Legacy calls for the Indian cricket team

Jasprit Bumrah is an athlete who is at the top of his powers. 100 wickets in just 24 Test matches, he has clearly added a lot to the Indian bowling attack. His spell at the Oval, may I add on a wicket without much assistance, is proof of how good he is at the moment.

Not too long ago, Bumrah was labeled a white ball bowler by many. That he could do well with the red ball was doubted and that’s where Ravi Shastri and Virat Kohli, supported by bowling coach Bharat Arun, deserve credit.

“We were convinced he had the X factor and it was important to back your instincts and that’s all that we did”, Ravi had said when we discussed Bumrah’s Test debut.

“He was keen. We could see he was hitting the bat much harder than you think. Frankly it was an obvious call that he had to play”, concurred Bharat.

The other call for which the team management deserves a lot of credit is to get Rohit Sharma to open.

“If Rohit doesn’t do well in Test cricket, I would consider myself a failed coach”, Ravi had said to me with a lot of conviction.

He was convinced Rohit had it in him to deliver and it was only a matter of time before Rohit himself bought into the idea. Once he did, things changed dramatically for India. Frankly, the Rohit that we see in England has exceeded expectations.

As Sachin says, “He has taken his game up by a couple of notches.” With Rohit's solidity at the top, India’s batting looks that much more confident in tough, swinging conditions.

"Watch out for Siraj" - Bharat Arun

Siraj's rise over the past few months has been phenomenal

The management also deserves credit for backing Mohammed Siraj and Shardul Thakur in Australia. When many doubted the Indians, Bharat and Ravi silently went about mentoring these two men who have now turned match-winners.

I remember a midnight conversation with Bharat when he said -

“Watch out for Siraj. He is bowling the best I have seen and can get any batsman out in this form.”

We saw glimpses of it at Lord’s when he helped India script a famous win. In Shardul, we now have a decent seam bowling all-rounder who can make a telling difference lower down the order.

“That’s why you do the hard yards”, says Ravi. He is spot on. This team is today the world’s best traveling team and the management deserves a lot of credit for this transformation.