which the visitors lost by 10 wickets at the Adelaide oval on Sunday.
Barring Jasprit Bumrah, all the Indian bowlers looked insipid. Mohammed Siraj and Harshit Rana had bowled impressive spells in the opening Test match at Perth but they could not replicate the same show in the second game.
Manjrekar credited Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne for building a crucial alliance in the first innings. Only Jasprit Bumrah looked threatening but failed to find support from the other end from Ashwin, Siraj and Rana.
Sanjay Manjrekar said on ESPN Cricinfo, “The Indian bowling attack suddenly looked average. There was Bumrah, a bit of Siraj and Harshit Rana realised that every day is not going to be like the Perth Test match.”
“Credit to young Nathan McSweeney and Marnus Labuschagne who grafted the innings. But there was not relentless quality bowling at those guys and that’s why maybe India wasn’t able to cash in,” he added.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Siraj returned with figures of 4-98 and Manjrekar noted that India’s bowling lacks experience.
“In Adelaide, in both innings, there was more of a reality check for the No.3 and No.4 of what they have to face in foreign conditions when the bowlers are holding their swing. There is of course a lack of experience with the kind of bowling attack that India have.”
Manjrekar feels it would have been a different story altogether if a fit Mohammed Shami had been in the team.
“There is Harshit Rana, Mohammed Siraj has been there before but he is not quite Mohammed Shami. Just put Shami in that equation in that evening session (Day 1 Adelaide) and the story would have been different.”
Indian skipper Rohit Sharma also provided an update on Mohammed Shami and said the door is open for his selection for the remainder of the series.
Rohit said in the press conference, “We are just monitoring him because while playing Syed Mushtaq Ali, he got some swelling in his knee, which hampers his preparation to come and play a Test match. We want to be very careful, we don’t want to bring him here, he pulls up sore or something happens.”
The third Test match between India and Australia will be played at the Gabba, Brisbane from December 14.
