5 times the five-bowler theory worked for India

For years, India have been a batting team. Cricket was a batsman’s game for them. MS Dhoni felt he needed the security of six batsmen apart from himself to avoid ignominious defeats. For a long time, he needed that security even with a middle order that read Dravid, Tendulkar, Laxman and Ganguly, strange as that may seem.But new leaders generally come with new ideologies. And true to his style, with an air of characteristic diffidence and confidence mixed with arrogance, Virat Kohli in his full series as a skipper, under the tutelage of an equally aggressive Ravi Shastri, has opted for five bowlers.Ravi Shastri could be pardoned for believing in the five-bowler theory as he has, during his heydays, largely been part of a team that had multiple all-rounders - including the only man to take 400 wickets and score 5,000 runs.India digressed from the five-bowler theory in the mid-90s, after which they have never really produced a high-quality all-rounder and have relied on just four bowlers to do the job, something that has cost them dearly when enforcing wins. Here, we take a look at some excellent contests where India’s five bowler strategy won the day.

#1 Against South Africa, 1996

Javagal Srinath picked up 17 wickets in the series

Very few remember Sachin Tendulkar’s exploits as a captain. It is said that a captain is just as good as his team, and he didn’t look bad at all during some tough encounters. Against a powerful and rampaging South African team, Sachin went for a five bowler attack and won a home series 2-1.

Sachin had Nayan Mongia opening which meant a long tale. However, he had five bowlers at his disposal. In the first two Tests, he had Narendra Hirwani, the leg-spinner, who was replaced in the third by Aashish Kapoor. The other four bowlers Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, Venkatesh Prasad and Sunil Joshi picked 17, 13, 8 and 8 wickets respectively.

That technically meant India went with a two pacers–three spinners strategy with Sourav Ganguly being the extra medium pace bowler if needed.

India won the first and the third Tests, losing the second Test. Mohammad Azharuddin playing as a middle order batsman, won the Man of the Series. It was one of those rare instances in Indian cricket history when a brave captain went for five bowlers without really having the benefit of an out and out all-rounder.

#2 Against Australia, 1996

Mohammad Azharuddin celebrates an Australian wicket with David Johnson

India hadn’t won a Test series against Australia since 1979/80. They impressively drew couple of series down under but lost 4-0 in 1991/92. That made the one-off Test between the two teams, the first time it was called the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, a very important one.

True to his philosophy, Sachin Tendulkar went for a five bowler attack. Venkatesh Prasad and David Johnson shared the new ball duties while Anil Kumble, Sunil Joshi and Aashish Kapoor were the three spinners who picked 14 of the 20 wickets between them in the game.

Johnson wasn’t used a lot, which made it look stranger that Sachin went for five bowlers. However, Mongia repaid his skipper’s faith in the wicketkeeper-batsman by scoring a sensational 152 opening the attack against Glenn McGrath and Paul Reiffel.

India won the game by seven wickets eventually, and more importantly had Australia scoring just 182 and 234 in the two innings. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy was back home!

#3 Against Sri Lanka, 1994

India’s spin trio of the 90s – Rajesh Chauhan, Anil Kumble and Venkatapathy Raju

Mohammad Azharuddin, Player of the Series and captain, led India to a thumping 3-0 victory in that series at home. India during that phase had the luxury of two good all-rounders allowing them to field five quality bowlers in every game.

In this series, India went with two fast bowlers in Manoj Prabhakar and Kapil Dev, who took 8 and 7 wickets respectively in the three-match series. The three spinners Anil Kumble, Venkatapathy Raju and Rajesh Chauhan picked up 18, 16 and 10 wickets respectively, ensuring that India had two good new ball bowlers while also having the tweakers to exploit the spin-friendly conditions at home.

In fact, that was around the time when India started building a reputation of being unbeatable at home hammering Sri Lanka, England, Australia and New Zealand at home. The best part about this attack was that one of the new ball bowlers, Prabhakar actually opened the innings for India as well, a rare occasion of a new ball bowler also opening with the bat, a luxury India hasn’t had since his untimely and tragic exit from the game.

#4 Against England, 1986

Chetan Sharma had a brilliant series but was interestingly dropped for the 2^nd Test

1986 was a special year for the Indian team as they won 2-0 in England, one of their greatest away victories. The team under Kapil Dev had a wonderful look about it, teeming with all-rounders. In the first Test at Lord’s, Kapil Dev opted for five bowlers with three fast bowlers and two spinners.

Chetan Sharma, who was interestingly dropped later in the next game, picked a five-wicket haul in the first innings while Maninder Singh playing as spinner returned figures of 20.4-12-9-3 in the second innings. Ravi Shastri, the other spinner, had figures of 20-8-21-1 in the second innings too as India won the game by five wickets.

India won the second Test with just four bowlers before drawing the third, once again fielding five bowlers, Chetan Sharma taking a 10 wicket haul with four in the first innings and six in the second as India almost won the Test, needing just 61 more runs when time ran out.

#5 Against Sri Lanka 1993

Manoj Prabhakar provided the team with an opener-cum-bowler

This was another away series win that India would be proud of. Under Mohammad Azharuddin, India defeated Sri Lanka 1-0 in a three-match series, winning the second Test by a massive 235 runs. India opted for the services of five bowlers - Kapil Dev, Javagal Srinath and Manoj Prabhakar being the fast bowlers and Anil Kumble and Rajesh Chauhan the spinners.

Kumble had a good series with 13 wickets while Prabhakar picked 12 wickets. In fact, Prabhakar was the Man of the Match in the second Test that India won, taking six wickets and scoring 95 in the second innings to help India win the game.

Vinod Kambli also got a century in that game while Kumble had taken a five-wicket haul in the first innings. It was one of those rare occurrences when India fielded three medium pace bowlers while playing in the sub-continent.

It would be an amazing precedent for the present Indian team as well playing in Sri Lanka with five bowlers.